Bloggers unite to talk about 'food'
Aid agencies including Oxfam, Action Aid, Greenpeace International and ONE are teaming up with VOICE blogging project to launch a day of blogging on World Food Day to get the world talking about what’s on their plate.
In its fifth year, Blog Action Day is an annual event that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day. Previous events have included topics such as water, poverty and climate change.
On October 16th this year, bloggers will be asked to post articles based around food. With the global population expected to soar to 9 billion by 2050 and the ongoing east Africa food crisis the need to discuss how we feed ourselves cannot be better timed.
The ongoing food crisis could see prices for staple food items such as maize, double in the next twenty years unless urgent action is taken to change the international food system. With a growing global population, the demand for food is set to increase 70% by 2050, yet the average growth rate in agricultural yields has almost halved since 1990 and is set to decline to a fraction of one percent in the next decade.
Karina Brisby, Founder of Innovation Labs at Oxfam says ’We use food to mark times of celebration and sorrow. Lack of access to food causes devastating famines, whilst too much is causing a generation of new health problems. Food is something we all have in common and Blog Action Day presents a real opportunity for the blogging community to change the conversation on the web to focus audiences around the globe on issues that really matter’
Adrian Lovett, Europe Director at ONE says ’Our experience shows that harnessing social networks and online media is an incredibly effective tool for mobilising ordinary people around the world to fight poverty. Blog Action Day is a great way to spread the message and shape the agenda on these crucial issues’
Last year, the theme of Water saw 5,600 bloggers from 143 countries, reaching more than 40 million readers with discussions a broad range of water issues from the ethics of bottled water to drought in Africa.
