Today, October 16, the world led by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is celebrating the World Food Day under the theme “A #ZeroHunger world by 2030 is possible”. But for many people, most ironically those who directly produce the world’s food, there is nothing to celebrate. For them, what should be marked today instead is “World Hunger Day” to protest the grim reality faced by countless families around the world, especially in the poor countries and in the rural areas.A zero hunger world is possible; but not under the current food and agriculture development paradigm that is dominated by big corporations and their harmful technologies such as agrochemicals and genetic engineering; one that puts a premium on market and profits over people and planet; and one that has perpetuated hunger, poverty and exclusion of the majority.Hunger today is less about the lack of food but more about the systemic deprivation of food that the world could actually produce in abundance. What needs to be done is to dismantle the monopoly control over food, land and market by big private capital; uphold the food sovereignty and right to development of peoples everywhere; implement genuine agrarian reform; and promote agroecological systems as the sustainable and healthier systems of food production.In the 16 days leading up to the World Food Day, PAN Asia Pacific (PANAP) and 40 of its partner organisations from 20 countries have highlighted the need for agroecology and the role of the youth in its promotion through the 16 Days of Global Action on Agroecology 2018.At the same time, however, it must be stressed that agroecology will only truly prosper if the people’s food sovereignty, including the people’s rights to land and resources, is respected and advanced. The potential of agroecology as an alternative and sustainable food production system is fundamentally undermined, if not practically made impossible, under the prevalent corporate agriculture.In the current global market economy, food and the land in which they are grown, are seen as commodity and sources of profits, in particular by the transnational corporations (TNCs) and even by governments. Food and land have become the subjects of the obsolescent neoliberal policies of privatisation (such as of infrastructure for agricultural production), deregulation (in particular of prices) and liberalisation of agricultural trade and investments that multilateral institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank Group, and the World Trade Organization (WTO) as well as new and emerging regional free trade agreements (FTAs) perpetuate.The promise of development and progress that the imposition of neoliberal policies will bring about has been a lie. After more than four decades of neoliberal restructuring of food and agriculture that will supposedly address global food insecurity, the FAO itself reports that the number of hungry people has been continuously rising. As of 2017, around 821 million people are facing chronic food deprivation, up from about 804 million in 2016 and from about 784 million in 2015 and 2014.It is alarming that instead of reviewing and reversing the neoliberal policies in food and agriculture, global policy makers led by the IMF-World Bank and the multilateral and regional FTAs are using initiatives such as “zero hunger” which is Goal 2 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to carry on these harmful and flawed programs. To supposedly bridge the gap in development finance required by the SDGs, including the goal on ending hunger, these powerful institutions are promoting greater corporate investments in food and agriculture at the expense as usual of poor farmers and other small food producers.This relentless and systematic corporatisation of agriculture has condemned farmers, farm workers, fisherfolk, indigenous peoples, and other small food producers and rural sectors including women and children, to a life of perpetual poverty, hunger and marginalisation.Worse, not only is the plight of the poor, hungry and landless remain unheard and unanswered; but legitimate expressions of their grievances and assertion of their right to food and land are met with violence and repression. Rural communities that demand state support and protection; that resist land and resource grabbing; and that push for pro-people agricultural development are often met with state-sponsored violence including harassment, arrests, and in some cases even extrajudicial killings.Chronic hunger and food crises are preventable. Governments, especially in Asia, Africa