World Hunger Situation Worsening

CNN 16oct03

LONDON, England—The United Nations World Food Program has issued a rallying call to businesses and governments to help alleviate the growing hunger problem. An estimated 840 million people went hungry last year, a rise of 25 million on 2001, a United Nations report said.

The WFP warned there was a greater need for food aid now than at any time in its 40 year history -- with a $600 million shortfall in its $4.3 billion budget. Countries going hungry include Liberia, Eritrea, southern Africa, Uganda, North Korea and Haiti, often caused by civil unrest and drought. The WFP, which made the plea on World Food Day Thursday, said the problem was one for everyone to try and solve.

"Clearly, no single organization can solve world hunger," agency chief James Morris said in a statement. "Its causes are incredibly complex, and its solution requires more than food aid alone. "All of us -- individuals, businesses, non-governmental organizations and governments -- have a deep responsibility to join the campaign to end hunger."

But Patrick Mulvany, chairman of the UK Food Group, which is a network for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), hit out at governments, and especially the U.S. administration of George W. Bush for failing to get food through. "It is a terrible political, social problem. There is a lack of will," he told CNN.

He said the U.S. offer to supply genetically modified (GM) food to Africa "does not solve the problem." Rather, it is an attempt by Washington to offload its surplus which it cannot sell, he added. "It is a scandal," he said. Mulvany also attacked the Indian government for not distributing its food from warehouses because of arguments over subsidies. "The solution is there...there is plenty of food to go around. The problem needs to be addressed at the highest level."

GM Report

In a separate move a United Nations report blamed food companies for abusing their clout and violating human rights. The report by a U.N. investigation team, to be published next month, calls on governments to take responsibility for the behavior of big firms.

It was becoming increasingly clear, the report said, "that the monopoly control of the food system by transnational corporations can be directed toward seeking monopoly profits, benefiting the company more than the consumer."

Meanwhile on Thursday the British government released a report on GM food testing and its effects on the environment and wildlife. The report, Farm Scale Evaluations, seemed to give conflicting results. The tests, which are the biggest of their type held anywhere, found that growing GM herbicide-tolerant beet and spring rape is worse for wildlife than the conventional varieties because of the shortfall in weeds and insects. But the results of UK-wide field-scale trials of GM crops also show that growing herbicide-tolerant GM maize was better for many groups of wildlife than conventional maize.

The researchers stressed Thursday that the differences they found in the three-year-long project were not a result of the way in which the crops have been genetically modified. They arose because the GM crops gave farmers taking part in the trial new options for weed control. They used different herbicides and applied them differently.

The same day U.S. biotechnology giant Monsanto has said it is to pull out of the European seed cereal business. The company blamed the failure in the growth of a market in hybrid wheat seeds for the decision, saying it had "failed to materialize."

The EU Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom this week accused U.S. bio-tech companies of "trying to lie" and "force" unsuitable GM technology on Europe.

source: http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/10/16/food.hunger/index.html 16oct03