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World Food Summit: While an estimated $30 billion is needed to eradicate hunger, the FAO Director-General pointed out that excess consumption by the world's obese amounts to US$20 billion.

5th June 08 - Environmental News Service

"You all know about the severity and scale of the global food crisis," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders gathered today in Rome for the opening of the High-level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy. "Before this emergency, more than 854 million people in the world were short of food. The World Bank estimates that this figure could rise by a further 100 million," Ban said. "The poorest of the poor already spend two thirds or more of their income on food. They will be hardest hit."

"I have seen this for myself," said the secretary-general. "In Liberia recently, I met people who normally would buy rice by the bag. Today, they buy it by the cup. In Côte d'Ivoire, the leaders of a country recovering from conflict and trying to build a democracy told me how they feared that food riots could undo all their hard work."

"We fear the same in other countries that, with United Nations help, have made gains in recent years: Afghanistan, Haiti and Liberia, to name but a few. And let us not forget the millions who suffer in silence and will go hungry unnoticed," said Ban.

"Nothing is more degrading than hunger, especially when manmade. It breeds anger, social disintegration, ill-health and economic decline," the secretary-general said.

"If not handled properly, this issue could trigger a cascade of other crises - affecting economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world," Ban warned.

Food production needs to rise by 50 percent by the year 2030 to meet the rising demand, he said, calling on world leaders to increase food production and revitalize agriculture to ensure long-term food security.

The conference is hosted by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, FAO, at its headquarters in Rome.

In an impassioned speech, FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf appealed to world leaders for US$30 billion a year to re-launch agriculture and avert future threats of conflicts over food.

In 2006, Dr. Diouf said, the world spent US$1,200 billion on arms while food wasted in a single country could be valued at US$100 billion. Excess consumption by the world's obese amounts to US$20 billion, he said.

"Against that backdrop, how can we explain to people of good sense and good faith that it was not possible to find US$30 billion a year to enable 862 million hungry people to enjoy the most fundamental of human rights: the right to food and thus the right to life?" Dr. Diouf asked.

Conference participants are discussing short-term solutions as well as new strategies to deal with the effects of global warming, growing demand for biofuels, and a disintegrating agriculture sector in many of the poorer countries. They are expected to issue a declaration at the close of the meeting on Thursday.

The conference opened its three day session today by electing Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as conference chair.

Italian President Giorgio Napolitano stressed that the food crisis threatens the progress achieved so far towards the Millenium Development Goals, a set of eight goals that the world community has agreed to reach by 2015, including to reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Despite the World Food Summit's solemn pledge in 1996 to halve world food hunger by 2015, resources to finance agricultural programs in developing countries have not only failed to rise but have decreased since then.

Napolitano said relying on market values will not be enough to overcome the crisis and called for policies and actions set within, and implemented through, the United Nations.

Dr. Diouf recalled that it would have cost only US$24 billion a year to fund an anti-hunger program prepared for the second World Food Summit held in 2002.

In cooperation with FAO, the developing countries did prepare policies, strategies and programs that, if they had received appropriate funding, would have ensured world food security, Diouf said.

But, he said, "Aid to agriculture fell from US$8 billion in 1984 to US$3.4 billion in 2004, representing a reduction in real terms of 58 percent."

Agriculture's share of Official Development Assistance fell from 17 percent in 1980 to three percent in 2006, he said.

"Regrettably, the international community only reacts when the media beam the distressing spectacle of world suffering into the homes of the wealthy countries," said Dr. Diouf.

At the summit today, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak advocated a network of social solidarity, and an international code of conduct which rejects biofuel subsidies.

Brazilian President Lula da Silva supported sustainable biofuel production, attributing the current food crisis to high oil prices and protectionist agricultural subsidies.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe blamed western countries for his people's ever-increasing food woes, and defended his controversial policy of taking land from white farmers to distribute amongst black settlers, many of whom were not farmers.

"Over the past decade, Zimbabwe has democratized the land ownership patterns in the country, with over 300,000 previously landless families now proud landowners. Previously this land was owned by a mere 4,000 farmers, mainly of British stock," Mugabe told the summit.

