3 June 2008
Developed countries and international agencies must take "immediate action" to tackle rising food costs, the PM has said.
In a joint article with Spanish PM Jose Luis Zapatero, Gordon Brown said that today’s High Level UN Conference on food taking place in Rome should act as the start of a "co-ordinated and integrated" response to the global food crisis. Quoting the World Bank, the PM said that recent success in reducing world poverty "could be jeopardised".
Writing in Spain’s ABC newspaper, the PM and Prime Minister Zapatero said:
"850 million children and adults around the world are today suffering from hunger, and 9,000 children under the age of five years die every day due to malnutrition-related illnesses. 100 million people may have been pushed into poverty due to the doubling of food prices over the last three years…
"We need to join efforts in these coming months to ensure that by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Summit on 25 September, the international community has agreed a coordinated approach to handling this crisis. We will redouble our collective effort. We cannot afford to fail."
Among the measures that can be taken, the two leaders highlighted the promotion of investment to increase agricultural productivity, a rapid conclusion to the Doha round of trade talks and a new assessment of biofuel production policies.
Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street yesterday, Mr Brown said that the rising cost of food and oil will be at the top of the agenda at the G8 summit in Japan this July.
Image copyright: Reuters
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