January
Carving a pathway to a green future is a modern-day imperative. We all share in this challenge and each have a role to play in building a green future. It is a complex and multi-faceted endeavor … but we have the collective wisdom, ingenuity and creativity to come up with new, more effective ways to shape a low-carbon future. We must act now!
World Intellectual Property Organisation, 2020.
February
Food sovereignty is peoples’, countries’ or state unions’ right to define their food and agricultural policies.
La Via Campesina.
March
Unsafe food poses global health threats, endangering everyone. Food can become contaminated at any point of production and distribution; the primary responsibility lies with food producers. Yet, a large proportion of foodborne disease incidents are caused by foods improperly prepared or mishandled at home, in food service establishments or markets. Everyone can contribute to making food safe.
World Health Organisation, 2020.
April
We risk a looming food crisis, unless measures are taken fast to protect the most vulnerable, keep global food supply chains alive and mitigate the pandemic’s impacts across the food system. Border closures, quarantines, along with market, supply chain and trade disruptions could restrict people’s access to sufficient/diverse and nutritious sources of food, especially in countries hit hard by the virus or already affected by high levels of food insecurity.
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, 2020.
May
Innovation provides options and is the key to unlocking the solutions and approaches we need to create a sustainable and green future.
Francis Gurry, World Intellectual Property Day, 2020.
June
Food safety is everyone’s business. When food is not safe, there can be no food security and in a world where the food supply chain has become more complex, any adverse food safety incident has a negative impact on public health, trade and the economy.
World Food Safety Day, 2020.
July
Food systems encompass the entire range of actors and their interlinked value-adding activities involved in the production, aggregation, processing, distribution, consumption and disposal of food products that originate from agriculture, forestry or fisheries, and parts of the broader economic, societal and natural environments in which they are embedded.
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
August
Food – the way we grow, catch, transport, process, trade, and consume it – is central to the main challenges facing humanity.
CGIAR.
September
For purposes of fulfilling and realising the objectives of the AfCFTA, State Parties shall cooperate on investment, intellectual property rights and competition policy.
Agreement Establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area, 2018.
October
Nigeria is the continent’s leading consumer of rice, one of the largest producers of rice in Africa and simultaneously one of the largest rice importers in the world.
Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
November
Today is a reminder that food security, peace and stability go together. Without peace, we cannot achieve our global goal of zero hunger; and while there is hunger, we will never have a peaceful world.
David Beasley, Executive Director, World Food Programme. Nobel Peace Prize Winner 2020.
December
The African Model Law represents a living and valuable addition to knowledge on intellectual property rights, the conservation of the rights of local communities, farmers, breeders, and the regulation of access to biological resources.
Professor Johnson Ekpere, 2000.
