World Food Day is celebrated every year around the globe on 16 October about food manufacturing and agriculture. The World Food Day theme for 2011 is ‘FOOD PRICES – FROM CRISIS TO STABILITY’, focusing on feasible measures to mitigate the influence of food price on the most vulnerable groups.

On the World Food Day, ‘All About Food’, a series of thematic events including a namesake exhibition, lectures on the reality and future of food by famous experts and fun lab experiments on what’s the most nutritious, were open for the visitors to enjoy and explore the interesting world of food crops and the relationship between humans and foods.

World Food Day 2011 coincided with the report that Dr. Yuan Longping, a member of ChineseAcademyof Engineering, successfully bred a super-hybrid rice with a unit production exceeding 900 kilograms, a promising breakthrough indeed for the increase in food productivity surely suppresses the rising price of food. The namesake exhibition provides a glimpse into Dr. Yuan Longping’s work in searching for high yield hybrid rice, the development in this area, and the influence of food breeding and gene technology in changing the array of food products and food composition. Besides, the exhibition also tells the history of the development of foods from the undomesticated to the cultivated, the shift of the five major cereals in Chinese history, and food risks and security in a global perspective.

Partnering up with BMNH, the China National Geographic Press provides 20 astounding photos taken in China’s Shaanxi and Sichuan provinces and African and South American countries, capturing the agricultural scenes of different regions and demonstrating the influence of global seed crisis, food security, sharp reduction of cultivated land and natural disasters on food production.

The exhibition will last from 16 October to 23 October and, after the week-long display in BMNH, it will be brought to school campuses and communities to access more audiences and distribute information about the relationship between food and human society as well as the theme and meaning of the World Food Day 2011.

Apart from the exhibition, experts fromChineseAcademyof Agricultural Science and Corn Breeding Institute gave lectures on relevant aspects of food.

To engage children under 10 years old, the Fun Lab conducted experiments dubbed as ‘What’s the most nutritious?’ In scientific though simple measures, the participants learned about the portions of nutrients such as starch, protein and fat in food products and their different functions in maintaining the healthy operation of the human body. The kids had fun and knew from the experience that different cereals contain different sets of nutrients and they shall eat foods in balance to grow taller, smarter and stronger.