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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) celebrates World Food Day each year on 16 October, the day on which the Organization was founded in 1945. The objectives of World Food Day are to: � encourage attention to agricultural food production and to stimulate national, bilateral, multilateral and non-governmental efforts to this end; � encourage economic and technical cooperation among developing countries; � encourage the participation of rural people, particularly women and the least privileged categories, in decisions and activities influencing their living conditions; � heighten public awareness of the problem of hunger in the world; � promote the transfer of technologies to the developing world; and � strengthen international and national solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty and draw attention to achievements in food and agricultural development. The theme for 2012 is �Agricultural cooperatives � key to feeding the world�. FSG is in the process of reviewing the Manifestos of the main contenders for rule in the upcoming 2012 General Elections in Ghana, and has found very little reference to Agricultural Cooperatives in the Manifestos of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New Patriotic Party (NPP). If the FAO regard Agricultural cooperatives so vital to food security, why is this aspect not being addressed by the political parties in the runup to the 2012 elections? On the website of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) it is stated that � The Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) will as usual celebrate the day and use it to emphasize on the need for us to be committed to our quest of accelerating the Modernization of agriculture to ensure food security.� However we are six days away from the event and no detail about the content or venue has been made available? Ghana has a long history of the development of cooperatives, dating back to the first legislation in 1929. An insightful IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) Discussion Paper 00998 dated June 2010 and titled �A Review of Collective Action in Rural Ghana� takes a look at the development of farmer-based organisations (FBOs) and agricultural cooperatives (agri�coops) in Ghana, and is worthwhile reading. The FAO also issued a leaflet about the theme and that is also available for download from the FSG site. FSG will explore this issue further.