Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Washington, DC (Agenzia Fides) - The most important international institutions agree on the need to launch a warning regarding the food crisis that is occurring in various parts of the planet, especially in the continents of Asia and Africa, and the need to take urgent measures.
With the world economy crisis, the rise of inflation and the increase in costs of the most basic items like rice and cereals, the most hardly hit areas are the poorest countries, especially in Asia and Africa.
The price of rice has become a product that is now completely out of reach for the majority of the populations in southeast Asia and in some cases the food supply is beginning to run out, causing social instability. According to the Director of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss Kahn - who has expressed his desire to give poorer countries a greater say in the decisions made by the largest finance institution in the world- the uncontrollable rise in the prices of food supplies in developing countries could provoke a real “humanitarian catastrophe” and if things do not change, “hundreds of thousands of people could die of hunger.”
The President has warned of the possibility of a real “food war” among the poorer countries, that could lead to giant set-backs in the fight against poverty and worldwide underdevelopment.
The World Bank is also worried about the great number of countries in which the sustained rise in food prices has a very hard effect on the poorest sectors of the population. In this situation, the problem of “food security” (the concrete possibility for each person to obtain food for his survival each day) is worsened. For this reason, as well, the World Bank’s President Robert Zoellick once again asked that the fight against poverty, hunger, and malnutrition become a global priority.
In the recent world forum of the agricultural-food industry, which took place in New Delhi, the General Director of the FAO, Jacques Diouf, asked that urgent measures be taken to avoid the immediate negative effects of the rise in food prices on the poorest countries. The FAO will hold an International Conference June 3-5, 2008 on “High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy,” in order to offer a forum to heads of state and government where they can discuss their urgent problems regarding world food security and decide what measures they should take in resolving them. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 14/4/2008 righe 32, parole 404)
