AEGiS-IRIN: FAO Official Says AIDS Poses Biggest Threat to Food Security

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

FAO Official Says AIDS Poses Biggest Threat to Food Security

UN Integrated Regional Information Networks - September 22, 2001

George McGovern, current American ambassador to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told a press briefing in Johannesburg on Wednesday that HIV/AIDS is by far Africa's biggest killer and poses the biggest threat to food security. McGovern, who has just completed a fact-finding mission to Ethiopia, Senegal and South Africa, likened the impact of HIV/AIDS on agriculture with the devastating effects that the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington has had on the world.

"It's really a form of terrorism that will destroy more lives than have been destroyed in any attack of the kind that just took place in the United States, " McGovern said. "It's like a runaway freight train ripping across the continent, killing people on all sides." Because AIDS affects people in the prime of their lives, he said, there is an inverse relation between the spread of AIDS and food production.

McGovern cited the deaths from HIV-related illnesses of 7 million agricultural workers worldwide in the past 15 years, adding that because of diminished agricultural capacity in Africa, the FAO will have to give additional aid to Angola, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe.

According to the FAO, HIV/AIDS undermines agricultural systems and affects the nutritional situation and food security of rural families. As adults fall ill and die, families face declining productivity as well as loss of knowledge about indigenous farming methods and loss of assets. FAO has estimated that in the 25 most-affected African countries, AIDS could kill 16 million agricultural workers within the next 20 years
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