People’s attitude to food and their eating habits should be changed – warned Fernanda Guerrieri, Representative of European and Middle-Eastern Region of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization). The guest arrived in Debrecen in order to strengthen their cooperation with the University of Debrecen. FAO is looking for new allies for the fight against new challenges appearing in the world. Debrecen, due to its results of long years’ experiences on the field of agriculture and economy, can take useful part in the work. One way is practice programs in the Rome or Budapest offices, which offer possibilities also for experts. Their most important aim is to provide healthy food for partner countries. This will be the main topic of the Rome conference, where students of the Agrarian Centre are also invited. African and Afghan students are also supported, so that they can “bring home the knowledge” they have gained in Hungary. Apart from these, Hungarian experts are delegated for programs in the Caucasus Mountains and in the Middle East.
Hungarian experts are often and gladly employed due to their excellence in fish culture, catering safety, water management, animal breeding and grain production. Their only weak point is that their knowledge of foreign languages could still be improved.
What kind of challenges shall we face? By 2050 9 billion people will live on the Earth. Now one billion is starving of hunger, another one billion have diseases connected to over-nourishment, which perfectly represents the problematic attitude to food. Also crucial problem is that 40% of food produced becomes rubbish as an effect of improper technology.
In order to create a more responsible attitude to food and catering in general, not only technology, but also education plays very important role. Less food should be destroyed during production. In educational frames, each layer of society should be involved in order to change people’s attitude. All should be conscious that it is not sure that we do really need all the food we buy, and that instead of quantity we should pay more attention on quality.
