Feeding the world - We must do more than we are doing

ON A fine summer’s morning it is hard to imagine that more than 1,000 people die every hour of every day from hunger-related causes.

It is hard to accept that more than two billion people face a daily challenge to cope with soaring food prices and that putting a meal, no matter how basic, on the table demands ever-greater proportions of a poor family’s income.

It is even more challenging to accept, as some experts have warned, that the current crisis is not temporary and that unless it is confronted, it will deepen and have an effect on societies that imagine themselves immune to something as remote and as unheard of as food shortages.