"In retaliation for the measures we took to empower the black majority, the United Kingdom has mobilised her friends and allies in Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand to impose illegal economic sanctions against Zimbabwe," said Mugabe.

"Western-funded NGOs also use food as a political weapon with which to campaign against government, especially in the rural areas," alleged Mugabe.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith called Mugabe's presence in Rome "obscene," saying, "This is the person who has presided over the starvation of his people. This is the person who has used food aid in a politically motivated way."

In a message delivered by Tarcisio Bertone, Secretary of State of the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI called the right to food an ethical issue, and asked participants to consider the dignity of all people.

Addressing the summit today, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer said, "As the world's largest donor of food assistance, the United States will continue to coordinate its own efforts closely with UN agencies, the G8, the World Bank, and other international partners."

The United States is now projecting to spend nearly $5 billion in 2008 and 2009 to fight global hunger, he said.

President George W. Bush announced the most recent action by the United States to respond to this crisis on May 1 when he requested from Congress $770 million in new funds to support food aid and development programs.

When combined with the estimated $200 million authorized on April 14, this brings the U.S. response to nearly $1 billion in additional funds to further ongoing U.S. efforts, Schafer said.

At a news conference Monday, Schafer said increased biofuels production is but one of many contributors to increased food prices. Other factors include rising energy costs, poor harvests in major grain producing countries, and greater use of export restrictions, he said.

Schafer said his agency is anticipating a 43 percent increase in food price inflation globally this year alone. "We can identify two to three percent of that price increase that is driven by biofuels," he said.

Schafer defended the use of genetic engineering to boost food production in the face of criticism from environmental groups and many countries that have banned or discouraged the import of genetically modified seeds, crops and trees. "We have proven the safety environmentally and from a human standpoint food safety issue that GMOs are fine to use," Schafer said.

Yasuo Fukuda, prime minister of Japan, announced US$100 million in emergency food aid, to be distributed by July.

Last week Prime Minister Fukuda told a conference on African development in Yokohama with 52 African nations represented that Japan would provide the expertise to bring about a "Green Revolution" in Africa to make the continent food secure.

"As Africa seeks to achieve its own Green Revolution, I would like to put out a call for action, aiming to double the current rice production output of 14 million tons, over the next ten years," the Japanese prime minister said.

Addressing participants today, Secretary-General Ban shared some of the recommendations of the his recently convened High-Level Task Force on Food Security.

"First, we must improve vulnerable people's access to food and take immediate steps to increase food availability in their communities," Ban said.

The Task Force recommended expanding food assistance through food aid, vouchers or cash; scaling up nutritional support and improving safety nets and social protection programmes to help the most vulnerable; and boosting smallholder farmer food production through an urgent injection of seeds and fertilizers.

The Task Force further recommended improving rural infrastructure and links to markets, and expanding microcredit programs; adjusting trade and taxation policies to minimize export restrictions and import tariffs, and helping the free flow of agricultural goods; and supporting balance-of-payments of net food importing countries where necessary.

The FAO has called for $1.7 billion in new funding to provide low income countries with seeds and other agricultural support and has initiated a program to counter soaring food prices.

The UN World Food Programme, the world's largest food aid agency, has raised the additional $755 million it needs to meet existing commitments this year.

"We owe a great debt of thanks to 31 generous donor-nations, most notably the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia," said Ban. "It will, of course, need significant extra resources to respond to new needs arising from the impact of the food crisis."

The World Bank has established a new $1.2 billion rapid financing facility to address immediate needs and boost food production, including $200 million in grants targeted at the world's poorest nations.

Ban said he has set aside a reserve of $100 million from the UN's Central Emergency Response Fund to help fund new humanitarian needs arising from soaring food prices.

"I want us to have a shared understanding of both the problems and solutions," said the secretary-general, "and to move forward together, with urgency."

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UN food summit hammers out plan for world's hungry

4th June 08 - Richard Owen, The Times Online (UK) 

Delegates to the UN summit on the world food crisis today began hammering out an emergency plan to reduce hunger and help Third World farmers despite often testy disagreement behind the scenes over the future of biofuels.

