World Food summit disappoints observers
at the weekend ahead of the World Food Summit taking place this
week in the Italian capital. The summit, hosted by the UN's Food
and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), has failed to attract world
leaders.
More than 10,000 anti-globalisation activists demonstrated in Rome at the weekend ahead of the World Food Summit, hosted by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), taking place in the Italian capital this week.
Protestors called for the right of countries to determine their own food policies and claimed that development policies supported by the UN and developed nations had failed. Protesters called for what they described as "the sovereignty offood" to enable states to implement their individual agricultural policies.
Jose Bove, the French anti-globalisation activist, was quoted as saying theworld faced a "tragic situation," adding that "the summit must be aware ofthe importance of food safety. I expect there to be a clear declaration madeon this matter at the end of the summit."
However, reporting on Tuesday, the Financial Times said that the failure of many world leaders to attend the UN food summit appears to bear out accusations that there was a lack of political will to tackle global poverty.
Jacques Diouf, director of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, said he was disappointed by the turnout. Of the industrialised Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, only Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, who chairs the summit, and Spain's prime minister Jose Maria Aznar were in attendance. In 1996 the event attracted many world leaders, including several European heads of state.
The summit aims to revive interest in meeting the target - agreed at the 1996 meeting - to halve the number of the world's hungry, bringing it down from 800 million to 400 million. To do this, the FAO has warned that an extra $24 billion (€25.4bn) must be spent annually on boosting agricultural research and rural infrastructure.
