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	Resource Rights and the Right to Food by Maria Aguiar Grassroots International   In 1996 the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) organized the first World Food Summit in Rome to, in their own words, “renew global commitment to the fight against hunger. The FAO called the Summit in response to widespread under nutrition and growing concern about the capacity of agriculture to meet future food needs.”   The final declaration of that summit was signed by heads of state from most of the developed and developing world and stated: "We consider it intolerable that more than 800 million people throughout the world, and particularly in developing countries, do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs. This situation is unacceptable. Food supplies have increased substantially, but constraints on access to food and continuing inadequacy of household and national incomes to purchase food, instability of supply and demand, as well as natural and man-made disasters, prevent basic food needs from being fulfilled."   Despite some early progress made since the 1996 World Food Summit, the number of undernourished people in the world reached 923 million in 2007, according to the FAO. The tragedy is that in the spring of 2008, sharp fluctuations in food prices set off protests in more than 30 poor countries across the world and exposing the failures of our globalized food systems. Since then that number has increased ever more and is tottering near the one billion mark.   In the US, at least 36 million people cannot access healthy food on a regular basis. Food banks have witnessed dramatic increases in the number of people they served in 2008. At the same time, food stocks for all kinds of emergency food assistance have declined due to higher food costs and waning donations, as the economy fell into a deep recession.   What was described as “intolerable” at the 1996 world Food Summit has now become endemic.   In November 2009 the FAO has organized yet another global summit the World Summit on Food Security because, in their words:   The global food insecurity situation has worsened and continues to represent a serious threat for humanity. With food prices remaining stubbornly high in developing countries, the number of people suffering from hunger has been growing relentlessly in recent years.   The global economic crisis is aggravating the situation by affecting jobs and deepening poverty. FAO estimates that the number of hungry people could increase by a further 100 million in 2009 and pass the one billion mark.   Many of Grassroots International’s partners, including the Via Campesina, the Landless Workers Movement (MST) of Brazil, and the Union of Agricultural Work Committees from the West Bank and Gaza are already in Rome attending the People’s Food Sovereignty Forum—a parallel initiative to the World Summit on Food Security. There are an estimated 400 delegates from 70 different countries representing small scale food producers’ organizations of farmers, fisherfolk, Indigenous Peoples, food and rural workers, rural youth, women and pastoralists, as well as food insecure city dwellers and NGOs are gathered in Rome. One of the main ideas behind this parallel forum is to ensure that the voices of these grassroots peoples’ movements are heard at the World Food Summit.   “Time for talking is over,” said Nettie Wiebe, a Canadian farmer and a leader of the Via Campesina movement. “If the world is serious about eradicating hunger, there are not many options. We have to support and encourage small farmers to produce food for their communities in sustainable ways. A genuine solution to the food crisis means that small scale farmers, not transnational corporations, must regain control over food producing resources such as land, seeds, water and local markets.”   Allies of Grassroots International from the U.S. Working Group on the Global Food Crisis will present a statement on behalf of organizations that work here in the U.S. to try to change our government’s agriculture and food policies.   In the words of Nikhil Aziz, Executive Director of Grassroots International, “It is crucial that we challenge the U.S. government’s double speak on agriculture and food policies. While speaking about the importance of providing support to small-scale farmers to increase their ability to produce, the government agencies are pushing technological packages that are beyond the means of small farmers and also will have dire effects on the environment and climate change.”   Sadly, despite the promise of change, our government’s policies continue to be greatly influenced by representatives from agribusiness and ag-biotech corporations. As a result, US agriculture and food policies still favor large scale industrial production, trade and technologies like genetic engineering and nanotechnologies as the fix to address global hunger and malnutrition.   Javier Sanchez, from the Spanish farmers'' organization COAG, a member of Via Campesina, explains it this way: "There is a broad global consensus among farmers and consumers that the Genetic Modification technologies allow the companies to take control over seeds and deny farmers the possibility of saving their own seeds. Farmers lose the right to produce GM- free food while consumers lose the right to eat GM free food. It is a clear example of how the privatization of natural resources goes against the common interest. European consumers are wisely rejecting these technologies." Visit the related web page
	U.N. warns of impending Development Emergency by Inter Press Service / New York Times   September 13, 2008   U.N. Warns of Impending Development Emergency, by Thalif Deen. (IPS)   The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) which include the reduction of extreme poverty and hunger by 50 percent by 2015 are being seriously undermined by food, financial and climate change crises.   Halfway to the target date of 2015, "it is clear that we are not on track to meet the goals, especially in Africa," United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon said.   "And new global challenges -- an economic slowdown, high food and fuel prices, and climate change -- threaten to reverse the progress we have made," he warned.   The warning comes on the eve of a meeting of world leaders on MDGs, scheduled to take place on Sep. 26 on the sidelines of the 63rd session of the General Assembly.   Releasing a new 51-page study on MDGs, the secretary-general said the current "troubled climate" poses a risk that may result in further unraveling the gains made so far in reducing poverty worldwide.   But Alison Woodhead of Oxfam International had a different take on the crisis. She said the report shows that inaction by governments on MDGs has created a "poverty emergency".   "The growing food crisis and economic downturn provide compelling reasons for leaders to act, not further excuses for failure," she added.   