Oxfam slams G20’s stance on food security

Oxfam has criticised the lack of progress made on food security issues during the latest G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, involving the world’s leading economies.

The G20 had failed to come up with a plan to secure food for the estimated one billion people facing hunger daily, said the global charity. “This is despite a severe food crisis facing more than 18m in the Sahel [Tunisia],” it said in a statement.

“Biofuels – a key driver of food price volatility and food insecurity globally – were ignored despite calls from multiple international agencies to scrap production targets and subsidies. There was no mention of small scale farmers as central to food productivity and security and no plan to support them even though there are 200m small family farms in G20 countries.”

Oxfam executive director in Mexico, Carlos Zarco, said: “Leaders failed to keep the world’s poorest in their sights, despite the fact that more than half these people live in G20 countries.”