Every year on 23 June, the world marks its last hope for food security by raising awareness of hunger and the need to reduce it. This day has become known as Food Security Day (also known as FRD24 or World Food Day). The reason why we have this particular date is that it was the first time when the global community acknowledged the fact that hunger can be a social as well as a economic problem.<\/p>\n
It started in 1990, when Pope John Paul II declared it World Food Day. It was only seven years after the end of the Cold War, when tensions were running high between Russia and Georgia over South Ossetia. The small mountainous state had its own problems: poverty, alcoholism and separatist tendencies were widespread there.<\/p>\n
But its neighboring Georgia also had problems with famine and a lack of affordable food. \u2018We are all from Georgia\u2019, said President Mikhail Saakashvili one day before he announced his country\u2019s withdrawal from interstate relations in May 2008. It was very appropriate for this small country at that moment in history because its people needed solidarity more than ever.<\/p>\n
In August 2008, massive riots left 41 dead and thousands homeless in Tbilisi and other Georgian cities . The clashes were triggered by bread prices which skyrocketed overnight . Georgian\u8a9e (Georgians) have been harvesting their summer crops but prices have not come down so they cannot buy enough to feed their families until next season. Russia’s embargo against Georgia has made things even harder<\/p>\n