Fruits and vegetables,
your dietary essentials.
#FruitsVegYear
#IYFV2021
The UN General Assembly designated 2021 the International Year of Fruits and Vegetables (IYFV). FAO is the lead agency for celebrating the year in collaboration with other relevant organizations and bodies of the United Nations system.
The IYFV 2021 is a unique opportunity to raise awareness on the important role of fruits and vegetables in human nutrition, food security and health and as well in achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals.
For many, fruits and vegetables remain inaccessible due to their cost; they are often more expensive than unhealthy snacks and junk foods. Yet they are fundamental components to maintaining overall good health. The slogan highlights the importance of fruits and vegetables in contributing to good nutrition. Ensuring that fruits and vegetables are available, accessible and affordable to everyone is fundamental in achieving food security and combatting malnutrition, and everyone has a role to play.
Share the official promo video on social media to inspire action for #IYFV2021
Objectives of the IYFV 2021
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Raising awareness of and directing policy attention to the nutrition and health benefits of fruits and vegetables consumption
Key messages
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Harness the goodness: Fruits and vegetables have multiple health benefits, including the strengthening of the immune system, that are essential for combating malnutrition in all its forms and overall prevention of non- communicable diseases.
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Live by it, a diverse diet: Fruits and vegetables should be consumed in adequate amounts daily as part of a diversified and healthy diet.
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Respect food from farm to table : The high perishability of fruits and vegetables needs special attention to maintain their quality and safety through appropriate treatment and handling across the supply chain from production to consumption in order to minimize loss and waste.
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Innovate, cultivate, reduce food loss and waste: Innovation, improved technologies and infrastructure are critical to increase the efficiency and productivity within fruit and vegetable supply chains to reduce loss and waste.
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Foster sustainability : Sustainable and inclusive value chains can help increase production, help to enhance the availability, safety, affordability and equitable access to fruits and vegetables to foster economic, social, and environmental sustainability.
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Growing prosperity : Cultivating fruits and vegetables can contribute to a better quality of life for family farmers and their communities. It generates income, creates livelihoods, improves food security and nutrition, and enhances resilience through sustainably managed local resources and increased agrobiodiversity.
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What is Biodiversity?Biodiversity refers to the variety of living species on Earth, including plants, animals, bacteria, and fungi. Healthy ecosystems, rich with biodiversity, are fundamental to human existence.Ecosystems sustain human life in a myriad of ways, cleaning our air, purifying our water, ensuring the availability of nutritious foods, nature-based medicines and raw materials, and reducing the occurrence of disasters. While Earth’s biodiversity is so rich that many species have yet to be discovered, many species are being threatened with extinction due to human activities, putting the Earth’s magnificent biodiversity at risk. Read More Biodiversity for food and agriculture (BFA) is, in turn, the subset of biodiversity - that contributes in one way or another to agriculture and food production. It includes the domesticated plants and animals that are part of crop, livestock, forest or aquaculture systems, harvested forest and aquatic species, the wild relatives of domesticated species, and other wild species harvested for food and other products. FAO Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Download the Full Report
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Why is Biodiversity important?Biodiversity is important to most aspects of our human lives providing food, fuel, shelter, and medicine. It also offers spiritual, religious and cultural value offering deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of earth. Biodiversity also plays a fundamental role sustaining our ecosystems by providing crucial services such as pollination, seed dispersal, climate regulation, water purification, nutrient cycling, and control of agricultural pests. While we still have much to learn about the benefits of biodiversity, humans continue to put extensive pressure on nature through overproduction, deforestation, plastic pollution and greenhouse emissions. Read More
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How does food waste harm biodiversity?About 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted each year—four times the amount needed to feed the more than 800+ million people who are malnourished. It’s time to reconsider food. Around the globe, food production, distribution, management and waste threaten wildlife, wild places and the planet itself. Today, 7.3 billion people consume 1.6 times what the earth’s natural resources can supply. By 2050, the world’s population will reach 9 billion and the demand for food will double. So how do we produce more food for more people without expanding the land and water already in use? We can’t double the amount of food. Fortunately we don’t have to, we have to double the amount of food available instead. In short, we must freeze the footprint of food. Read More Watch - To Change the Way You Think About Food!
