Hunger Deaths Spark Emergency Summit
The Age
Wednesday May 28, 2008
THE Government will send a high-level delegation to Rome next week for a crisis meeting of world leaders aimed at finding a solution to the global food crisis, which is seen as an emerging threat to international security.
The United Nations' Food and Agricultural Organisation has called the urgent summit in light of spiralling food prices around the world and an escalation of hunger deaths in poor countries. Establishing a global food fund and setting international guidelines for the cultivation of biofuels will take priority on the meeting's agenda. Biofuels have been blamed for contributing to the food crisis because their cultivation diverts crops and land away from food production. The UN expects that the summit will commit substantial immediate aid to Third World countries in a bid to prevent what could amount to tens of millions of deaths from malnutrition. Long-term initiatives for better food production on massive scales will also be discussed to reduce the instability sparked by riots from the urban poor. Some governments now regard the food crisis as a greater threat to world security than terrorism. Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown will go to the summit demanding that emergency funds be diverted to developing nations for seeds and fertilisers. But Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has not yet decided on Australia's strategy. A spokesman for the Prime Minister said Australia would be represented at the meeting but that the Government's contribution was still being determined. Mr Rudd considers the unfolding global food crisis a serious and real problem, the spokesman said.The Government is now in the process of finalising its representation at the conference being hosted by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation. The Rome gathering will be the first of a series of meetings charged with addressing the crisis. Mr Rudd will be confronted personally with the debate when he attends the G8 summit in Japan early in July. In the meantime, the European Union has said it will focus its efforts on a solution. EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel said if the rise in food and commodity prices continues, it could have serious implications for global security. There could be conflicts over scarce resources and increased movements of people, she said. The Food and Agriculture Organisation's Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem said food import costs for developing countries were expected to jump by 40% this year. Rising food prices were bound to worsen the already unacceptable level of food deprivation suffered by 850 million people, he said. "We are facing the risk that the number of hungry will increase by many more millions of people," Mr Ghanem said.KEY POINTS ? The Federal Government is yet to decide what it will argue for at the Rome summit.? Biofuels have been blamed for taking up land used to grow food crops.
© 2008 The Age