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TechnoratiFood Crisis Summit Ducks Crucial Issues
The world food summit in Rome has come to a delayed end after some angry exchanges in the closing stages, but it ended without agreement on some of the key policy decisions now confronting governments. Franco Frattini, the foreign minister of the host nation, Italy, described the final declaration "disappointing relative to expectations" and said the text had been "watered down".
ROME - The text calls for "urgent and coordinated action to combat the negative impacts of soaring food prices on the world's most vulnerable countries and populations". It also demands more agricultural investment and immediate food aid.
On the most contentious issue - biofuels - the suggestion by an FAO working party that international standards be established to ensure biofuels were not produced at the expense of the world's hungry has been ignored. Instead there is some watered-down prose on "the challenges and opportunities posed by biofuels".
"We are convinced that in-depth studies are necessary to ensure that production and use of biofuels is sustainable", the declaration says, calling on "relevant intergovernmental organisations" to maintain an "international dialogue on biofuels in the context of food security and sustainable development needs."
In short, the dilemma has been kicked further down the road in the hope that another organisation will pick it up. Meanwhile, the US agriculture secretary, Ed Schafer has told American reporters that increasing the production of ethanol is "the right policy direction". The US seem to have conceded nothing, and corn prices have been mounting on world markets throughout the last hours of the summit.
On trade, the summit has backed the rapid conclusion of the Doha round of trade liberalisation, despite French reservations - a win for Britain and the US.
The final declaration talks about the need to "minimise the use of restrictive measures that could increase the volatility of international prices" - a disapproving reference to export bans and tariffs. Argentina, which has imposed hefty tariffs on food exports to keep domestic prices under control, bitterly opposed the use of the word "restrictive" and held up the closing session for hours in a bid to have it removed, but they ultimately went along with the text.
Despite the fact that the meeting was billed in part as addressing the "challenges of climate change", it has very little to say on that topic.
But Barbara Stocking, the director of Oxfam in the UK argued "it would be a mistake to dismiss this summit as a waste of time" pointing to pledges of $4 billion over the course of the conference to support agriculture in developing countries. She said the onus was now on the G8 to make financial commitments at next month's meeting in Japan.
© 2008 The Guardian
4 Comments so far
Show AllI'm old enough to remember how long it took many police, district attorneys and judges to deal responsibly with some of the American male vices of drunk driving, sexual harassment -- and yes, even rape. Now there is another of our vices pushing its way into the public eye -- excessive greed at the expense of others.
The sought-after quick profits from food and oil on the commodities markets are causing too many Americans to cut-back on essentials -- and of course, it is far, far worse for many of the planet's poorest human beings.
Sadly, it is not only the huge amounts of wealth that have been accumulated at the top that are now driving the excessive rise in prices -- even the pension funds and university endowments have gotten into the act. They should know better.
And,these greed-driven speculative markets are such sacred cows to our 'economic way of life' that what is happening is barely even questioned or talked about.
God-willing, it will be soon:
"Politics without principles;
commerce without morality;
wealth without charity;
science without humanity;
education without character
are not only useless -- they
are positively dangerous."
I grew up in the northeast, where sweetcorn was a highlight of the summer. Here on Maui, ground zero for open-air field tests of GM corn (Monsanto and Dow), I stopped eating it five years ago, when the "agribiz" giants moved in because the tradewinds blow their Frankenpollen up to the organic gardens that supply our local produce. Imagine my delight at 5 lbs. of frozen organic kernels for $5.79 at Costco. Oh, the carbon footprint! Will they be my last?
is it any surprise the food summit ducked issues? Who controls it?
One person who DIDNT duck was president Mugabe of Zimbabwe.
Mugabe blames the west for th food crisis...and who can doubt that! When the west has been trying to destroy the agriculture in places like Mexico:
'US Farm Subsidies Fuel Mexico Corn Crisis
27 August 2003
MEXICO'S 10,000-year heritage of corn production is being destroyed after just 10 years of rigged "free trade" rules with the United States, international agency Oxfam said today.
In a new report "Dumping Without Borders" published today, Oxfam says that Mexican corn prices are freefalling in competition from heavily subsidized US imports. Local farm incomes are slashed, resulting in rural suffering and misery from which millions of people are seeking escape.
"The Mexican corn crisis is another example of world trade rules that are rigged to help the rich and powerful, while destroying the livelihoods of millions of poor people," Oxfam Campaigns Director Phil Twyford said.
etc
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/press_releases/archive2003/art5911.html
Yet, we hardly ever see these evil empires being treated accordingly...NO< its always the Mugabes who cop the blame.
Not only did the conference understate biofuels' role in exacerbating the "crisis", it ignored US monetary policy's equally destructive role. Just as the US Federal Reserve enabled the housing bubble by lowering interest rates based on understated inflation rates, the Fed has continued to lower interest rates in the face of high inflation, thereby providing cheap money for speculators (the same ones who brought you the housing bubble) to drive up food and energy prices.
Will the "$4 billion in pledges to support agriculture in developing countries" be used to support agriculture that produces food for the citizens of those countries, or for agriculture that produces fuel and cash crops?