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How can we ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns?Worldwide material consumption has expanded rapidly, as has material footprint per capita, seriously jeopardizing the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 12 and the Goals more broadly. Urgent action is needed to ensure that current material needs do not lead to the overextraction of resources or to the degradation of environmental resources, and should include policies that improve resource efficiency, reduce waste and mainstream sustainability practices across all sectors of the economy. Read more.
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How is food waste linked to zoonotic diseases like COVID-19?It may not seem obvious, but the issue of food waste is linked to zoonotic diseases—meaning diseases that jump from animal to human—such as COVID-19. Agriculture is a major driver of human expansion into natural ecosystems, which, as the head of the United Nations Environment Programme, Inger Andersen, explained in a recent interview with The Guardian, can mean trouble. “Our continued erosion of wild spaces, of our primary forests and our ecosystems, have brought us uncomfortably close to reservoir hosts—animals and plants that harbour diseases that can jump to humans,” she says. “As we continue our relentless move into natural habitats, contact between humans and reservoir hosts increases—all of which increases the likelihood of interaction between vectors and humans.” Learn more.
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Why are bees important?Bees and other pollinators, such as butterflies, bats and hummingbirds, are increasingly under threat from human activities. Pollination is a fundamental process for the survival of our ecosystems. Nearly 90% of the world’s wild flowering plant species depend, entirely, or at least in part, on animal pollination, along with more than 75% of the world’s food crops and 35% of global agricultural land. Not only do pollinators contribute directly to food security, but they are key to conserving biodiversity. To raise awareness of the importance of pollinators, the threats they face and their contribution to sustainable development, the UN designated 20 May as World Bee Day. The goal is to strengthen measures aimed at protecting bees and other pollinators, which would significantly contribute to solving problems related to the global food supply and eliminate hunger in developing countries. Watch the video and BEE ENGAGED We all depend on pollinators and it is, therefore, crucial to monitor their decline and halt the loss of biodiversity. Learn More
Want to know more?
1. Think.
2. Eat.
To reach a responsible consumption and production Refettorios use fresh fruits and vegetables, considered imperfect and otherwise wasted, as the source of ingredients for their anchor meal program. Promoting health and well-being is one of the main goals of Refettorios. By transforming ingredients that would otherwise be thrown away into healthy and nourishing meals, they advocate for a healthier and more equitable food system.
Through good stewardship, sourcing standards, upcycling, and food education, the work of the different projects is aimed at highlighting the importance of equitable and sustainable food practices.
How Refettorios go into Action
Slide to see how Chef Rino Duca recovered the overripe fruit donated by the local market and transformed it into a delicious cake for the guest of the Refettorio.
"Wannabe Tarte Tatin" by Chef Rino Duca
3. Save.
Action 1 - TAKE ACTION
Explore what tips and tricks you can incorporate into your daily kitchen routine. Read the "Sustainable Tips in the Kitchen: a better future starts at home" in collaboration with
Action 2 - JOIN THE GLOBAL MOVEMENT
Action 2: Join the Global Movement
Help us achieve SDG's Goal #12.3, commit to an Act of Change and Love for people and the planet and inspire others around you to do the same!
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Put your chef's hat on, take inspShare, share, share! Post your creations on social media using the hashtag #CookingIsAnActOfLove and #KitchenMemories or tagging Food for Soul, invite your friends and loved ones to submit their own recipes and help us spread the love.
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Submit your recipe with a picture and the story behind it, tell us why Cooking is an Act of Love for you, and we will share it here for everyone to enjoy it.
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Share, share, share! Post your creations on social media using the hashtag #CookingIsAnActOfLove or tagging Food for Soul, invite your friends and loved ones to submit their own recipes and help us spread the love.
Action 3: Get Involved
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Take inspiration from Massimo Bottura's Passatelli in broth or from the many recipes from Bread is Gold and become a more conscious consumer and cook.
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Become a volunteer
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Donate
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU!
Share with us your Kitchen Memories and tell us about your act of love for people and the planet.