October 16, World Food Day
"Ahead of World Food Day, the core condition for ending hunger and securing the safety of food and food products is keeping activity on arable land healthy and sustainable."
Marking this year's observance, the TEMA Foundation drew attention to the damage coal-based power generation is doing to Turkey's arable land, under the message "Our country's fields are in a bad state."
TEMA noted that nearly 3 million decares of farmland have been lost over the past 15 years, equal to 10% of the country's agricultural area. With the recent shift toward coal-based energy targets, the outlook for Turkish agriculture is worrying. Agriculturally significant regions, including the Konya, Canakkale, and Adana basins, are facing major coal-related plans. Thermal power plants running on lignite and coal cause significant harm to public welfare, the natural environment, and farmland, the foundation said.
Air pollution will hit agriculture
Around 90 thermal power plants are planned for construction in Turkey. Each will affect an area about 200 km across. The air pollution these plants will generate is expected to damage 15 million decares of farmland and cause losses in agricultural income.
Triggers climate change
Alongside air pollution, climate change is the other major issue tied to coal-based thermal plants. Per unit of electricity supplied, coal-fired plants are the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. With its coal-based energy targets, Turkey is one of the countries most exposed to the effects of climate change. Reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change project that average annual temperatures in Turkey will rise by 2.5 to 4°C. The increase reaches 4°C in Eastern Anatolia and the Aegean, and around 5°C in Central Anatolia. Turkey's climate is becoming less predictable in terms of temperature, drought, and rainfall. Without action, the agricultural sector, which depends directly on natural resources, will be hit hardest by climate change.
Agriculture is on the UN agenda too
Ending hunger is part of the UN's 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. Almost all of the goals touch agriculture, whether through sustainable production and consumption, resilient cities, climate change and its impacts, water for all, or healthy lives. Goal 15 includes halting land degradation. Keeping agricultural production productive and healthy is a core condition for ending hunger and securing food safety.
Food Safety
The recent rise in food poisoning cases in Turkey, in the lead-up to World Food Day, once again proves the value of food safety.
The World Health Organization (WHO), in its latest report, states that unsafe food containing viruses, harmful bacteria, parasites, and chemicals causes more than 200 diseases ranging from diarrhea to cancer. Food poisoning kills around 450,000 people worldwide each year.
WHO describes food safety as a global problem that sits alongside food protection and nutrition, and points to the vicious cycle between unsafe food and disease. According to the WHO report, food and foodborne poisoning affects one in ten people worldwide, and the resulting health problems put infants, children, and the elderly at the greatest risk.
Food Safety Deserves Attention
Food safety affects human health directly and immediately. Millions of people of all ages eat at least one meal a day at workplaces, health facilities, or schools. Seen at the national scale, food safety needs to be tracked and controlled from the field to the plate, and it is especially critical to maintain continuity in catering operations.
Food safety is a multi-sided issue, from personal hygiene to production safety, from storage conditions to cleaning standards. Stricter measures are needed against activity informally described as "under the stairs", where food safety is in doubt and public health is materially at risk.
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