G8 agri ministers try to halt 'spiral of hunger' created by drought, falling prices, credit crunch

[babylonsister]

Just $6bn Will Save a Generation from Starvation, says UN
G8 agriculture ministers try to halt 'spiral of hunger' created by drought, falling prices and credit crunch

by Geoffrey Lean


Agriculture ministers from the world's richest countries are holding an unprecedented meeting this weekend as the United Nations warns that hunger threatens to "spiral out of control" in the wake of the financial crisis.


Chinese farmers have been hit by the worst drought in almost 70 years. (AFP)

The three-day meeting, which opened in Italy yesterday, will address a growing food crisis as harvests threaten to slump at a time when record numbers of people are already hungry. Crops are being hit by a combination of bad weather, falling food prices and farmers' being refused credit to buy seeds and fertilisers.

It is the first time that the agriculture ministers of the G8 leading economies have held such a meeting, and they have invited their counterparts from China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Australia, Argentina and Egypt to join them in Treviso "to work out a common route to lead us out of the crisis and respond to the world food emergency".

The UN's World Food Programme warned: "As the global financial crisis deepens, hunger and malnutrition are likely to increase as incomes fall and unemployment rises. The world is at a critical juncture where we risk watching hunger spiral out of control. We cannot afford to lose the next generation."

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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/04/19-1

[jwirr]

1. Good. Why is just South Africa included?

[babylonsister]

2. I don't understand your question. Lots of nations are at this summit,

and China was mentioned several times in the article. It's a world-wide crisis.

[jwirr]

3. I know it is world wide and that is why I was worried that the rest of

Africa is somehow being left out. I am so glad that they are finally looking at this - now just so they do not send Monsanto to do the job.

[Reterr]

4. K&R.eom