World leaders meet on global food crisis

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*World leaders meet on global food crisis*

03 Jun 2008 00:28:52 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Robin Pomeroy

ROME, June 3 (Reuters) - World leaders open a conference on the global
food crisis on Tuesday, with human rights activists and the World Bank
demanding action to curb soaring prices that are pushing an estimated
100 million people into hunger.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) initially
called the summit at the end of last year to discuss the risks posed to
food security by climate change.

But soaring food prices have shifted the focus of the Rome summit.

The cost of major food commodities has doubled over the last couple of
years, with rice, corn and wheat at record highs. Some prices have hit
their highest levels in 30 years in real terms -- provoking protests and
riots in some developing countries, where people may spend more than
half their income on food.

Delegates will discuss a range of issues such as aid, trade and
technology to improve farm yields, but hunger campaigners have singled
out biofuels -- often made by converting food crops into fuel -- as a
prime culprit.

"Countries are justifying the pursuit of biofuels on the grounds that
they offer a means to reduce emissions from transport and improve energy
security," the campaign group Oxfam said in a report issued on Tuesday.

"But there is mounting scientific evidence that biofuel mandates (policy
support) are actually accelerating climate change by driving the
expansion of agriculture into critical habitats such as forests and
wetlands."

Even though the United States is channelling about a quarter of its
maize crop into ethanol production by 2022, and the European Unions
plans to get 10 percent of auto fuel from bio-energy by 2020, biofuel
supporters say the effect on global food prices is small.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Shafer said biofuels accounted for only
around 3 percent of the total food price rise. Oxfam says the real
impact is about 30 percent.

World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said the issue should not be allowed to
dominate the summit, although biofuels clearly competed with food
production. However, he said Africa could benefit from sugar-based
biofuel production, as Brazil has.

The World Bank estimates that higher food prices are pushing 30 million
Africans into poverty. Zoellick said African leaders wanted action, not
words.

"It would be unfortunate if (bio-energy) becomes the sole point of
debate, because then we would not meet what poor countries tell me they
want, which is resources for safety net programmes, seeds and
fertilisers, and export bans lifted," he told Reuters.

Brazil, a pioneer in sugar-cane based biofuels, is set to defend them at
the summit. Its foreign minister, Celso Amorim, said fair trade and the
abolition of rich countries' subsidies to farmers were crucial issues
for the summit. (Additional reporting by Phil Stewart; Editing by Jon
Boyle)