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Posted 7:51 PM by Mary

Annan says financial crisis must not undermine action on hunger
16 Oct 2008 Megan Rowling

DUBLIN, Oct 16 (AlertNet) - Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday the global financial crisis threatened to undermine political will to tackle hunger in poor nations but warned it must not be used as "an excuse for inaction".

"The food crisis of recent months is now compounded by the global financial crisis. While national governments and international lenders scramble to inject hundreds of billions of dollars into failing banks, the developing world goes hungry," he said in a speech at an international conference hosted by aid agency Concern Worldwide to mark World Food Day. "This is simply unacceptable. We must do something to reverse the strain," he said.

While Africa was unlikely to be directly hit by the credit crunch, it would be affected by "a serious economic downturn" and the poor would be the first to suffer, he told reporters. "My position is that the financial crisis is a serious one, and deserves urgent attention and focus, but so is the question of hunger, and millions (are) likely to die. Is that any less urgent?" he said.

Last week, the World Bank predicted that high food and fuel prices would increase the number of malnourished people in the world by 44 million this year to reach a total of 967 million.

Annan said wealthy governments would be told by their voters they should deal with problems at home, such as rising unemployment and shaky banks, and that would make it harder for them to keep to their aid commitments. But he urged leaders to stick to their promises of boosting aid to help poor farmers grow more food, questioning how much of the $12 billion promised at a U.N. food summit in June had actually been delivered...

"We should also use this crisis to come up with effective reforms of the world system, and we need to ensure that the poor will not be short-changed," he argued...

Development economist Jeffrey Sachs, who advises the U.N. secretary general, told reporters he was pessimistic about the future, given the lack of progress even when the food crisis had made headlines earlier this year.

"Structurally there has been no breakthrough in response, taking the world scene as a whole, and there are reasons to believe that on the current business-as-usual trajectory things will get worse...because of rises in population, more climate shocks, more environmental degradation, and lack of ability of the very poor places to respond adequately," he warned.

But Rwanda's state minister for agriculture, Agnes Kalibata, said that if African countries did receive enough support to develop agriculture, both from international donors and their own leaders, they could start to export food rather than relying on aid.

"With the response we've seen to the financial crisis, surely a considered effort like that can bail out Africa," she told the conference. "Given the right kind of help, Africa can be a good trading partner, and then we won't need to beg."

Labels: Food prices, hunger, MDGs

Posted 11:03 AM by Mary

Ocean "dead zones" spread, fish more at risk-study
29 Sep 2008 21:10:46 GMT Source: Reuters
By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO, Sept 29 (Reuters) - The number of polluted "dead zones" in the world's oceans is rising fast and coastal fish stocks are more vulnerable to collapse than previously feared, scientists said on Monday.

The spread of "dead zones" -- areas of oxygen-starved water -- "is emerging as a major threat to coastal ecosystems globally," the scientists wrote in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Such zones are found from the Gulf of Mexico to the Baltic Sea in areas where algae bloom and suck oxygen from the water, feeding on fertilisers washed from fields, sewage, animal wastes and pollutants from the burning of fossil fuels.

"Marine organisms are more vulnerable to low oxygen content than currently recognised, with fish and crustaceans being the most vulnerable," said Raquel Vaquer Suner of the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies in Spain.

"The number of reported hypoxic (low oxygen) zones is growing globally at a rate of 5 percent a year," she told Reuters.

Labels: Food prices, oceans

Posted 7:31 AM by Mary

The long era of cheap food is over
David Loyn, BBC international development correspondent

Higher food prices may be here to stay as demand from developing countries and production costs rise, says the UN's Food & Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

It warned that the current spike in global food prices was higher than previous records, partly because bad weather had ruined crops. Although high prices will ease off, other factors, such as rising biofuel demand, will keep future costs high.

The FAO said speculators were also to blame for volatile commodity markets. The FAO's annual Outlook report predicted beef and pork prices might be 20% higher by 2017, wheat could be up to 60% more expensive and the cost of vegetable oils might rise by 80%.

Prices will level off at a far higher average level than seen before the crisis erupted. World prices for wheat, maize and oilseed crops doubled between 2005 and 2007, and while the FAO expects these prices to fall, the decline may be slower than after previous spikes.

As well as key factors such as weather, supply and demand and energy costs, speculators are also to blame for making commodities prices more volatile, the FAO says.

It is also concerned about the increasing use of crops for biofuels.

"Biofuels are the largest new source of demand for agriculture and are causing higher prices," said Merritt Cluff, one of the authors of the report.

"We are very worried particularly about biofuel policy. US government incentives for ethanol producers are distorting the market," he added.

Looking ahead, climate change may also affect crop harvests, pushing up prices further. But the hardest-hit by rising food costs will be the poorest people on the planet, where a large share of income is spent on food, the FAO warned.

