UN calls intl community to join hands against food crisis

Dharam Shourie

United Nations, Oct 17 (PTI) United Nations has asked
the international community, which is currently focused on
tackling the financial turmoil, to also put on concerted
efforts to meet the global food crisis.

Pointing that hunger affects millions and kills a
child every six seconds, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon
said, even before prices started rising, 800 million people
were every night going to sleep without food.

"And now, with energy costs rising and the price of
food having more than doubled in the past year alone, an
additional 100 million people could be pushed into hunger and
poverty," Secretary General said, stressing on the gravity of
the situation.

Speaking on the occasion of the World Food Day, Ban
noted that this year the day comes at a time of financial
crisis.

"Global financial turmoil is exacerbating concerns
about rising food and fuel costs, which have already driven 75
million people deeper into the abyss of hunger and poverty,"
he emphasised.

The "colossal human tragedy" is unfolding as the world
fights to keep the promises made in the first Millennium
Development Goal (M.D.G.) – to reduce hunger and poverty by
half by the year 2015, he notes.

"These are life-and-death matters that we must
confront with serious thought and resolute action," he added.

He also called on the Governments, organisations and
citizens to forge meaningful partnerships to overcome these
challenges so that the world can meet all the M.D.G.s and,
ultimately, usher in a world free of hunger and poverty.

The head of the U.N. World Food Programme (W.F.P.)
agreed that at a time when the world's attention is consumed
by the financial crisis, it is necessary to focus on the
global hunger crisis, which is a daily reality for families
across the globe.

"Rapidly rising food shortages, dramatic increases in
fuel costs, and profound changes in climatic conditions have
conspired this year to bring new dimensions of suffering and
hardship to the poor, depriving almost one billion people of
the food they need to live a healthy life," Executive Director
W.F.P., Josette Sheeran said in her message for the Day.

"On this day, we remember those who have lived with
the ache of hunger, for too long and who now need our help
even more," she added.

Describing the increase in number of hunger affected
people around the world as "alarming," the independent U.N.
expert on the right to food has called for a new production
system to tackle the global food crisis.

In his message, U.N. Special Rapporteur Olivier De
Schutter states that the violation, on a daily basis, of the
right to food for hundreds of millions of people worldwide has
its roots in an outdated and inadequate production system,
rather than in the actual quantity of food available.

"But there is hope in this crisis," he said, adding,
"indeed, if the right choices are made now, this shock may
even prove salutary, for it provides governments and
international agencies with an opportunity to learn from what
happened."

World Food Day is observed annually on October 16, the
day on which the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation
(F.A.O.) was founded in 1945.