The 1st National Conference on Applied Research, Food Security, Food Safety and Health was hosted by RIFST in Mashhad. Prof. Seyed Mohammad Ali Razavi, RIFST's President, said: "World Food Day" is annually held in more than 150 countries to eradicate hunger, and governments should pay attention to food security. Every year, FAO chooses a topic related to food security, and this year it has addressed the issue of water and the importance of water for food and life.”
He added "We live in an age when only two and a half percent of world water, this precious resource, is drinking water, while its quality is also deteriorating. With this slogan, FAO has chosen to alert governments to take the issue of water very seriously along with food security."
Prof. Razavi added: "Unfortunately, more and more countries are faced with water shortage, which has resulted in vanishing many villages due to lack of water. On condition that the issue of water is not managed today, it can become a crisis in the world and in our country. If we would like to address this issue today on World Food Day, we must pay attention to the issue of water, which is directly related to food security."
RIFST's President stated that in the field of food security, which is one of the main pillars of the government, a proper prospect has not been devised in this program, yet he hoped that this issue would be addressed more in the seventh development program. He added: "Iran's position in the field of diet is unhealthy and the food that is produced has many environmental pollutants and currently we do not produce safe food and this creates a heavy duty in the food production chain."
Razavi pointed out: “Currently, one billion people in the world are suffering from hunger and about 2 billion people are suffering from obesity due to improper diet, and one of the major challenges in the world is the problem of hunger, which has caused malnutrition and abnormal growth in some people. Unfortunately, one out of every nine people in the world is hungry, which is true about in Iran too.”