The three-day summit, convened by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), which is based in Rome, ends tomorrow, when the final communique will be issued outlining both short-term and long-term solutions.

A draft declaration vows to eliminate hunger and secure "food for all, today and tomorrow". The leaders undertake to "stimulate food production and increase investment in agriculture" while "addressing obstacles to food access and using the planet's resources sustainably for present and future generations".

The draft document calls for a reduction in trade barriers and food export restrictions, emergency food aid, increased crop yields and guidelines on the use of biofuels.

FAO officials said 850 million people already faced famine or malnutrition, and rising food and fuel prices would push that figure over the one billion mark, with the risk of further riots and instability in affected nations. Prices of staples such as rice, corn and wheat have soared.

The UN World Food Programme (WFP) said it was rolling out an additional US$1.2 billion in food assistance to help tens of millions of people in more than 60 nations hardest hit by the food crisis.

"With soaring food and fuel prices, hunger is on the march and we must act now," Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of WFP, told the summit.

She said that WFP was "helping the world to weather the storm" by tripling the number of people who receive food in Haiti, doubling those who will receive food in Afghanistan, and delivering assistance to people in Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya. "We have mobilised our 10,000 employees and every dollar and Euro given to us to reach as many hungry people as we can at this critical time," she said.

The first day of the summit was dominated by controversy over the presence of the President Ahmadinejad of Iran and President Mugabe of Zimbabwe. Today, however, delegates got down to the nitty-gritty of the food crisis, with the United States and Brazil - the world's largest producer of sugar-cane ethanol - defending the diversion of crops for energy in the face of growing criticism.

The US plans to use 25 per cent of its corn crop for ethanol production by 2022, and the European Union aims to obtain 10% of its car fuel from bio-energy by 2020. The US Agriculture Secretary, Ed Schafer, insisted that "the use of sustainable biofuels can increase energy security, foster economic development especially in rural areas and reduce greenhouse gas emissions without weighing heavily on food prices."

He said the US was "deeply concerned by the current crisis.....We are now projecting to spend nearly five billion dollars in 2008 and 2009 to fight global hunger".

But Jacques Diouf, director general of the FAO, said: "Nobody understands how $11-12 billion-a-year subsidies in 2006 and protective tariff polices have had the effect of diverting 100m tonnes of cereals from human consumption, mostly to satisfy a thirst for fuel for vehicles."

Mr Schafer responded that biofuels had contributed under 3 per cent to food price increases. However FAO officials said biofuels accounted for 59 per cent of the increase in global use of coarse grains and wheat between 2005-2007, and 56 per cent of the increase in vegetable oils. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that biofuels are responsible for up to 30 per cent of the price rises overall.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the President of Brazil, accused critics of biofuels of hypocrisy. "It offends me to see fingers pointed at biofuels, which produce clean energy, when those fingers are soiled with oil and coal," he said. "It is frightening to see attempts to draw a cause and effect relationship between biofuels and the rise of food prices".

But he took a swipe at the US version of biofuel, saying that corn-based ethanol was less efficient than fuel produced with sugar cane, and could only compete "when it is shored up with subsidies and shielded behind tariffs". Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese Prime Minister, added: "In some cases, biofuel production is in competition with food supply.....We need to ensure that biofuel production is sustainable."

The Rome summit will be followed by the G8 summit in Japan next month and the final stages of the stalled World Trade Organisation (WTO) Doha round of talks on global trade. Pascal Lamy, the head of WTO, said a Doha deal "would reduce the trade-distorting subsidies that have stymied the developing world's production capacity".

Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, said "Nothing is more degrading than hunger, especially when man-made". He said the "global price tag" to overcome the food crisis would be $15 billion to $20 billion a year. Food supplies would have to rise 50 per cent by the year 2030 to meet demand.

Douglas Alexander, Britain's International Development Secretary, said that Western farm subsidies were also responsible for food price rises. "It is unacceptable that rich countries still subsidise farming by $1 billion a day, costing poor farmers in developing countries an estimated $100 billion a year in lost income," he said.

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