To acknowledge World Food Day, celebrated each October 16 since 1945, the Health Ministry will give a news conference to inform the public on strategies to deal with the global warming effects on food production and safety. Bulgarian experts will gather at the National Centre for Public Health Protection to discuss how climate change can affect water and food supply globally and regionally since Bulgaria belongs to a high risk geographical area.

World Food Day is marked with a four-day seminar on October 14 to 17 in Rome, where the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the World Health Organisation together with the Italian Ministry of Labour, Health and Social Affairs will identify trends in climate change health effects and nutrition consequences.

Emerging risk identification and timely communication are central to effective preservation of food safety, quantity and quality in the European Union. The global warming affects atmosphere, water and food supplies, ecosystems and agriculture, which presents a serious health threat, the Health Ministry said. Because of climate change, agricultural production is highly susceptible to rapid decrease in the European region, the Mediterranean, South-Eastern Europe and Central Asia in particular where food production may decrease with 30 per cent by 2050.

Higher temperature allows for higher bacteria and infection risks. Salmonella infections go up with 5 to 10 per cent for each higher weekly temperature degree (when temperature is above 5ºС).  New kinds of diseases may occur in some regions. By 2080, water supply will be of critical importance in Southern Europe and Central Asia. Summer drought may decrease drinking water reserves and cause infections.

On World Food Day, the FAO calls for raising awareness about the 923 million undernourished people in the world. Most of them live in rural areas where their main source of income is the agricultural sector. Global warming and the biofuel boom are now threatening to push the number of hungry even higher in the decades to come. In the search for solutions, they say, one important fact must not be forgot - food is energy.