Global Leaders Vow to Fight Hunger, Obesity The Des Moines Register
go to original November 24, 2014

Ministers and other top officials from more than 170 countries agreed to boost their commitment to fight malnutrition and overeating around the world, the United Nations said last week.

The U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization said the leaders, participating in a three-day conference in Rome, agreed to a framework with targets to help them track progress in reducing malnutrition and obesity.

Governments also pledged to invest more in nutrition programs in their countries and do more to reduce obesity.

According to the U.N., while the prevalence of hunger has fallen by 21 percent the past two decades, more than 800 million people still go hungry. Malnutrition is linked to almost half of all deaths of children under 5 years of age — some 2.8 million per year.

Earlier this year, the Agriculture Department said 14.3 percent of households — about 49 million people in 17.5 million households — were food "insecure" in 2013, meaning they had difficulty at some point providing enough food for all family members. And in the United States, more than one-third of U.S. adults, or 78.6 million people, are obese, according to government data.

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