World leaders at a UN summit embraced an ambitious strategy to combat a food crisis that is causing violent riots and threatening to push up to a billion people across the globe into hunger.
Delegates from 181 countries pledged on Thursday to reduce trade barriers and boost agricultural production to combat rising food prices, but some nations and groups maintained more concrete measures will be needed.
After three days of wrangling, delegates at the Rome-based UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) approved a declaration resolving to ease the suffering caused by soaring food prices and step up investment in agriculture.
The summit struck a balance on the contentious issue of biofuels, recognizing “challenges and opportunities” in using food for fuel.
The declaration called for swift help for small-holder farmers in poor countries who need seed, fertilizers and animal feed in time for the approaching planting season. UN officials and humanitarian groups have pointed out that such an approach has already helped millions of farmers in Malawi, where food security has strongly improved thanks to a support package based mainly on a fertilizer subsidy.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had told the summit that import taxes and export restrictions must also be minimized to alleviate hunger, and the document called for “reducing trade barriers and market-distorting policies.”
“We took the measure of the problem of hunger in the world correctly,” FAO chief Jacques Diouf said.
He said that the gathering wasn’t a pledging conference but billions of US dollars from countries, regional banks and the World Bank had been promised in recent days.
The strategy laid down in Rome will have to translate quickly into farm and trade policies in each country, as even before the crisis there were some 850 million undernourished people in the world, with the number increasing rapidly, UN officials said.
Soaring fuel prices have driven up costs of fertilizers, farm vehicle use and transport of food to market. Speculation and increased consumption of meat and dairy goods by the populations in China, India and other booming developing nations is also considered a main factor in the food price hikes.
Some countries felt the Rome summit had not gone far enough.
Argentina said it was unhappy the declaration didn’t blame subsidies — generously granted to farmers in the US, the EU and other Western food-producers — for a major role in driving up prices.
Monica Robelo Raffone, head of Nicaragua’s delegation, contended that the conference had failed to offer solutions or identify the reasons for the price increases.
“It doesn’t mention the real causes behind the crisis: the high oil prices, the market speculation, the subsidies ... it’s a step back,” she said.
But the gathering did win praise from several countries and non-governmental organizations.
“We believe that the commitments and the pledges made here will help us create an African revolution” that will improve technology, training and production in the continent’s agriculture, said South Africa’s agriculture minister, Lulu Xingwana.
US Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer welcomed the declaration’s tone on biofuels, saying the US remains “firmly committed to the sustainable production and use of biofuels, both domestically and globally.”
The biofuel issue was a volatile one at the summit. The summit struck a balance on the fuels, which are made from crops such as sugar cane and corn.
Also see: 標題
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS