Japan’s Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, who is chairing this year’s G8 meeting, wrote a letter to the heads of the G8 countries as well as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick stating that the soaring world food prices would be part of this year’s agenda.
You can read an outline of the letter.
It was copied to the World Food Programme Executive Director Josette Sheeran, Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf, International Fund for Agricultural Development President Lennart Bage, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union Alpha Oumar Konare.
In the letter, Prime Minister Fukuda states:
“Soaring food prices are posing imminent and serious global challenges. Threat of hunger and malnutrition is increasing, and the high prices have also brought about social unrest.
As the Chair of the G8, I firmly believe that this issue must be a subject of our in-depth discussions with a strong sense of urgency at the Hokkaido Toyako Summit in July. I intend to consult with my G8 colleagues, so that the G8 could collectively send a robust message.
You can read the full outline of the letter here, and more about the world crisis here.
-Virginia Simmons
Yesterday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon pledged to set up a task force to address the world hunger crisis.
“One thing is certain, the world has consumed more than it has produced” over the last three years, he said.
Ban blamed a host of causes for the soaring cost of food, including rising oil prices, the fall of the U.S. dollar and natural disasters.
He said he would put together a special task force to help deal with the problem and called on the international community to help. He said the U.N. World Food Program plans to raise $750 million per year to help feed 73 million people in 80 countries.
“We need a real world and not the world of economic theories,” Ban said. “I will work on this right now with a sense of urgency.”
Read the full AP story here.
The shocking headlines have had our attention all week. The price of basic food staples have increased 45% in just the last nine months – and they’ve doubled in the last three years.
As we all must know – these rising prices deal a crushing blow to the world’s poorest people – people who already spend more than half of their income on food.
This weekend, World Bank President Zoellick said that this hunger crisis could “push 100 million people in low-income countries deeper into poverty” and that the effects would be equivalent of “seven lost years in the fight against worldwide poverty.”
The shortage is fueling social unrest in some of the most fragile nations around the globe. Haiti, Egypt, Niger, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Mozambique, Bolivia and Uzbekistan discontent has already erupted. “For countries where food comprises from half to three-quarters of consumption, there is no margin for survival.”(Zoellick)
We have to do something. Please sign our petition to President Bush urging world leaders to take action.
-Virginia Simmons
