President Higgins says world leaders are 'gambling with people's lives' amid food crisis

'Year after year, the United Nations avoids dealing with the structural issues that are standing behind the food crisis,' said President Higgins

Ploughing Managing Director Anna May McHugh with President Michael D Higgins at the National Ploughing Championships, Ratheniska, Co Laois. Picture: Dan Linehan

President Michael D Higgins has launched an attack on world leaders and the United Nations (UN) claiming they have allowed a food speculation system which is "gambling on people's lives".

President Higgins has said that "year after year" the UN has avoided dealing with the root problems of the global food crisis and has urged Taoiseach Micheál Martin to bring this message to the Assembly meeting in New York later this week.

The 77th General Assembly meeting of world leaders convenes under the shadow of Europe’s first major war since the Second World War — the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, which has unleashed a global food crisis and opened fissures among major powers in a way not seen since the Cold War.

President Higgins said: "Year after year, the United Nations avoids dealing with the structural issues that are standing behind the food crisis. We had an immense food crisis 15 years ago in 2007 and yet in 2020 we allowed food to be part of the futures market on the stock exchange, we speculate on the food that is necessary to stop people starving.

"We allow people to speculate on food on the market, effectively gambling on people's lives.

President Higgins said it would be "absolutely tragic" if world leaders, who are gathering at the UN in New York, allowed this week to pass without addressing the issue of hunger and food security.

"The meeting this week in New York will seek again to avoid dealing with structural issues and the structural issues are: dependency on a few staples over which people have no control, export crops over which they have no control, speculation on the exchange in relation to grain itself."

Speaking at the National Ploughing Championships in Ratheniska, Co Laois, the President said 75% of the world's wheat reserves are held by five countries, with the vast majority of the global population reliant on either wheat, maize or rice.

"We should never ever have been dependent on three staples. There are 7,000 forms of food that the planet has used at different times, and we ended up depending on three.

"We refuse to face the facts that we have allowed four companies control the supply of fertilizers from Russia, eight large companies control the supply of grain from the Ukraine."

He said 29 countries in Africa are about to "dip into serious debt" and yet the resources are not being provided to help these nations.

"Let's ask the question, why do we not know what grain is in storage in the world? Why haven't we regional storage in Africa?"

He added that the horn of Africa, which is now facing severe food shortages, is responsible for just 0.024 of the emissions on the planet "and yet people are starving".