Launched at the World Meat Congress in Paris last week, the Six Second Project is a non-profit organisation designed to increase global awareness of children dying from starvation and to focus fund-raising efforts to alleviate hunger. The scheme, which takes its title from the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) 2010 statistic that a child dies of hunger every six seconds, is looking to recruit meat industry partners to raise public awareness and funds to help combat the problem.
The project has been endorsed by the International Meat Secretariat (IMS). “There are children dying needlessly from starvation in many corners of the world,” said Arturo Llavllol, president of the IMS. “The concept of the Six-Second Project is sound, and there is no more appropriate industry to accept this challenge than the global meat industry.
“The size, strength and diversity of the international meat industry offer the potential to raise widespread consumer consciousness of the hunger issue and generate enough focused energy to make a difference.”
Launching the project at the World Meat Congress, Philip Seng, CEO of the US Meat Export Federation, said: “This is an opportunity to make meat the brand that is fighting global hunger.”
Jody Falletta Carman, the scheme’s founder and CEO, said: “The Six-Second Project was created to bring this shocking statistic to light. By linking their product sales to this cause, meat industry partners can not only take a leadership role in the movement to alleviate needless starvation deaths, but can also create a partnership of hope and action with their customers who will be inspired to help.”
The FAO estimates that 30% of global agriculture production is lost to spoilage, waste and contamination, largely due to a lack of agriculture infrastructure, including harvest technologies, storage, refrigeration, processing facilities and distribution channels. The Six-Second Project will direct funds to initiatives that help strengthen the food supply chain and improve food access and distribution in areas where chronic hunger and childhood malnutrition are prominent.
For more details on the initiative, email jody@thesixsecondproject.org or visit www.thesixsecondproject.org.