SPAIN/FILE: U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) meets in Madrid to discuss food security issues

Record ID: 726024

  • Title: SPAIN/FILE: U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) meets in Madrid to discuss food security issues
  • Date: 27th January 2009
  • Summary: PROTESTERS HOLDING BANNER THAT READS: "FOOD SOVEREIGNTY FOR A FUTURE" / ANOTHER GROUP OF PROTESTERS DRESSED AS CHEFS CHANTING "FOOD BEFORE FUEL" IN SPANISH GROUP OF PROTESTERS DRESSED AS CHEFS AND BANGING POTS CHANTING: "FOOD BEFORE FUEL" FEMALE PROTESTER CHANTING: "GENETICALLY MODIFIED FOOD NO, FUTURE WITHOUT HUNGER" VARIOUS OF DEMONSTRATION (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DEMONSTRATOR JAVIER SANCHEZ, MEMBER OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF VIA CAMPESINA (TRADITIONAL WAY), SAYING: "To denounce that in the middle of this food crisis that is condemning hundreds of thousands of people in the world to hunger, neo-liberal politicians are still offering from the international commercial organisation, the world bank and the international monetary fund. We are saying that what this global alliance proposes means more hunger in the world, more genetically modified food, and more benefits for the multinationals." VARIOUS OF PROTESTERS DRESSED AS COBS OF CORN OUTSIDE PALACE WITH BANNER IN SPANISH READING "FOOD BEFORE FUEL" CLOSE UP OF PROTESTER DRESSED AS COB OF CORN
  • Embargoed: 11th February 2009 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations,Social Services / Welfare
  • Reuters ID: LVA7MXCI6XTYM0CLY7JQ3QBUK51E
  • Story Text: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Director Jacques Diouf opens FAO meeting in Madrid urging the international community to pursue a solution for the world food crisis and warns that a recent drop in food prices could discourage investment by farmers. Anti biofuel demonstrators stage a protest outside the venue.
    The head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation on Monday (January 26) warned that a recent drop in food prices could discourage investment by farmers and cut supplies to an increasingly hungry world.
    FAO chief Jacques Diouf told the High Level meeting on Food Security for All in Madrid that planting could fall in the next campaign.

    "The reduction of food price, seen since last July shouldn't be read as the end of the food crisis. The crisis not only continues but it could even get worse. The reduction of the prices and the economic uncertainty could put off the investment of some farmers and producers," he said during his opening remarks.
    Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos added that world governments have a moral obligation to end the food crisis and that the resources to do so were available.

    "The advances that have been achieved in the political, social, economic, cultural, scientific and technological areas in the first decade of the 21st century allows hunger to be eliminated from our world. We have the resources, we have the means to reach a status of food security. We know the solution, and we can and should count on the necessary means to achieve this ethical and political objective," he said.
    As a backdrop to the meeting, while the delegates were inside, various protesters gathered outside Madrid's Congress Palace to denounce policies which, in their view, exacerbated global food shortages.

    "To denounce that in the middle of this food crisis that is condemning hundreds of thousands of people in the world to hunger, neo-liberal politicians are still offering from the international commercial organisation, the world bank and the international monetary fund. We are saying that what this global alliance proposes means more hunger in the world, more genetically modified food, and more benefits for the multinationals," said Javier Sanchez, representing the International Committee for the Country Way.
    The meeting was organised as a follow up to the 2008 food crisis summit in Rome that called for urgent action to address the problems associated with higher food prices, for increased food production, and for fewer trade restrictions and increased research in agriculture.
    The FAO estimates that almost 1 billion people suffer from malnutrition, a number which rose by 40 million in 2008.
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