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Tuesday April 22, 11:37 PMUN summit to tackle 'tsunami' of rising food prices
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said soaring food prices threatened to plunge more than 100 million people into hunger, leaving a 755-million-dollar shortfall in its 2.9 billion dollar budget, forcing cuts in vital programmes. "This is the new face of hunger -- the millions of people who were not in the urgent hunger category six months ago but now are," said WFP executive director Josette Sheeran in a statement. "The response calls for large-scale, high-level action by the global community, focused on emergency and longer-term solutions." Food prices have been spiralling due to the use of certain foods in biofuels to combat climate change; rising populations; strong demand from developing countries, and floods and droughts blamed on climate change. High fuel prices have also played a major role. "Much of the world is waking up to the fact that food doesn't spontaneously appear in grocery stores. There is a sensitive supply chain that needs tending to," Sheeran told a London press conference. "This is an important wake-up call in an era where climate change in many areas of the world will put additional stress on production and yield." It was now time to ensure that "those in the world who are trying to break the chain of agricultural poverty have access to the knowledge that can help them do so," she said. "The world has been consuming more than it has been producing for the last three years." In all, 25 people were to attend the Downing Street summit, including Sheeran, African Development Bank chief Donald Kaberuka, Britain's environment and international development ministers and the country's chief scientist. They were to be joined by campaigners, businesspeople and experts. A government spokesman said a complete set of proposals would be taken to a European Union meeting of heads of state and government in June, the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised countries the following month, and the UN in September, although no final plan will be presented after the London summit. Britain's International Development Secretary Douglas Alexander meanwhile announced a 910-million-dollar aid package, including an 800-million-dollar, five-year commitment to agricultural research. The money would "help poor countries become less reliant on aid and to increase agricultural productivity," he said. Ahead of the summit, Brown said there was a "world food crisis" underway which "threatens to roll back progress made in recent years to lift millions out of poverty." The international community "will need both short-term measures to deal with immediate hardship as well as a plan to address the more structural causes." He called for an "agricultural revolution" for farmers to produce higher-yielding crops. On biofuels, the Scot said they were "frequently energy inefficient." "We need to look closely at the impact on food prices and the environment of different production methods and to ensure we are more selective in our support." Biofuels were developed as part of plans to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, held responsible for global warming, but since they take up land that would otherwise be used for food production, they have been increasingly blamed for soaring food prices. In Bangkok on Tuesday, Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej lashed out at the World Bank and the UN for criticising biofuel producing nations for soaring food prices while sparing oil exporters. Sheeran also said that biofuels were not the only reason for spiralling costs, with high fuel prices impacting on farmers' crop yields and transport. Meanwhile in Tokyo, Japan's farm minister said he would bring up food security in talks at the World Trade Organization and the G8, fearing that soaring grain prices will hit importers. Japan, the world's second largest economy, imports more than half the food it consumes.
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