The Food and Agricultural Organization recently projected that world hunger would reach a historic high in 2009 with 1,02 billion people going hungry every day. Concrete regional patterns of this drastic trend are presented by the UN Economic Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific in a recent study on food security in Asia, which examines the environmental, economic and social challenges that are at the roots of the region’s food insecurity. The authors suggest a regional framework of action to be taken by governments and the international community in order to create greater food security. The specific responsibility of the transatlantic community to engage in such efforts is now stressed in a new report by CIDSE, an international alliance of Catholic development agencies, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). CIDSE and IATP argue that policies enacted by the United States and the European Union during the last several decades laid the ground for the ongoing food crisis.

In light of the convergence of the food, economic and climate crises the authors criticize existing models of food production and consumption, highlighting policy failures such as insufficient agriculture programs, ill-advised economic adjustment policies, commodity speculation and unjust trade rules. These failures have caused a highly vulnerable global food system. The report makes a series of recommendations for U.S. and EU policymakers in order to help establishing a new global food and agriculture system. Apart from a global partnership, with a strong mandate, for agriculture and food security the authors propose adopting measures to address price volatility, such as food reserves and tight regulation on speculation. In addition, they stress the need to establish a right to food, to provide access to land and water for small scale producers, and to make a greater use of local seed varieties. All these measures combined will ensure that agricultural practices are socially and environmentally sustainable. In addition, appropriate action from the transatlantic community is also regarded as key in preventing a scramble for natural resources. (Dennis Taenzler and Joeran Altenberg)



For the joint CIDSE/ITAP paper "Global Food Responsibility", please see http://www.iatp.org/iatp/press.cfm?refid=106056



For the UNESCAP report "Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in Asia and the Pacific", please see http://www.unescap.org/65/theme_study2009.asp



The FAO will present the report "State of Food Insecurity in the World" in October, please see http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/20568/icode/

Published in: ECC-Newsletter, June 2009