On the Project Concern site, there's this message:
Here is a challenge to consider: tonight - for just one night - go without dinner; go to bed hungry. This act of conviction serves to remind each of us of the global emergency that is currently being described by the World Food Program as the "silent tsunami."
Imagine having to go without food for days on end as roughly a billion people do on a regular basis. Imagine having to put your kids to sleep at night hungry. How did we get to this point and what did the various governments in the world do to alleviate the hunger and the suffering? Not much, as most States still spend a large portion of their GDP, doggedly, in defense, shoring up armies and armament as if there's no tomorrow, still drawing invisible battle lines on the earth, water and space.
However, there is movement at the station, to paraphrase Banjo Paterson.
"The Group of Eight countries should shift a greater proportion of their overseas development assistance to agriculture in order to tackle the current food crisis"
the most senior United Nations' agriculture official said on Friday. Jacques Diouf, director-general of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation, said that as chair of the G8, Japan should take the initiative in reversing the fall in the proportion of ODA allocated to agriculture. Japan responded by:
Japan to sell rice stockpile to help global shortages:
The United States says it will consider letting Japan on-sell imported American rice to other countries, to curb rising prices and meet supply shortages after Cyclone Nagis destroyed rice production in Burma (under World Trade Organization rules, Japan can't export its US imported rice without US permission) Japan currently has 1.5 million tonnes of imported rice in storage. Nearly 900,000 tonnes of it was purchased from the US. The good news is that rice futures for July delivery have tumbled more than five per cent on Chicago's Board of Trade as a result of the unofficial announcement. Furthermore Tokyo has placed the global food crisis on the agenda of the G8 summit in July, making it then first time in nearly thirty years that the richest countries discuss food shortages and concomitant prices. About effing time!
Mr Diouf said not only had overall ODA been declining, but
"more seriously the share of agriculture [aid] in ODA has gone from 17 per cent in 1980 to 3 per cent in 2005."
In particular, efforts were needed to support agriculture in Africa, he added.
"With just 4 per cent of arable land in sub-Saharan Africa irrigated, against 38 per cent in Asia, there is a need to invest in irrigation in Africa to solve the problem of food. Africa also needs urgent investment in roads and food storage, as up to 60 per cent of food production is lost due to a lack of storage facilities. Global agriculture production has been affected by natural disasters such as cyclones, droughts and floods at a time when cereal stocks were at their lowest in 30 years,"
Mr Diouf said.
The staple for half the world reached a record last month as exporters (including Vietnam and India) cut sales to guarantee local supplies, a stop-gap in case food riots reoccur, as they did in Haiti and Egypt a few weeks ago.
Checking the UBS site for food prices, I noted this ray of hope:
"The wheels are in motion for lower food prices," John Reeve, associate director for agricultural commodities at UBS AG, said today in an interview on Bloomberg Television. Farm output costs were below selling prices and harvests were due, he said.
Still we have a long way to go if we're going to be able to feed six billions plus. I'm cautiously optimistic today, seeing that there are some kind of action being taken as United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon announced he was forming a UN task force on the food crisis, bringing together heads of UN agencies to provide a coordinated response on the issue. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon ordered a top level task force to take on the global crisis caused by rising food prices and urged key producer nations to end export bans. The UN chief said the immediate priority must be to "feed the hungry" and called for urgent funding for the World Food Program.