Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Lead Author: Ida Kubiszewski (other articles)
Article Topics: Agriculture and food, Organization and Environmental statistics
This article has been reviewed and approved by the following Topic Editor: Cutler J. Cleveland (other articles)
Last Updated: August 21, 2008

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The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations was founded in 1945 with a mandate to raise levels of nutrition and standards of living, to improve agricultural productivity, and to better the condition of rural populations. Today, FAO is one of the largest specialized agencies in the United Nations system and the lead agency for projects concerning natural resource and rural development. An intergovernmental organization, FAO has 183 member countries plus one member organization, the European Community. The FAOSTAT database is an online and multilingual database containing over 1 million time-series records covering international statistics in a wide range of natural resource areas, particularly, forestry, fisheries, agriculture, and land use. Energy data include estimates of wood fuel use, both commercial and traditional. Data are available online (free of charge) and on CD-ROM (fee required).

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Citation
Kubiszewski, Ida (Lead Author); Cutler J. Cleveland (Topic Editor). 2008. "Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth August 30, 2006; Last revised August 21, 2008; Retrieved November 7, 2009]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Food_and_Agriculture_Organization_(FAO)>
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