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	Mounting hunger and increasing evidence of malnutrition by UN News & agencies   May 2008 (UN News)   ‘We see mounting hunger and increasing evidence of malnutrition which has severely strained the capacities of humanitarian agencies to meet humanitarian needs,’ UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a news conference in Bern.   He warned that ‘without full funding of emergency requirements, we risk again the spectre of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale.’   Protests and riots have broken out in countries over the rising cost of many basic foods, such as rice, wheat and corn. Mr. Ban noted that escalating energy prices, lack of investment in agriculture, increasing demand, trade distortion subsidies and recurrent bad weather are among the reasons for the surge in prices.   The food crisis ‘threatens to undo all our good work,’ Mr. Ban noted ‘If not managed properly, it could touch off a cascade of related crises – affecting trade, economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world.’   In addition to the immediate priority of feeding the hungry, Mr. Ban emphasized the need to ‘ensure food for tomorrow,’ by giving small farmers the support they need to assure their next harvest.   20 May, 2008   Progress towards Millenium Goals at risk of being wiped out, says Asha-Rose Migiro, UN Deputy Secretary-General.   As he was travelling in West Africa recently, the Secretary-General had a conversation with the Foreign Minister of Burkina Faso. The Foreign Minister shared with the Secretary-General his deep concern over the worsening living conditions in his country, where, as in many other nations, half the population lives on $1 a day or less; the vast majority being small farmers.   Now comes the global food crisis, which has pushed the basic cost of living beyond the means of many of his countrymen. He spoke of this crisis as a greater threat, by far, than terrorism. “It makes people doubt their dignity as men,” he said.   Poverty has many faces. Its most brutal and degrading is hunger.   Before this crisis erupted, more than 830 million people in the world faced acute shortages of food. The World Bank estimates that price increases -- 74 per cent for rice over the past year, 130 per cent for wheat -- will drive another 100 million people or more into deep poverty. That represents seven lost years in the global fight against poverty and hunger, the Bank further calculated. If so, our progress towards the Millennium Development Goals will be virtually wiped out.   Clearly, our Millennium Development Goals are at risk -- health, education, social stability and governance. Everywhere, families on the edge are cutting back. Those who ate two meals a day now get by with one. In many countries, even people with jobs and salaries are buying rice by the cup rather than the bag.   Such deprivation is degrading. It breeds violence. We have seen it already in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. And this may be only the beginning.   We know the general causes. We know what we must do in terms of immediate humanitarian needs. We also know that we must deal with the root causes of the problem, lest we face the same crisis next year or the year after with more severe intensity.   It goes without saying that this situation demands urgent, coordinated international action. We must not be lulled into a false complacency by the fact that prices for some basic foodstuffs have lately begun to recede, or that the crisis does not dominate news headlines the way it did a few weeks ago. The problem remains acute.   Prices remain far above what they were six months ago. They are still too high for much of the world’s people, especially the poorest.   Our challenge is to deal with this problem now, so that it will not eternally recur. We can debate the weight of various causes: high oil prices, speculation, drought and bad weather, the trend towards biofuels.   What is beyond debate is that much of this problem is man-made. It is, at its root, a product of neglect and our own ineffectiveness. We need to rethink the failed policies of the past. We need new strategies for development that work.   Among these technical and financial assistance so that small farmers can afford the agricultural inputs they need -- fertilizer, for example, and high-yield seeds tailored to local growing conditions.   But we must not forget the big picture. Global economic growth is the engine that has lifted vast numbers of the world’s people out of poverty.   We must keep this going. Above all, we must deepen it and extend it to those who have been left behind, living on less than a $1 a day. For them, a new deal on agricultural development is the key to a better future.   Meanwhile, the Secretary-General’s Task Force on the Global Food Crisis is seeking to develop a comprehensive strategy for both immediate and long-term action in four priority areas:   -- First, ensuring that emergency needs are met. Through maintaining adequate funding for the World Food Programme (WFP). Additional money will be needed to cover new needs arising from the crisis.   -- Second, strengthening the resilience of local populations. This means helping with social safety nets, such as cash transfers and school feeding programmes to better protect vulnerable communities from malnutrition and hunger;   -- Third, helping small-scale farmers boost production by helping them get seeds and fertilizers. It’s imperative that we support the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Bank and Governments in providing assistance urgently, so that it arrives in time for the current planting cycle. Otherwise, the crisis will only grow more serious;   -- Fourth, reinforcing local and national governments in their own responses to the crisis. We must also do all we can to help stabilize global food prices and supplies. In particular, this means pushing to ease trade and export restrictions that distort markets and impede the free flow of agricultural commodities.   