"We are hugely concerned about the poorest and we expect the number of undernourished people to rise," said Mr Cluff.

The FAO believes the commodity boom has forced some in the developing world to spend more than half their income on food, particularly those countries that have to import much of their food.

But even the its outlook may be too conservative, as the BBC's International development correspondent David Loyn highlighted, predicting price of black gold was a near impossible task.

"One key assumption made is that crude oil prices will peak at $104 a barrel by 2017. The price is already well above that, and some reputable analysts are now predicting oil will go to $200 a barrel," he said.

And he added that while there may be a drop in food prices in coming years, "there is a sting in the tail. "Prices will level off at a far higher average level than seen before the crisis erupted," he said. "The long era of cheap food is over."

Rising food bills have triggered protests, riots and panic buying in some developing countries.

Earlier this month, the FAO calculated the amount of money being spent globally on importing food was set to top $1 trillion (£528bn) in 2008, a 26% rise on the previous year.

However, the food crisis could also shift the epicentre of global agriculture from developed to developing countries and the FAO predicts that emerging economies will dominate in the production and consumption of most basic foods in 10 years.

Story from BBC NEWS:

Labels: Ethanol, FAO, Food prices

Posted 10:45 AM by Mary

Key United Nations development agencies are meeting in Switzerland to try to develop solutions to ease the escalating global food crisis.

Led by secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, officials want to mitigate the impact of the steep rise in staple food prices and prevent food shortages worsening. The World Food Programme (WFP) says an extra 100 million people cannot afford enough food because of higher prices.

The Haitian Prime Minister was forced from office earlier this month after the soaring cost of rice and beans triggered violent disturbances in the capital Port-au-Prince.A host of countries across Asia have suspended rice exports amid fears that insufficient domestic supplies could lead to acute instability.

The UN's two-day meeting in Berne will be attended by the heads of 20 agencies as well as World Bank president Robert Zoellick and World Trade Organization boss Pascal Lamy.Mr Ban has called for emergency measures to ensure that the most needy people across the world have access to basic foods in the coming months.

Unless this happens, he has warned, the crisis will escalate and pose real threats to "economic growth, social progress, and even political security".

But the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva said it was less clear how more deep-seated problems could be addressed. These include the current impasse in global trade talks, general economic weakness and profound differences over the use of agricultural land for biofuels.

The WFP has launched a massive fund-raising appeal, saying it needs an extra $755m to purchase the necessary food to meet its obligations.

Countries across Asia are taking renewed action to curb the rising cost of rice and make supplies available to the poorest in society.

The Philippine government is to issue "rice cards" enabling families on subsistence incomes to buy rice at half the current market value.

Malaysia said on Monday that it would subsidise domestic producers to ensure that the staple remained "affordable" to low-income groups.

Malaysia, which has refrained from direct subsidies in the past, produces about 70% of the rice it consumes, importing the remainder from Thailand.

The authorities in Vietnam, meanwhile, have warned that market speculators forcing up the price of rice would face "severe punishment".

Speculators including food suppliers, commodity trading houses and other investors have started to buy rice, before selling it on for considerable profits or holding back supplies, thereby distorting the market further.

"The unnecessary tensions in the domestic rice markets in recent days stemmed from many factors such as rumours, groundless information and particularly the hoarding and holding back of rice to wait for the prices to go even higher," said Nguyen Thi Nguyet, secretary general of Vietnam's Food Association.

Labels: Food prices, Wfp

Posted 1:06 PM by Mary

Punjab reaps a poisoned harvest By David Loyn BBC News, Punjab

The governments of many poor nations are alarmed at the rise in food prices. There are even problems in the Indian region of Punjab, where science once seemed to have found answers for a hungry world...

The new strains of seed and chemical pesticides and fertilisers, certainly brought high yields.They called it the Green Revolution.The benefit of high yields from new seed types was not long-lasting, and the pests kept ahead of the pesticide

But today the food the cows eat and the milk they produce, along with the water the cows and Mr Singh's family drink, all show high levels of pesticide residue. The problem here, as in many other places in the world, is that the benefit of high yields from new seed types was not long-lasting, and the pests kept ahead of the pesticides...

An old man, suffering from cancer, told me that in recent years he has had to spray round the clock to keep the pests off his wheat.The sprays all have instructions demanding that they should only be used with face masks and protective clothing.

But the farm workers here do not use protective equipment, and they spray far more than the recommended amount.The cause of cancer is always a contentious issue, but a new study from the Punjabi University at Patiala ruled out other potential factors like age, alcohol intake and smoking, concluding that the way the sprays are used is causing cancer...

They know that what they are doing now is unsustainable, because they are getting lower yields despite using more spray and paying more for fertiliser because of the high oil price.

