Food still a problem for 800 million people

JAKARTA: Food. What do you think when you hear the word: last night's dinner, the new restaurant around the corner, a recipe you'd like to try?

For most of us, food is a given. But for over 800 million people, one fifth of the people in the developing world, the thought of food is riddled with anguish and insecurity. It implies a day-to-day struggle that stretches their resources beyond the limits in the effort to provide enough to keep themselves, their children and their families going. Their main problem is poverty: they simply do not have the means to buy, or to grow, the food they need. And because their need is persistent, because their lack is chronic, they are at an even greater disadvantage -- they approach the battle with diminished physical and mental stamina.

The scandal of the number of hungry -- 800 million, the population of Europe and North America combined -- is that there is enough food in the world today to provide a correct diet for all, to make each and every household well-fed and secure in the face of the most basic human challenge, the foremost human right: having enough to eat.

Women and children are particularly hard hit: over the last 20 years, the number of women below the poverty line has doubled. Today, over 70 percent of the world's poor are women. And in rural areas, where women's workload is already heavy, more and more of them are forced to take on the sole responsibility for sustaining their households as men leave for the cities in search of work. In Central America, the Caribbean and southern Africa, over 30 percent of households are headed by women. Children from undernourished households have few hopes for leading normal, healthy lives. Over 200 million children today begin their lives stunted by hunger, which makes them even more prone to infectious disease and locks them into the vicious circle of food insecurity and chronic undernourishment.

Most of the hungry live in what are known as low-income, food- deficit countries (LIFDCs) -- countries that don't grow enough food themselves to feed their people, and at the same time lack the foreign exchange they need to cover the gap with imports from other nations. There are over 80 of these countries worldwide, the majority of them in Africa, followed by Asia and Latin America. And the greatest irony of all is that to a large extent, it is precisely the producers of food who account for most of the world's hungry: the developing world's farmers and rural poor.

Just over 50 years ago, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) was founded as one of pioneer agencies of the United Nations system. Over the half century of its existence, much has been done to improve agriculture -- and the lot of farmers and consumers -- worldwide. FAO has been instrumental in combating threats to humans and livestock, such as the tsetse fly and the debilitating sleeping sickness it carries. It has brought the dangers of overfishing the world's oceans to the forefront of public opinion and led the way to international fishing agreements to safeguard fish stocks. And through programs for integrated pest management and plant nutrition, FAO has helped to cut down on the use of harmful chemicals while preserving agriculture's base of precious natural resources. FAO's global information and early warning systems make intervention possible while there is still time to act, helping to keep a step ahead of widespread famine, especially in the wake of natural disasters and armed conflict.

But as we approach the end of the millennium, it is clear that the efforts of FAO and of other agencies and organizations worldwide dedicated to improving food security - helping agriculture, forestry and fisheries contribute to this objective while safeguarding the natural resources on which they depend - are not enough.

In 1993, FAO published a major study of agriculture and its ability to keep pace with demand for food. The purpose was to develop a clear idea of where current trends in food production and distribution are leading us, and what this implies for the future. The conclusions of the study constitute a clear call to action: if current trends continue, by the year 2010 there will still be 680 million hungry in the world, despite the fact that overall food production will probably continue to keep pace with population.

Faced with this scenario, the Director-General of FAO, Dr. Jacques Diouf, felt that it was imperative to take strong and immediate measures. He called for the convening of the World Food Summit at the very highest political level to address and counter these alarming trends. His appeal was widely acclaimed and supported by governments and organizations worldwide. The reason: it was clear that we had reached a moment of decision. It would take firm commitment at this high level to bring together the many arms of national government and international accord in a concerted attack on hunger. Only by heightening public awareness and by changing the course of the overall socio-political environment in which food is produced and distributed would the abyss between the have's and the have-not's be closed.

For this reason, FAO sees the World Food Summit as a synthesis of past efforts, a strengthening of the will -- and the means -- to improve humankind's lot. In other recent international conferences, many issues that also come to bear on food security have been carefully analyzed and sound commitments have been made: on environment, social rights, women, population, cities, genetic resources...

All of these will enter into molding the determination that must be forged this week in Rome when world leaders come together at FAO headquarters to redress the scandal of hunger. There, as they agree on concrete and attainable strategies, programs and policies to build better lives for 800 million people, they will take a vital step towards ensuring peace, progress and security in the world, towards guaranteeing that food becomes and continues to be for all.

-- UNIC