Italy: ‘Food Fight’ at World Food Summit
2009-11-17 7:25
Farmers from Italy's poorer Southern regions converged on the Italian capital to demand action from leaders gathered for the world food summit
They say the agricultural crisis is contributing to global hunger, and are demanding fairer food prices.
Sardinian Mayor, Antonino Iannazzo, was with the protesters
[Antonio Iannazzo, Sardinian Mayor]:
"Farmers from the south of Italy are protesting in solidarity with poor people against unfair policies because agriculture is a very strategic sector basically linked to the price crisis."
Italian farmers are not the only ones calling for leaders here to tackle poverty and starvation.
NGO, Medicines sans Frontiers says the Rome meeting must also address child malnutrition.
They estimate 20 million children are at risk of dying from a lack of food.
The number of the world's hungry has topped 1 billion for the first time mostly in developing countries.
The U.N. agency has called the summit in the hope that leaders will raise official aid to agriculture well above the current five percent
Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi are among those attending.
But apart from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, G8 leaders are skipping the three-day summit.
Skepticism about the meeting has also been fuelled by a draft that includes only a general promise to pour more money into agricultural aid.
There is no target or time frame and a pledge to eliminate malnutrition by 2025 has been replaced with the promise to do this as soon as possible.
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon says climate change is also a crucial factor in food security.
[Ban Ki Moon, U.N. Secretary General]:
"There can be no food security without climate security that is why next month in Copenhagen we need a comprehensive agreement that will provide firm foundation for legally binding treaty on climate change. We must reduce emissions that are causing climate change"
Still, the absence of many heavyweights means that another divisive issue -- who should manage donor funds to boost agriculture in poor countries -- will not be resolved.
