UN planning to feed the world?

UN to draw up comprehensive plan to address world food crisis

30 April 2008 – UN News Center– The United Nations is aiming to have a comprehensive plan to tackle the global food crisis in place by the beginning of June, “around which the institutions and leaders around the world can coalesce,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs John Holmes said today.

Mr. Holmes is one of two coordinators, along with UN System Influenza Coordinator David Nabarro, of a new high-powered task force that was announced yesterday by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to organize responses to the global rise in food prices.

Speaking at a news conference today in Geneva, Mr. Holmes said that although the breadth and complexity of the issue needed to be recognized, there was no need to panic. “I think it is clear we can fix these problems. The solutions can be found; the solutions are there. They are very difficult, some of them, in the short term, but they can be done.”

The United Nations Office [Palace?] at Geneva (UNOG) is the representative office of the United Nations in Geneva. More than 1,600 super-privileged front-row individuals handsomely “earn their keep” here!

On the role of biofuel production in the current crisis, Mr. Holmes said: “It is something that needs a new look in present circumstances without wanting to fall in any sense into knee-jerk reactions of saying all biofuels are bad or good. We need to look at it in a careful, sophisticated and differentiated way, between different regions of the world and between different products.”

The Under-Secretary-General also said the crisis was not affecting every country in the same way. “For many countries and population groups it is inconvenient, a problem for their daily budget and their purses, but it is not a matter of life and death. In some places and for some groups, particularly those living on less than a dollar a day, that quickly could become a matter of life and death, or certainly of increased suffering and malnutrition.”

The UN’s action plan is to be in place in time for a meeting of UN agencies in Rome at the beginning of June. The task force is chaired by Mr. Ban and consists of the heads of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and other organizations which will be invited to join.

News Tracker: past stories on this issue

• Ban Ki-moon to lead task force to tackle global food crisis

Can the world’s poor sue Ban ki-moon, John Holmes and the rest of their lot if they don’t deliver?

But Will It Prevent Food Riots in the US?

‘Clean’ Energy Scam: U.S. senator seeks to freeze ethanol requirement

ASHINGTON (Reuters) – Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is drawing up legislation to cap the U.S. renewable fuels requirement at 2008 levels – 9 billion gallons per year. Texas ranches are home to 2.8 million head of cattle. Cattle and poultry producers rely on grain for feed and have been hit hard by skyrocketing corn prices.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry petitioned the federal government to cut its renewable fuel requirement by 50 percent this year to break the vicious circle of grain price hikes.

Corn Belt lawmakers such as Iowa’s Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, whose state farmers are profiting handsomely from the soaring grains prices, have vowed to combat any legislative attempt to reduce or postpone the renewable fuels mandate.

A tiny sliver of transitional rain forest is surrounded by hectares of soybean fields in the Mato Grosso state, Brazil. (Caption: TIME). Photo:  John Lee / Aurora Select for TIME. (Image may be subject to copyright). See FEWW Fair Use Notice!

President [sic] George W. Bush said on Tuesday he is deeply concerned about high food prices but believes ethanol production is responsible for only a small part [sic] of food inflation.

“And the truth of the matter is, it’s in our national interest that we—our farmers—grow energy, as opposed to us purchasing energy from parts of the world that are unstable or may not like us.”

The new energy law calls for the production of 9 billion gallons of biofuel in 2008 and 10.5 billion gallons next year, and a rise to 36 billion gallons in 2022 – with ethanol supply from corn capped at 15 billion gallons.

About 26 percent of corn production would be diverted to make biofuel in 2008, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grain prices hit record highs breaking above $6.50 a bushel. (Source)

Related links:

• As Bush signs energy bill, new issues come to the fore (Background)
  

• Fueling Food Shortages
• Corn for Food, NOT for Fuel
• Former U.N. boss Annan warns of “hunger disasters”
  
• Growing world needs every form of energy: Shell

• UN food aid agency’s gap grows, ration cuts loom
• Brazil Lula defends biofuels from growing criticism
• Corn eyes new peaks, may add to food woes
• Bolivia Morales: biofuels serious problem to poor

• Biofuels won’t solve world energy problem: Shell
• Food price crisis may hit world growth and security: U.N.
• U.N. food aid agency’s gap grows, ration cuts loom
• Oil World expects states to cut back biofuel plans

• Lifstyle Winning Against Life?
• Emerging Food Crisis
• The First Wave of World’s Collapsing Cities
• Topsoil

• Index of Human Impact on Nature
• 500 Weather-Related Disasters A Year
• Producing corn ethanol consumes as much fossil fuel as the ethanol itself replaces
• The Clean Energy Scam

• U.S. eyes shift away from corn ethanol
• Scientists: Stop Biofuels to fight world hunger

..

Only One Guess Allowed!

Who said:

• “I think that ethanol is the most popular whipping boy in the agricultural world at the moment”

• “So to say that biofuels are the culprit clearly underestimates the demand and really shows a gross misunderstanding of the world food situation,”

• “We have to grow more food. We have to increase yields”

Hint: To increase yields, farmers are forced to buy lots and lots more fertilizers!

Related links:

• Fatal Harvest
• Keep Mine free …!
• The Center for Food Safety

Related Reading:

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth One
  Industrial agriculture will feed the world

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Two
  Industrial food is safe, healthy, and nutritious

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Three
  Industrial food is cheap

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Four
  Industrial agriculture is efficient

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Five
  Industrial food offers more choices

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Six
  Industrial agriculture benefits the environment and wildlife

• The Seven Deadly Myths of Industrial Agriculture: Myth Seven
  Biotechnology will solve the problems of industrial agriculture

See the tags for the answer!