At the United Nations Conference of 1943, in Hot Springs, Virginia, a specific plan was drawn up for the establishment of a permanent organization in the field of food and agriculture. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was founded a few years later, on 16 October 1945 in Quebec City, in Canada, and then temporarily established in Washington, D.C., in the United States of America. On 29 November 1949, the FAO General Conference established that the new permanent headquarters would be located in Rome, Italy. Today, around 11 000 people work for FAO, from almost all of the 194 Member Nations. They include agronomists, ichthyologists, and experts in food security and forestry, as well as in politics, law, economics and social development. This purpose of this book is to recount the Organization’s history, its mission and its day-to-day work in achieving its mandate: to eradicate hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition worldwide; eliminate rural poverty; promote the sustainable use of natural resources and encourage the development of more efficient and inclusive agricultural and food systems, through the definition of agreements and standards.