Rockbites: UN’s FAO announces Groundwork benefit concerts

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UN’s FAO announces Groundwork benefit concerts
8 August 2001

The United Nations launched the Rome based Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in 1945 with a mandate to ensure worldwide 'food security,' “...defined as the access of all people at all times to the food they need for an active and healthy life.”
    Three years later this goal was incorporated into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as part of Article 25. The good news amidst ongoing widespread famines and poverty is that food production has outpaced the doubling of the world’s population in the past 55 years—but just. Around 800 million persons in developing nations today do not get enough food.
    Now the FAO has announced a week long musical benefit series to take place in three venues 14-22 October in Seattle, Washington as part of their annual TeleFood money raising campaign. Artists confirmed for the event include Afro-Celt Sound System, Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros, Pearl Jam, R.E.M., Spearhead, The Wallflowers, and others.
    The concerts will be broadcast by satellite worldwide and Webcast by Groundwork. Proceeds will be channeled through the nonprofit United States Committee for FAO to contribute to the TeleFood fund. You will also soon be able to donate directly online through the Groundwork Website.
    TeleFood has other fundraising events planned for this year on or near World Food Day on 16 October, including a classical concert in Japan on 17 October, a television special in Spain, and events in Haiti, India, Nepal, Nicaragua, Peru, Turkey, Vietnam, and elsewhere.
    The first World Food Summit held in 1996 defined a target of halving the number of hungry persons worldwide—down to 420 million—by 2015. But the current pace pushes achievement of that goal out to 2030.
    A second World Food Summit takes place 5-9 November in Rome. FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf said “The purpose of this event is to give new impetus to worldwide efforts on behalf of hungry people. We must raise both the political will and the financial resources to fight hunger. The international community has repeatedly declared that it is dedicated to the eradication of poverty. Eliminating hunger is a vital first step.”
    Confirmed concerts for Groundwork, all in Seattle, are

October
14 - Paramount Theatre: Blind Boys of Alabama, Emmylou Harris, Daniel Lanois, Dave Matthews solo
17 - Sky Church: Chris Whitley, The Wallflowers, Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros
19 - Sky Church: DJ Nasir, DJ Cheb I Sabbah, Afro-Celt Sound System
20 - Sky Church: Chocolate Genius, Joe Henry, Spearhead
22 - Key Arena: Femi Kuti & The Positive Force, Mana, Alanis Morissette, Pearl Jam, R.E.M.
| Groundwork | | FAO | | TeleFood | | Universal Declaration of Human Rights | | top of page |

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