Carl Lewis, Patrick Vieira join launch of UN anti-hunger petition

May 11, 2010, 16:54 GMT

Rome - US Olympic athletics multi-gold medallist Carl Lewis, and French football star Patrick Vieira on Tuesday joined other sport and show-business celebrities for the launch in Rome of a United Nations online petition against hunger.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) unveiled its '1billionhungry project' - a reference to the number of people in the world who are undernourished.

The event also featured a specially produced video clip starring British Oscar-winning actor Jeremy Irons.

FAO distributed yellow whistles that people were encouraged to blow - a symbolic gesture aimed a raising awareness for the plight of the hungry.

'One billion people live in chronic hunger and I'm mad as hell!' Lewis shouted as he repeated the campaign slogan.

FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf urged those wishing to support the campaign to add their names to the global 1billion hungry petition at website: http://www.1billionhungry.org.

FAO hopes the petition will spread through social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

One of the partners of the initiative is the Association of European Professional Football Leagues whose membership includes some of the continent's top flight divisions, including the England's Premier League, Italy's Serie A, Spain's La Liga and Germany's Bundesliga.

Recording artists Anggun, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dionne Warwick, Fanny Lu, Mory Kanté Noa, and Chucho Valdés have donated music for the campaign.

The '1billionhungry project' is also supported by a number of civil society organisations including the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts and a dozens of NGOs including British-based Oxfam.

FAO has warned that if the world continues at the current pace of hunger reduction, the Millennium Development Goal of halving the percentage of hungry people by 2015 will not be met.

Of the around one billion hungry people, 642 million live in Asia and the Pacific, 265 million in Sub-Saharan Africa, 53 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 42 million in the Near East and North Africa and 15 million in developed countries.

FAO estimates that global agricultural production needs to grow by 70 per cent if the estimated 9 billion people that are projected to inhabit the planet in 2050 are to be fed.

Support to agriculture in developing countries is set to be on the agenda at next month's Group of Eight leaders' summit in Canada.

Events to support the launch of the 1billionhungry campaign were organized in cities around the world.

In Yokohama, home of the UN food agencies in Japan, banners have been erected over major landmarks, FAO said.

In Paris, students and NGO supporters of the campaign gathered in front of the Eiffel Tower wearing t-shirts and blowing whistles. On the internet: www.fao.org http://www.1billionhungry.org