For the longer term, there must be urgent investment in agriculture, particularly in Africa. Women farmers, who in some countries make up to 70 per cent of the food-growing workforce, will play a crucial role.   The international community needs to increase research and development support for agricultural development. The goal: to increase yields, encourage a greater variety of crops, encourage better land use, water management and conservation practices   Many countries will need to strengthen rural institutions and improve agricultural infrastructure. That includes seed banks, rural credit institutions, agro-processing and storage facilities and transport infrastructure. In some countries, specific links in the agricultural supply and distribution chain are weak; in others, the whole chain may need strengthening with substantial international support.   We must move the Doha trade talks towards a successful conclusion, with an eye towards stimulating agricultural development. That presupposes, in part, a breakthrough on agricultural subsidies and tariffs in developed countries.   In thinking through potential solutions to the food crisis, we must look carefully at the multitude of causes. Among them is the increasing use of biofuels, especially grain-based fuels.   The current crisis is a harbinger of what is to come unless we act wisely and decisively. Our common humanity demands it.   Apr 29, 2008   The United Nations special rapporteur on the right to food, Jean Ziegler of Switzerland said that fuel policies being pursued by the U.S. and the EU were one of the main causes of the current worldwide food crisis.   Ziegler said that last year the United States used a third of its corn crop to create biofuels, while the European Union is planning to have 10 percent of its petrol supplied by biofuels. The Special Rapporteur has called for a five-year moratorium on the production of biofuels.   Ziegler also said that speculation on international markets is behind 30 percent of the increase in food prices. He said that companies such as Cargill, which controls a quarter of all cereal production, have enormous power over the market. He added that hedge funds are also making huge profits from raw materials markets, and called for new financial regulations to prevent such speculation.   The Special Rapporteur warned of worsening food riots and an increase in deaths by starvation before reforms could take effect.   A World Bank report issued April 9 agrees with the UN officials. According to “Rising Food Prices: Policy Options and World Bank Response,” increases in global wheat prices reached 181 percent over the 36 months leading up to February 2008, and overall global food prices increased by 83 percent. Increased bio-fuel production has contributed to the rise in food prices, according to this report.   Food crop prices are expected to remain high in 2008 and 2009. Visit the related web page
	If the state can bail out Bear Stearns, it surely can help the poor stave off famine by Kaushik Basu Professor of economics, Cornell University   Apr 28, 20098 (BBC)   The world economy has many problems but none more pressing than what is happening to food prices.   Global food prices have been rising over the last three years; but in the last few months they have spiralled out of control. Over the last 12 months the average price of food has risen by 56%, with wheat rising by 92% and rice, the staple of half the world, by 96%.   In thinking about global policy, we have to distinguish between the short and the long run.   In the immediate scenario there is no escape from massive government and international agency intervention in the form of aid from rich nations and subsidies to at-risk consumers. If the state can bail out Bear Stearns, it surely can help poor consumers stave off famine.   Many economists will tell you that the ideal intervention to help the poor is to simply give them money (a negative income tax) - that shores up their income - rather than directly controlling prices. In general, this is correct advice; but not in this case.   Suppose we collect $1000 from the rich and hand this out to the poor. Since the rich spend a tiny fraction of their money on food and the poor a large fraction, this transfer will cause food prices to rise.   In general, this would not matter since the price was being driven up by the greater purchasing power of the poor. But in the present precarious situation, the risk is that if the negative income tax does not reach all the poor, then the ones who are left out will see their position deteriorating as prices rise further.   In the Bangladesh famine of 1974, it was the government"s success in protecting the urban poor from food shortages that exacerbated the problems of the rural population.   Therefore, in a crisis like the present one, there is no escape from holding consumer prices down. Ideally, we should drive a wedge between the price that producers get and the price that consumers pay.   None of this can be a long-run policy, since it will cause food production to decline and governments to go bankrupt. Long-run policy has to be more market-oriented, creating incentives for producers to increase output and boosting the incomes of the poor.   Relative price fluctuations are an unavoidable part of an efficient economy. This becomes worrying when some people are so poor that a small rise in price becomes a life and death question for them.   This crisis therefore should also be a reminder that the level of inequality that prevails in the world today is untenable.
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