2010-08-04 16:15:36

UN Anti-hunger petition has more than 250,000 signatures


(Aug.04,2010) A United Nations-drafted petition that aims to encourage governments to make the elimination of hunger their top priority, has so far been signed by more than 250,000 people. It is on track to achieve its goal of a million signatures by the end of November, the UN agriculture agency said on Tuesday. The petition campaign, the brainchild of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization -FAO, can be signed online at the http://www.1billionhungry.org website. “The ball is now rolling and we are on track to meet our goal of one million signatures by the end of November," said FAO Director General Jacques Diouf. He encouraged everyone to sign the online petition to show their solidarity with the one billion hungry.” The World Food Summit of 1996 attended by 185 countries, agreed the target of reducing the number of hungry people by half to no more than 420 million by 2015.
However, if the world continues at the current pace of hunger reduction, that target will only be reached in 2150, with hundreds of millions of needless deaths and incalculable suffering as a result, according to FAO. Friend-to-friend contacts through Facebook and other social media platforms are the key means by which news of the petition is spreading. A new Facebook application now enables users to sign the petition and encourage friends and family to sign all within Facebook. Banners encouraging people to sign the petition have now been translated into 13 languages.








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