and Latin America where majority of the populations are rural and whose livelihoods and lives are tied to land, and where hunger and poverty are concentrated, should stop subscribing to the destructive and corporatised “development” strategies prescribed by the champions of the neoliberal global market. Instead, global and national policy makers should heed the peoples’ legitimate demand for the protection and promotion of their access to and control over their land and resources; of their food sovereignty; and of their right to genuine development. ###This statement has been endorsed by the following organisations and individuals:Coalition of Agricultural Workers International (CAWI)GRAINIFOAM Organics InternationalPeople’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty (PCFS)Youth for Food Sovereignty (YFS)Asian Peasant CoalitionAsian Rural Women’s Coalition (ARWC)Bakolight Shramik Union, BangladeshBangladesh Adivasi Samity, BangladeshBangladesh Bhumiheen Samity, BangladeshBangladesh Floating Labor Union, BangladeshBangladesh Floating Women Labor Union, BangladeshBangladesh Gramin Buddhijbi Front, BangladeshBangladesh Kishani Sabha, BangladeshBangladesh Krishok Federation, BangladeshBangladesh Resource Center for Indigenous Knowledge (BARCIK), BangladeshBangladesh Shramik Federation, BangladeshBiplobi Jubo Sabha, BangladeshGanochhaya Sanskritik Kendra, BangladeshCambodian Farmers , CambodiaCambodian Grassroots Cross-Sector Network, CambodiaSave The Earth, CambodiaRed Nacional de Agricultura Familiar (RENAF), ColombiaAndhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union (APVVU), IndiaFood Sovereignty Alliance , IndiaGreen Foundation, IndiaJana Vikas, IndiaKudumbam, IndiaLEISA Network, IndiaNational Agricultural Workers Forum (NAWF), IndiaNational Centre for Labour, IndiaNISARGA, IndiaPAN India, IndiaSAHANIVASA, IndiaSociety for Rural Education and Development (SRED), IndiaTamil Nadu Women’s Forum, IndiaThanal, IndiaTVVU, IndiaAliansi Gerakan Reforma Agraria (AGRA), IndonesiaOrganisasi Penguatan dan Pengembangan Usaha – Usaha Kerakyatan (OPPUK), IndonesiaFahamu, KenyaCitizens’ Alliance for Consumer Protection of Korea (CACPK), KoreaE-Consumer, KoreaNorth South Initiative, MalaysiaPartners of Community Organizations in Sabah (PACOS) Trust, MalaysiaCentre for Human Rights and Development, MongoliaFood Coalition, MongoliaAll Nepal Peasants Federation, NepalSocial Work Institute, NepalPesticide Action Network (PAN) Aotearoa, New ZealandKhoj Society for People’s Education, PakistanPakistan Kissan Mazdoor Tehreek (PKMT), PakistanRoots for Equity, PakistanFarmer’s Development Center – Bohol, PhilippinesKilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), PhilippinesMagsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG) , PhilippinesMagsasaka at Siyentipiko para sa Pag-unlad ng Agrikultura (MASIPAG) Mindanao, PhilippinesNARRA Youth, PhilippinesNational Ferderation of Peasant Women (AMIHAN), PhilippinesPesticide Action Network (PAN) Philippines, PhilippinesPhilippine Network of Food Security Programmes (PNFSP), PhilippinesSining Kadamay, PhilippinesSining ng Naglilingkod sa Bayan (SINAGBAYAN), PhilippinesUnyon ng mga Manggagawa sa Agrilkultura (UMA), PhilippinesWomen’s Development Center, PhilippinesPesticide Action Network (PAN) Africa, SenegalHuman Developmetn Organiation (HDO), Sri LankaNational Fisheries Solidarity Organization (NAFSO), Sri lankaSavisthri National Women’s Movement, Sri LankaVIKALPANI Women’s Federation, Sri LankaWomen’s Action for Social Justice (WASJ), Sri LankaSustainable Development Foundation (SDF), ThailandJeunes Volontaires pour l’Environnement (JVE) International, TogoCaritas Dalat, VietnamCentre for Sustainable Development in Mountainous Areas (CSDM), VietnamResearch Centre for Gender, Family and Environment in Development (CGFED), VietnamThe Centre for Promoting Development for Women and Children, VietnamAhmed Mansour Ismail, EgyptAkiko Mera, JapanAlessia Bartolomei, ItalyAli Alishatu, CameroonAndre Luzzi, BrasilAntonio Gonzales , GuatemalaAzra Talat Sayeed, PakistanChristiana Louwa , KenyaElizabeth Mpofu, ZimbabweFernando, UruguayIsabel Alvarez Vispo, SpainIsrael Munoz, EcuadorJoana Rocha Dias , PortugalJosh Oulton, CanadaKannaiyan , IndiaMargarita Gomez, ArgentinaMaria Teresa Alvarez, ArgentinaMohammed Alsalimya, PalestineNasmin Choudry, IndiaPaulomee Mistry, IndiaPedro Guzman, ColombiaCharles Ssekyewa, Dean, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences, UgandaRony Joseph, IndiaRuchi, United KingdomSalena Tramel, NetherlandsSummer Lilley, New ZealandSource: PANAP