Soaring prices, rising hunger: What next in the global food crisis?

After falling in real terms for more than 50 years, food prices have soared – condemning an additional 75 million people to hunger and raising the estimated number of undernourished people worldwide to 923 million in 2007.

High food prices threaten any hope of achieving the 1996 World Food Summit goal to cut the number of hungry people in the world by half by 2015 and the Millennium Development Goal that would reduce by half the proportion of people suffering from hunger worldwide by 2015.

Hunger has actually increased, despite the world growing richer and producing more food than ever during the last decade.  But for a great many households, high food prices have had a negative short-term impact on household income and welfare. The poorest, the landless and female-headed households have been hardest hit. But, households across the UK and other industrial countries are also feeling the pain of high food prices.

The objective of this event was to highlight and debate the UN Food & Agriculture Organization’s approach to tackling these issues. The FAO recommends urgent action on two fronts to break the hunger-poverty trap: making food accessible to the most vulnerable, and helping small producers raise their output and earn more.

Dr Jacques Diouf described FAO efforts to meet the challenge of feeding a world population projected to reach 9 billion in 2050 and explain the essential role that smallholder farmers in developing countries will have to play in that endeavour.

FAO is helping vulnerable countries take urgent measures to boost food supplies. It is also providing policy support to improve access to food. These initiatives include emergency projects to distribute seeds, fertiliser, animal feed and supplies to smallholder farmers. Dr Diouf will also highlight other aspects of the FAO’s work on improving food production, such as preventing transboundary animal diseases, enhancing food safety and quality, and supporting agricultural trade negotiations.