I won\u2019t hide it from you, dear reader \u2014 when I reached the middle of this article, I began to feel a growing urge to become a vegetarian, or at least a semi-vegetarian. That\u2019s the last thing I ever expected of myself \u2014 someone who sees cooking as an art, a culture, and an identity, indeed one of life\u2019s most legitimate pleasures. So I must warn you: what follows might have the same effect on you. <\/p>\n\n
The other widely promoted option \u2014 especially in the West \u2014 is the consumption of foods derived from insects. These products have already begun to creep onto supermarket shelves across Europe and America, and that, personally, is something I completely reject. <\/p>\n\n
But before we reach that unsettling point, let\u2019s take a look at the United Nations\u2019 position on global food challenges, as an entity that brings together representatives of humanity from all races, backgrounds, and ideologies. <\/p>\n\n
states that Resolution No. 70\/35 adopted at the 83rd session of the UN General Assembly on December 5, 1980, on World Food Day <\/a> states that \u201cThe General Assembly, recognizing that food is essential for human survival and well-being and that it is a fundamental human right, welcomes the celebration of World Food Day, to be held for the first time on 16 October 1981 and annually thereafter, as unanimously decided by the Twentieth Session of the FAO Conference in its resolution 79\/1 of 28 November 1979, and urges governments and national, regional, and international organizations to contribute to the fullest possible extent to the effective observance of World Food Day.\u201d <\/p>\n\n Under the slogan \u201cHand in Hand for Better Food and a Better Future,\u201d the official World Food Day website of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)<\/a> will mark the occasion on 16 October 2025. <\/p>\n\n The FAO notes that the world is facing unprecedented pressures on food supply for multiple reasons \u2014 global warming that harms climate, soil, agriculture, and food-supply chains, which have become increasingly fragile, as well as economic crises and political and military conflicts that have left billions hungry, some even at the brink of famine. <\/p>\n\n Human activity has degraded 10 % of the planet\u2019s land, including 60 % of agricultural land. Around 30 % of all food worldwide is lost or wasted \u2014 about 13 % during harvesting and transport, and 19 % at the retail and consumption stages. <\/p>\n\n Roughly 673 million people suffer from hunger, while about 900 million adults are obese, and 35.5 million children under five are overweight. <\/p>\n\n Taking a broader view of the planet, an FAO article titled \n More Fuel for the Food-vs-Feed Debate<\/a>\n<\/em> notes that plants provide about 86 % of the calories consumed by humans globally and are responsible for 98 % of the oxygen we breathe. Yet only nine plant species account for 66 % of total crop production. <\/p>\n\n Animal production, meanwhile, provides only 18 % of global calories, but it is a major source of greenhouse-gas emissions \u2014 particularly methane \u2014 and has indirect effects on human health, crop yields, and vegetation through its role in forming tropospheric ozone, according to the Climate and Clean Air Coalition<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n Enteric methane is a by-product of the natural digestive process in ruminant animals such as cows, goats, sheep, and buffalo. Their manure and burping together account for more than 32 % of methane emissions, a key driver of global warming and climate change, according to the FAO\u2019s report \n Livestock and Enteric Methane<\/a>\n<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n Methane is produced when microbes break down and ferment food and fibers in the digestive system of ruminants \u2014 specifically in the rumen \u2014 generating energy and nutrients for the animal but releasing methane as a form of lost digestible energy. This process, known as enteric fermentation, makes large-scale livestock farming one of the world\u2019s leading sources of methane emissions. <\/p>\n\n \n\n