Crisis talks on soaring global food prices
Pastor Dale Morgan
Crisis talks on soaring global food prices*
27 May 2008 08:00
World leaders are to meet next week for urgent talks aimed at preventing
tens of millions of the world's poor dying of hunger as a result of
soaring food prices.
The summit in Rome is expected to pledge immediate aid to poor countries
threatened by malnutrition as well as charting longer-term strategies
for improving food production.
Hosted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), it
will hear calls for the establishment of a global food fund, as well as
for new international guidelines on the cultivation of biofuels, which
some have blamed for diverting land, crops and other resources away from
food production.
The urgency of the meeting follows historic spikes in the price of some
staple foods. The price of rice has doubled since January this year,
while the cost of dairy products, Soya beans, wheat and sugar have also
seen large increases.
The world's urban poor have been hit hardest, sending a wave of unrest
and instability around the world. Thirty-seven countries have been hit
by food riots so far this year, including Cameroon, Niger, Egypt and Haiti.
The Rome summit is the first of a series of high-level meetings aimed at
tackling what many leaders now see as a much bigger threat to
international stability than terrorism.
A fortnight after the UN meeting, the European Union council will focus
much of its time on the food crisis. A ministerial meeting of the World
Trade Organisation in late June will make a last-ditch attempt in Geneva
at agreeing the lowering of international trade barriers, with the aim
of cutting food prices and making it easier for farmers in poor
countries to export their produce.
Food and climate change will also be the twin top themes of the Group of
Eight summit in Japan in early July, and then in September a UN summit
will attempt to put the world back on course towards meeting the
millennium development goals, agreed eight years ago, one of which was
the halving of the number of the world's hungry.
The price of cereals has dipped slightly in recent weeks after nearly
doubling over the course of a year. Production of wheat, in particular,
has begun to respond to price incentives, but the FAO warns that
volatility and high prices are likely to remain the norm for the
foreseeable future. This year the food import bill for developing
countries is expected to rise 40%.
"Food is no longer the cheap commodity that it once was. Rising food
prices are bound to worsen the already unacceptable level of food
deprivation suffered by 854-million people," said the FAO's assistant
director general, Hafez Ghanem. "We are facing the risk that the number
of hungry will increase by many more millions of people."
At next week's summit, Britain will urge emergency funding for seeds and
fertilisers for the developing world's farmers in time for the next
planting season.
Gordon Brown is arguing that a WTO deal on trade barriers in Geneva
could be critical in bringing food prices under control and supporting
farmers in poor countries by providing an export market for their output.
He is mounting a diplomatic offensive, lobbying for the United States
and Europe to do more to cut subsidies to their own farmers.