Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

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64px-Faologo.gif FAO logo.

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 (Fisheries and aquaculture), 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).

Further Reading

Citation

Kubiszewski, I. (2008). Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Retrieved from http://editors.eol.org/eoearth/wiki/Food_and_Agriculture_Organization_(FAO)