World Food Day 2025

M.A. Dworkin

St. Croix -What kind of a world are we living in where 9 million people die of hunger and hunger-related causes every year, of which 3 million are children, and malnutrition is a factor in half of all child deaths worldwide. 

What kind of world are we living in where 3 million children under the age of five die from poor nutrition and hunger-related causes each year? 

As of this moment, according to The World Counts 7,242,785..86..87..88 and counting, are dying from hunger around the world in 2025.

Where does it end? Where do we learn to value life? To value the life of our children? To give them a chance to even have a life? Instead of starving them to death? 

How many bombs do we need to produce in order to feel safe? How many lives could we save with the money we spend on weapons of war?

These are the ultimate questions that need to be answered if we are going to call ourselves a humane society, a humane world of people.

World Food Day is an international celebration to commemorate the date of the founding of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization on October 16, 1945. The day is celebrated widely by many organizations concerned with hunger and food security, including the World Health Organization (WHO), International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the World Food Programme (WFP). WFP received the Nobel Peace Prize for 2020 for their efforts to combat hunger, contribute to peace in conflict areas, and for playing a leading role in stopping the use of hunger in the form of a weapon for war and conflict. 

World Food Day is observed by all UN Member States. Since 1981, World Food Day has adopted a different theme each year in order to highlight areas needed for action and provide a common focus. Most of the themes revolve around agriculture because only investment in agriculture - together with support for education and health - will the world be able to turn this most drastic situation around. 

Yet, in spite of the importance of agriculture as the driving force in the economies of many developing countries, this vital sector is frequently starved of investment. In particular, foreign aid to agriculture has shown marked declines over the past 20 years. 

It’s really not hip to invest in agriculture. Nor is it a wise investment, as is the investment of building bombs and weapons of war in protecting our borders and our skies. Think about it, how can a country protect itself by throwing a corn stalk or a handful of soybeans at its enemy? It’s much easier to let the poor and the children of the world starve to death, to let them die a slow death from malnutrition, it’s so much easier for rich countries to turn their backs on those less fortunate and decide it’s not their problem.

Closer to home, the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) realizes their just responsibility, as a great school centered on agricultural endeavors, is to honor this rather sacred day. This year’s World Food Day theme was: Leave No One Behind - Hand in Hand for Better Food and A Better Future.  

UVI presented their World Food Day 2025 event in an uplifting and reverent fashion, sponsored by the UVI School of Agriculture and the V.I. Department of Agriculture. 

The Mistress of Ceremony, Leandra Kent, was sparkling in her presentation of the proceedings. There were rousing renditions of the National Anthem and the VI March, that set an upbeat and hopeful tone for the day, performed eloquently by the Rising Stars Youth Steel Orchestra. 

There was a prayer, for a better world, spoken by Wilmarie Ferreras; and a wonderfully friendly welcome by one of UVI’s stalwarts, Usman Adamu, Ph.D., Dean & Director, UVI School of Agriculture. The Opening Remarks by Lora Bailey, Ph.D., Provost & Vice President of Academic Affairs at UVI, were also quite informative and inspiring.

Then there were the dignitaries, 36th Legislature Senate Majority Leader, Kurt Vialet, who was standing in for Senate President Milton Potter, is a long-time and influential supporter of the UVI Agriculture program. Sen. Vialet was followed by Assistant Commissioner of the VI Department of Agriculture, Billy Abraham. And the Closing Remarks, given by Rick Nader who was standing in for UVI President Safiya George, who has not been feeling well. There was an uplifting Closing Prayer by Arlington Chaseau, Pastor, Sunny Isle Baptist Church. 

There was also a tree planting in honor and memory of Magdalene Agatha Hendricks Plaskett, mother of Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett. 

The Opening Program was followed by the extremely popular Distribution of Seedling Plants which had quite a line of people waiting to receive the free plants that came with instructions on how to handle their planting and maintenance.

“The quiet reward of watching things grow,” Ms. Bailey said during her opening remarks. 

Over at the UVI Great Hall, there were educational workshops on Sweetpotato Production and A Passion for Passiflora, along with a Cooking Demonstration for the young and young at heart. 

Entertainment was provided by the ever popular DJ Swain and the Guardians of Culture Moko Jumbies.

It was a beautiful breezy day on the UVI Albert A. Sheen Campus. A perfect day for a celebration of life. Wonderful music. Uplifting speeches. Gentle people. People who apparently understand there is a war going on in the world. A war that is not won by drones firing missiles, and fighter jets dropping bombs. A war that can only be fought from the heart, out of love and respect for one’s fellow being. A war that is far from over, that has really just begun. The question is: What kind of people do we want to be?  

8.2 billion strong. What kind of legacy do we want the next generations to inherit? One of kindness and understanding? Or ignorance and callousness? 

Although we are supposedly born under an ideal scenario “All Created Equal,” under the eyes of the Good Lord, the chips don’t always fall that way for many. There are those that are starving to death at this very moment. Dying a slow painful death. A ridiculously wasteful death, a ridiculous waste of life, especially since there is an abundance of food in so many parts of the world. In fact, the world produces enough food to feed everyone, in abundance. But the problem is not a lack of supply, but rather issues with access, distribution, and waste. Factors like poverty, conflict, climate change, and insufficient distribution systems prevent food from reaching those who need it. 

A significant amount of food is also lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from farm to fork. So let’s eliminate the fact there is not enough food to feed everyone. That is a myth. There’s plenty of food. It’s time we addressed the way in which it is distributed. Has Farm to Fork become Farm to Waste?

So again, what kind of world are we living in? 

7,244,524..25..26 and counting, people died from hunger in the world this year. 1,738 more have died from hunger since work on this article began.