UN food summit fails to deliver

by Rich Bowden - Jun 5 2008, 19:52

The United Nations-sponsored food summit held in Rome broke up Thursday with delegates promising money to alleviate immediate food shortages but with little progress to address long term solutions to the crisis.

Most of the delegates from rich countries tended to ignore the food problem, which has seen prices soar by thirty percent in some regions, to concentrate on their own policy initiatives, reported the New York Times.

The vexing problem of growing food for biofuels instead of consumption appeared to be sidestepped with U.S. delegate  Ed Shafer talking up the benefits of the alternative fuel and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva putting in a sales pitch for Brazilian ethanol.

Brazilian officials claim delegates were "demonizing" ethanol for the current food crisis and preferred to blame "commercial and agricultural points".

There was also no agreement on the lifting of trade barriers and the problem of farm subsidies.

"As long as you have subsidies from rich countries combined with a free trade agenda in developing countries -- which means the poor countries open up to rich ones -- their farmers can't compete with subsidized goods coming in from Europe and the U.S.," said Alexander Woollcombe, a spokesman for Oxfam to CNN.

"When prices go up, as they are at the moment, that means people in these countries cannot afford food," he said.

However despite the lack of a decision, some experts claim the summit designed to "eliminate hunger and securing food for all", was a success.

"The most important thing about the summit is that it has focused attention on the world leaders and on something that has been ignored for too long," Matthew Wyatt, from the International funds for agricultural development, said to reporters.
 
"We've let investment in agriculture drift terribly. In 1979 it was 18 per cent of all aid. Now it's less than 3 per cent, that's absolutely ridiculous... We have to reverse that."
 
"If there is a good and strong declaration particularly with the commitment to small-holder farming and commitments to boosting supplies, that would be a bonus," Wyatt said.

Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, said: "I think these kinds of conferences are important to put together people discussing. I think it's more important outside the big room and the official speeches.

 

 

 

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