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Published on Monday, October 10, 2011 by The Guardian/UK
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2011/oct/10/food-crises-fight-world-hunger
Experts identify food price volatility as a major obstacle to millennium development goal of halving global malnutrition
by Mark Tran
Food crises are jeopardising efforts to achieve the millennium development goal of halving the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015, United Nations food experts warned today.
In an annual report on world hunger, UN food agencies said food price volatility is likely to continue and possibly increase, making poor farmers, consumers and countries more vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity.
"Demand from consumers in rapidly growing economies will increase, the population continues to grow, and further growth in biofuels will place additional demands on the food system," the report said, adding that food price volatility may increase over the next decade due to stronger links between agricultural and energy markets and more frequent extreme weather events.
Small, import-dependent countries, particularly in Africa, are especially at risk, with many of them still facing severe problems following the world food and economic crises of 2006-2008, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (Ifad) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said in their joint report.
At a time when drought in east Africa and famine in Somalia have left 12 million people in need of aid, the report argued that such crises are challenging efforts to reduce hunger by half.
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