Aid agencies issue warning about food prices

A group of development agencies are today warning that the international community risks failing people living with hunger, by not acting on the lessons from the 2008 food price crisis.

The food price spike in 2007/08 led to riots in some parts of the world and an extra 100 million people going hungry.

Agencies from the Hunger Alliance are now calling for coherent action on food security, after the prices of staple foods reached their highest in two years.

They warn that the current volatile food prices will once again hit the world's most vulnerable people, after the response to the 2008 crisis was insufficient and inappropriate.

Research commissioned by members of the Alliance and carried out by the Oakland Institute has analysed the failings by the international community in tackling the global food crisis, and highlights the need for action to prevent continued food price volatility.

Hunger Alliance spokesperson Karl Deering, from Care International UK, said: "The food price problem is simply not going to go away.

"Global policy responses have fallen short of protecting the world's most vulnerable people.

"This is not a problem of global food availability - but of but of poverty and affordability of food.

"Although the response to date has been weak, governments and international institutions can still take vital steps to mitigate hunger, including investments that favour small-holder farmers to support local food production and increasing attention to the nutritional status of women and children."

The report, entitled 'The High Food Price Challenge', makes a number of key recommendations, including: boosting the production of nutritious food in a sustainable manner; increasing attention to the importance of access to land and natural resources; and investing in social protection mechanisms that target the poorest and most vulnerable, especially women and children.

It also wants to see price volatility reduced, through regional integration and co-operation that sustains confidence and stops market panic.

The Oakland Institute is an independent policy think-tank that aims to increase public participation and promote fair debate on critical social, economic, and environmental issues.