CISON DI VALMARINO: The Group of Eight rich nations took a first step Monday towards fighting speculators who have helped push up the cost of basic foods, sparking riots in several poor countries.
The G8 agriculture ministers called for a study into setting up a global system to stockpile essential foodstuffs after three days of talks in northeastern Italy joined by key emerging and developing countries.
“We call upon the relevant international institutions to examine whether a system of stockholding could be effective in dealing with humanitarian emergencies or as a means to limit price volatility, the ministers said in a final declaration.
“It’s an important first step, said the head of the UN food agency, Jacques Diouf. “Now we hope that … we can broach structural problems and come [to negotiations] with concrete solutions, notably at the G8 summit in Sardinia in July, he told a news conference.
The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said he was “pleased by the fact that so many top agriculture officials of the world had met … to draw international attention to the fact that we have not resolved the food crisis.
While recession has cooled soaring prices, officials say it offers only a temporary respite, while activists complain that only a fraction of the $22 billion in aid announced at a UN food agency summit in Rome last June has been disbursed.
The British-based charity Oxfam immediately slammed Monday’s declaration, which also lamented that the world is “very far from attaining the UN goal on malnutrition.
“The G8 has failed the world’s one billion hungry people, it said in a statement.
The ministers “have made an extraordinary admission of collective failure.
Host Italy led calls for action to tackle commercial price-fixing, and both Rome and Paris advocated the global stockpiling of essential foodstuffs at the talks, which were joined by the G5 agriculture ministers of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa.
Italian Agriculture Minister Luca Zaia indicated late Sunday that the subject was a source of discord at the talks, the first-ever gathering of G8 agriculture ministers.
Some delegations including that of the United States voiced fears of excessive regulation, Zaia said.
French Agriculture Minister Michel Barnier said Sunday that an international system to manage food reserves would fight against speculators preying on primary foodstuffs, which is scandalous.
He said the world needed the sort of supply management systems that operate across the European Union, adding: There are no excuses for not reacting – a billion people are suffering from hunger.
Skyrocketing prices for basic foodstuffs last year triggered riots in some poorer nations around the world.
Ministers from Argentina, Australia and Egypt also attended the talks, as well as officials from the African Union, the FAO and the World Bank.
The 2000 Millennium Declaration aimed to halve the proportion of the world population facing poverty and undernourishment by the year 2015; the world is very far from reaching this goal, according to the alarming data provided by the relevant international bodies, they said.
US Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said of the talks: Supporting food security is not only our moral obligation; as a factor impacting global economic development and international stability, it is our responsibility.
The ministers took an important step toward building a consensus around issues affecting access, availability and utilization of food among vulnerable populations, Vilsack said in a statement.
A member of the French delegation told AFP: It s not just the words that are important but the very holding of the meeting.
