World leaders convened at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome for the World Summit on Food Security unanimously adopted a declaration pledging renewed commitment to sustainably eradicate hunger, with the 192 countries present endorsing the strategy adopted by the Group of Eight nations at July’s L'Aquila Summit.
Countries also agreed to work to reverse the decline in domestic and international funding for agriculture and promote new investment in the sector, to improve governance of global food issues in partnership with relevant stakeholders from the public and private sector, and to proactively face the challenges of climate change to food security.
Of the sixty leaders attending the meeting, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy was the only leader representing the Group of Eight. Some of those who attended, including Pope Benedict XVI, called for increased access to international markets for products coming from the poorest countries, and urged delegates to keep the “fundamental rights of the individual” in mind when shaping new agricultural strategy. Others, such as Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya, called for an end to the purchase of African farmland by food-importing nations, describing the practice as “new feudalism” which could spread to Latin America as well.
During the negotiations of the draft declaration, the FAO, with support from Latin American, Middle Eastern and African nations, proposed the idea of setting a timeline for the eradication of hunger by 2025, but the idea was reportedly rejected by the U.S., the European Union, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. Countries also failed to agree on a target to increase agriculture’s share of official development aid, which peaked in 1980 before gradually falling. The FAO had hoped the meeting would set an agriculture aid target of $44 billion annually toward helping farmers in poorer countries. To meet demand by 2050, agriculture output needs to grow by 70 percent, the organization said.
The final declaration restated the United Nations target of halving world hunger by 2015 and said that eradicating hunger should come “at the earliest possible date.” According to officials involved in the negotiations, diplomats from wealthier countries argued that creating a deadline for eradicating hunger was unrealistic.
Comments