Recent spikes in staple food prices resulting from the invasion of Ukraine have once again highlighted the difficulty faced by low-income countries that rely on imports for a substantial portion of their
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown agreed Monday on the importance of the Group of Eight industrialized nations coordinating closely in tackling the rising prices of crude oil and food around the world. Speaking at a joint press conference following their talks in London, the two leaders also shared the view that the G-8 leaders must send out a strong message for dealing with the climate change issue during their summit scheduled for early July in Hokkaido.
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and his British counterpart, Gordon Brown, agreed Monday on the importance of the Group of Eight nations coordinating closely to tackle rising crude oil and food prices around the world. Speaking at a joint news conference following their talks in London, the two leaders also shared the view that the G8 leaders must send out a strong message for dealing with climate change during their July summit in Hokkaido.
In the search for renewable energy, turning low-value materials like switchgrass and corn husks into ethanol to fuel cars is something of a Holy Grail. In theory, these materials would replace corn as the main feedstock for ethanol in North America, reducing the pressure on farmland that has played a role in rising food prices and put drivers into competition with hungry people. But scientists on the front lines of this search are finding that making the process commercially and environmentally viable is proving much harder than some of the hype would suggest.
UNITED Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will issue an urgent plea to world leaders at a food summit in Rome today to suspend immediately trade restrictions, agricultural taxes and other price controls that have helped fuel the highest food prices in 30 years.
Lennart Bage, President, IFAD
Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has left the country for Rome to attend a high-level conference on world food security. President Rajapaksa is to participate in the High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy to be held in Rome, Italy from June 3-5, 2008 on an invitation from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The High-Level Conference, open only to the invited participants will address food security and poverty reduction in the face of climate change and energy security.
M.S. Swaminathan It is hoped that at the Rome Conference on world food security, Indian representatives will serve as a bright affirming flame in the midst of the sea of despair we see around us.
World leaders are set to gather in Rome on Tuesday for a high-profile summit on food security as runaway prices have sparked riots across the world. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will open the conference by unveiling an "action plan" to confront the scourge, said diplomats ahead of the conference, which lasts through Thursday, at the Food and Agriculture Organisation's headquarters here. The plan was put together by a crisis team involving the heads of several U.N. agencies and the Bretton Woods institutions, said the sources.
There is a sense of deja vu in the government's reaction to the latest inflation figures announced on Friday. For the week ending with May 17, inflation measured by the WPI index climbed to a 45-month high of 8.1 per cent. During the corresponding week last year, inflation was at 5.3 per cent. Finance Minister P.Chidambaram termed the development worrisome and suggested that although recent government measures would act to contain inflation, it might take a while bef ore there is a distinct moderation. That is because global crude and other commodity prices continue to be at record highs.
I f If there is one topic that has been catching a lot of attention lately, it is the global rise in prices for resources, especially the most precious resource of all: food. While gas prices may force drivers to reduce their time behind the wheel, rising food prices really hurt.
