FAO Reports Science and AI Call at APEC Food Security Meeting

On 26 August 2026, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reported that its Director-General, QU Dongyu, had spoken at the 11th APEC Ministerial Meeting on Food Security in Hangzhou, China. The FAO report linked the meeting to a call for science, technology and artificial intelligence to play a central role in transforming agrifood systems.

According to the FAO’s account, Asia has made progress since 2015, but that progress has not removed the region’s food-access challenges. In 2025, the prevalence of undernourishment in Asia was 25% lower than in 2015. The comparison presents a longer-term improvement while also leaving room for attention to the people who continue to face hunger.

The FAO said about 292 million people in Asia were still facing hunger. That figure places a clear limit on any reading of the regional trend as a completed success: a lower prevalence does not mean that hunger has disappeared. The statement presented the decline and the remaining total together, keeping both parts of the picture visible.

The agency also reported that nearly one-third of Asia’s population could not afford a healthy diet. This adds an affordability measure to the hunger figure. It shows that the FAO’s update is concerned not only with the prevalence of undernourishment, but also with whether people can afford the kind of diet described as healthy.

Against those figures, QU Dongyu called for science, technology and AI to be placed at the centre of the transformation of agrifood systems. The emphasis is systems-level: the call concerns how agrifood systems should be transformed in response to continuing hunger and diet-affordability challenges.

For CookingScope readers, the useful takeaway is therefore a verified piece of food-system news rather than a new kitchen instruction or product announcement. The FAO’s figures show two conditions existing at once: undernourishment in Asia was lower in 2025 than in 2015, yet about 292 million people still faced hunger and nearly one-third of the population could not afford a healthy diet. That combination explains why the FAO connected the ministerial discussion with a continuing need for transformation.

The confirmed development in the update is the call made by QU Dongyu at the APEC food security meeting, alongside the regional figures cited by the FAO. The report does not turn that call into a consumer promise; it records a policy position focused on science, technology and AI within agrifood-system transformation.

Sources

• Official source: fao.org
• https://www.fao.org/newsroom/detail/fao-director-general-calls-for-science-and-technology-to-bridge-digital--rural-and--gender-divides/en