ROME - Members of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) have started voting to elect the new head of the U.N. food agency, and China’s candidate is seen as the front-runner. The U.S. backs Davit Kirvalidze, the former Georgian minister of agriculture, while Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle, former head of France’s agricultural ministry, is the European Union’s candidate. The successor to Brazil’s Jose Graziano da Silva in the four-year U.N. post will focus on policies to fight world hunger, which has been fueled by wars and global warming. The FAO, which has over 11,500 employees around the globe, works closely with other U.N. agencies to achieve the goal of a hunger-free world by 2030. Today, more than 800 million people are facing hunger and many experts doubt that the body’s 2030 goal will be reached.

Source: thestar June 23, 2019 11:03 UTC