FAO Director-General, José Graziano da Silva, praised Petrini's contribution to increasing public awareness on the need to improve agriculture in Europe and ensure a sustainable food supply chain. "These include numerous activities drawing attention to the necessity to reintroduce local crops that smallholders and subsistence farmers can produce for their own consumption and sell on the markets as a means to achieve food security.”

Petrini's nomination and his involvement in FAO's advocacy activities will "send a strong signal to the international community that we can create a world where no one is hungry," the FAO Director-General added. It would contribute towards building the Zero Hunger Generation and ending hunger by 2030, he said.

Accepting the appointment, Petrini said: "The shame of hunger ... can and must be defeated within this generation; commitment in this regard must take a political priority in all international forums, along with national and civil society."

In his role as a Special Ambassador Zero Hunger, Petrini will help ensure a better understanding of FAO's vision of a world free of hunger and malnutrition in which food and agriculture contribute towards improving livelihoods, particularly those of poor people.

Activities also include participation at high-level events and public fora as well as contributing to key publications, field project visits and fund raising activities.

Slow Food is an international, non-profit grassroots organisation that aims to promote quality food produced and distributed in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner. It has over 100,000 members worldwide and is active in 160 countries.

Through a 2013 agreement, FAO and Slow Food have been working together to promote inclusive food and agriculture systems and have participated in joint advocacy campaigns and global initiatives including the 2016 International Year of Pulses and the 2014 International Year of Family Farming.