Sacks of rice are unloaded at Manila port as rice prices hit a record high.
Rarely can World Food Day have been the focus of such attention; the rising cost of food and the ongoing global financial crisis have been two of the biggest news stories of 2008. The subject of food security and scarcity has received more column inches than perhaps at any time since the unforgettable African famines of the early 1980s.
But the challenges today are of a different scope, something reflected in this year’s theme: challenges of climate change and bioenergy. World Food Day activities “aim at expanding global awareness in an effort to reduce the effects of increasingly severe climate patterns on agriculture and the impact of biofuels on food production.”
The statistics make for gloomy reading: the number of undernourished people suffering from hunger is currently estimated at more than 850 million, world grain stocks are at a historic low and global inflation in food, as measured by the international food price index, increased by 40% in 2007 (compared with a 9% increase in 2006 – the dramatic rise continued in 2008).
Added to this, investment in biofuels by developed countries and speculative trading in agricultural commodities following the credit crunch has led to huge price fluctuations over and above traditional market forces of supply and demand.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) yesterday warned governments to resist introducing protectionist trade measures in response to the financial crisis, but to keep investing in aid to agriculture in developing countries. A renewed commitment to supporting developing nations’ agriculture and eradicating hunger is the goal.
In this context, the BBC World Service Trust is looking at building on past work on issues of food security and livelihoods.