None had heard of organic farming.

n neighbouring Pakistan, the local TV news carries interviews every night from flour mills and farms, as well as a daily check on the market price of flour.

The police have intervened to stop hoarding.

Ration cards have been issued, and the World Food Programme (WFP) talks about a crisis as the number of people who do not have enough to eat has risen to 77 million, half of the population of Pakistan.

The WFP describes the food price rise as a "tsunami" affecting the poorest in the world and there are many poorer countries than Pakistan.

The political consequences are already apparent in the troubled regions of the North West Frontier, where the Taleban and al-Qaeda have significant support.

They are more easily able to recruit by saying the government is failing to make affordable food available.

And on the other side of the border on a recent trip to Afghanistan, I heard the US-led occupation squarely blamed on the streets of Kabul for the high price of food. ...

Labels: farming, Food prices, pesticide, WFA

Posted 6:12 PM by Mary

A man-made famine
Raj Patel, Guardian

April 15, 2008 8:30 AM

For anyone who understands the current food crisis, it is hard to listen to the head of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick, without gagging.

Earlier this week, Zoellick waxed apocalyptic about the consequences of the global surge in prices, arguing that free trade had become a humanitarian necessity, to ensure that poor people had enough to eat. The current wave of food riots has already claimed the prime minister of Haiti , and there have been protests around the world, from Mexico, to Egypt, to India.

The reason for the price rise is perfect storm of high oil prices, an increasing demand for meat in developing countries, poor harvests, population growth, financial speculation and biofuels. But prices have fluctuated before. The reason we're seeing such misery as a result of this particular spike has everything to do with Zoellick and his friends.

Before he replaced Paul Wolfowitz at the World Bank, Zoellick was the US trade representative, their man at the World Trade Organisation. While there, he won a reputation as a tough and guileful negotiator, savvy with details and pushy with the neoconservative economic agenda: a technocrat with a knuckleduster.

His mission was to accelerate two decades of trade liberalisation in key strategic commodities for the United States, among them agriculture. Practically, this meant the removal of developing countries' ability to stockpile grain (food mountains interfere with the market), to create tariff barriers (ditto), and to support farmers (they ought to be able to compete on their own). This Zoellick did often, and enthusiastically.

Without agricultural support policies, though, there's no buffer between the price shocks and the bellies of the poorest people on earth. No option to support sustainable smaller-scale farmers, because they've been driven off their land by cheap EU and US imports. No option to dip into grain reserves because they've been sold off to service debt. No way of increasing the income of the poorest, because social programmes have been cut to the bone.

The reason that today's price increases hurt the poor so much is that all protection from price shocks has been flayed away, by organisations such as the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation and the World Bank.

Even the World Bank's own Independent Evaluation Group admits (pdf) that the bank has been doing a poor job in agriculture. Part of the bank's vision was to clear away the government agricultural clutter so that the private sector could come in to make agriculture efficient. But, as the Independent Evaluation Group delicately puts it, "in most reforming countries, the private sector did not step in to fill the vacuum when the public sector withdrew." After the liberalisation of agriculture, the invisible hand was nowhere to be seen.

But governments weren't allowed to return to the business of supporting agriculture. Trade liberalisation agreements and World Bank loan conditions, such as those promoted by Zoellick, have made food sovereignty impossible.

This is why, when we see Dominique Strauss-Kahn of the IMF wailing about food prices, or Zoellick using the crisis to argue with breathless urgency for more liberalisation, the only reasonable response is nausea.

Labels: Food prices, World Bank, zoellick

Posted 6:11 AM by Mary

IMF head gives food price warning

The head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that hundreds of thousands of people will face starvation if food prices keep rising.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn said that social unrest from continuing food price inflation could cause conflict.

There have been food riots recently in a number of countries, including Haiti, the Philippines and Egypt.

Meeting in Washington, the IMF called for strong action on food prices and the international financial crisis.

Although the problems in global credit markets were the main focus of the meeting of the IMF's steering committee of finance ministers from 24 countries, Mr Strauss-Kahn warned of dire consequences from continued food price rises.

"Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people will be starving. Children will be suffering from malnutrition, with consequences for all their lives," he told reporters.

He said the problem could lead to trade imbalances that may eventually affect developed nations, "so it is not only a humanitarian question".

Food prices have risen sharply in recent months, driven by increased demand, poor weather in some countries and an increase in the use of land to grow crops for transport fuels.

The steering committee also called for "strong action" among its 185 members to deal with "the still unfolding financial market turmoil and... the potential worsening" of housing markets and the credit crunch.

The finance ministers did not dissent from the IMF's previous forecast that only a moderate slowdown in world economic growth is the most likely outcome over the next year or two.
Story from BBC NEWS:

Labels: Food prices, IMF