The United Nations is expecting over 90 heads of state or heads of government to participate in what is billed as "a high level meeting" on MDGs.   But Woodhead pointed out that world leaders converging on New York City must come up with a plan of action to end extreme poverty within the next seven years.   "Without bold leadership, progress on the goals will go backwards, not forward, at this critical moment," she said.   The MDGs include a 50 percent reduction in extreme poverty and hunger; universal primary education; promotion of gender equality; reduction of child mortality by two-thirds; cutbacks in maternal mortality by three-quarters; combating the spread of HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases; ensuring environmental sustainability; and developing a North-South global partnership for development.   A summit meeting of 189 world leaders in September 2000 pledged to meet all of these goals by the year 2015. But the results have been disappointing -- specifically in sub-Saharan Africa.   The study released Thursday points out that recent successes in the developing world (including increased school enrolment; agricultural productivity; and progress towards eradicating malaria) "demonstrate that rapid success is possible when sound policies are matched with increased aid and technical support."   "But many countries are off-track -- none of the goals are likely to be met in Africa, if current trends continue, and even in middle income countries, large pockets of people still live in extreme poverty," it added.   Although the number of people living in extreme poverty fell by over 400 million, most of the decline took place in East Asia, particularly China.   But sub-Saharan Africa and the former Soviet republics actually saw the number of poor increase, between 1990 and 2005, according to the study.   Salil Shetty, director of the U.N.''s Millennium Campaign, says the global food, financial and climate crises have, in fact, exacerbated the situation.   "And much of the responsibility rests on the shoulders of the few financial speculators, emitters of pollutants and oil consumers," he added.   Shetty said that with only seven years before the 2015 deadline, it is critical that the rich rally to meet these commitments.   Asked whether the upcoming high level meeting will serve any purpose, particularly if there are no concrete commitments, Shetty told IPS: "We are at the mid-point and a renewed political commitment at the highest level is important in itself."   "But it is right for civil society to push for a time-bound action plan, from now till 2010," he said.   This meeting is also very important to frame the discussions for the Doha meeting on Financing for Development in end November, he added.   Asked how confident he was that most of the developing nations will meet the MDG targets by 2015, Shetty said that some of the poorest countries in the world including Mozambique, Rwanda, Zambia, Ghana, Malawi, Tanzania and Bangladesh are on track to achieving many of the goals.   This is also true for some of the larger developing countries like Brazil, which is on track to achieving all the goals, except the sanitation goal.   "It is clear that if national leaders in developing countries are serious about achieving the goals, there is no reason why any country should fall short-- but not at the current pace of implementation".   "We have to ratchet up the operations," he added. Likewise, the rich countries have not delivered on many of their commitments, as last week''s U.N. MDG Task Force Report shows with hard numbers.   He said aid volumes are lagging behind particularly amongst the Group of 8 most industrialised nations -- the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Russia and Japan.   "Aid quality is still poor as we saw (at last week''s conference) in Accra. And poor countries have got a very raw deal in the Doha negotiations on trade," he added.   Shetty also said that oil producers must reduce prices, which have a direct impact on the cost of food. "It is the world''s poorest who are most impacted by these exorbitant prices, driving the cost of food to levels which they can no longer afford."   The financial industry must stop reckless speculation, a practice whose fallout sends shockwaves through the global economy. That a few individuals, corporations and countries can rake massive profits on the backs of the world''s poorest people and countries is not just bad ethics, but bad economics as well, Shetty added.   Sept 4, 2008   United Nations reports rich countries failing promises on Development Aid. (NYT)   Aid to poor nations has slumped even as higher food and energy prices and slowing global economic growth have made such assistance more urgent, according to a report released Thursday by the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.   The question of how to increase development aid will be the main theme on the sidelines of the General Assembly later this month, with scores of heads of state expected to attend a one-day conference on aid, to be held Sept. 25.   The United Nations report showed that aid dropped 8.4 percent in 2007, after a 4.7 percent drop in 2006. Commitments to help Africa in particular have lagged. The Group of 8 industrialized nations pledged in 2005 to donate more than $25 billion to Africa by 2010, but just $4 billion has actually been delivered.   “We are running out of time,” Mr. Ban said at a news conference, adding that despite some progress, member states are not meeting their commitments.   Mr. Ban organized a task force to quantify the gap between aid goals for 2015, first set out in 2000 and known as the Millennium Development Goals, and what has actually been achieved.   The conclusions listed in the report included:   Just 79 percent of exports from the least developed countries are given duty-free access to developed countries, short of the goal of 97 percent.   Debt relief has been granted to 33 out of 41 eligible countries, canceling more than 90 percent of their external debt. Still, in 2006, 52 countries spent more paying off debts than on public health, and 10 devoted more to debt payments than to education.   The distribution of medicine to combat H.I.V./AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis has improved, but the supply of affordable drugs remains inadequate.   The United Nations wants the richest 22 countries to commit to donating 0.7 percent of their overall national income to aid, but the only countries that have done that are Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden.   Most of the aid donors hovered around 0.45 percent, the report said. The United States devotes a relatively small share of its public wealth to foreign aid.   The Group of 8 committed at a 2005 conference in Gleneagles, Scotland, to increase aid by $50 billion, but the nations are still $31.4 billion short, the report said.   The Millennium Development Goals have become the framework by which both developing and developed nations set their priorities on aid.
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