[Reader-list] RTF (Right to Food) Articles - 10

[Rakesh Iyer]

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*UPDATE*

* Hunger can wait *

     EDGARD GARRIDO/REUTERS

* A severely malnourished nine-year-old boy, weighing 8 kg, in San Pedro
Sula, Honduras, on March 8. The resolution of the World Food Summit, where
rich countries led by the U.S. were keener on reducing “barriers to trade”,
did not fully reflect the developing world’s concerns. *

AN unprecedented number of world leaders assembled in Rome in the first week
of June for the World Food Summit even as rising food prices were triggering
political instability in many parts of the world. Their focus was naturally
on alleviating the threat posed by rising prices.

Leaders from developing countries put the onus of the current situation on
the policies of the rich countries. The speeches by the Presidents of
Brazil, Iran and Zimbabwe reflected this line of thinking. Jacques Diouf,
Director General of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), appealed
for a $30 billion fund to revive agriculture in Africa and other parts of
the world and to avert conflict over food. Diouf noted that the world had
spent $1,200 billion on arms in 2006 while excess consumption of food and
wastage in developed countries cost $120 billion.

The Rome summit was supposed to conclude with a clarion call to “eliminate
hunger and secure food for all”. But a lack of consensus resulted in a
watered-down resolution that did not fully reflect the concerns of the
developing world. The rich countries led by the United States were keener on
reducing “barriers to trade”.

For the establishments of the developed world, food is just another
commodity to be traded like clothes and cars. In most developing countries,
the right to food is considered a fundamental right. At Rome, the leaders
promised to help finance research into new seeds and help small farmers by
making fertilizers available at an affordable price. This will be an uphill
task, given the acute shortage of water and the high price of oil.

Diouf’s appeal for more funding elicited a lukewarm response. Saudi Arabia
made a donation of $500 million, just before the start of the summit. None
of the other rich countries followed suit. Diouf said that he found it
“incomprehensible” that the food crisis remained unsolved at a time when
subsidies worth $12 billion were used to divert 100 million tonnes of
cereals from human consumption to the production of biofuels in the
developed countries.

Non-governmental organisations had called for a total ban on ethanol output,
claiming that such a move would reduce food prices by 20 per cent. The U.S.
says that ethanol production has raised prices by only 2-3 per cent.
International Food Policy Research Institute, a Washington-based think tank,
estimated that ethanol production has raised food prices by 30 per cent.

The FAO and the U.N. have both acknowledged that there is enough food grown
in the world to feed all its people. Last year there was sufficient food to
provide 2,800 calories for every person. The FAO says that by 2030, with
increased agricultural outputs, the projected human population of 8.3
billion could receive 3,050 calories a day. But the policies being
implemented by rich countries such as the U.S. have the potential to
undermine optimistic predictions.

Haiti, one of the worst-affected countries, was self-sufficient in rice
until 1986. That year, the International Monetary Fund forced the country to
remove its trade barriers as a precondition for debt waivers. Cheap American
rice, heavily subsidised by the U.S. government, soon flooded the Haitian
market, killing the domestic rice-growing industry.

*John Cherian*

   * *

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