By IRNA,
London : Josette Sheeran, executive director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) Tuesday called for global action to tackle the “silent tsunami” of the world food crisis.
Speaking ahead of a food prices summit in London, Sheeran warned more than 100 million people faced being plunged into hunger and said the international community needed to respond as it did to 2004’s giant Indian Ocean wave which killed 250,000 and left 10 million destitute.
“This is the new face of hunger – the millions of people who were not in the urgent hunger category six months ago but now are,” she said.
“The response calls for large-scale, high-level action by the global community, focused on emergency and longer-term solutions,” said the head the world’s largest humanitarian organization She insisted that a co-ordinated response involving governments, other UN agencies, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and other humanitarian groups, including non-governmental organisations, was needed.
The London summit of scientists, supermarkets, farmers and aid agencies is aiming to come up with a plan to deal with the food crisis to present to the EU and the G8 over the summer and a special meeting of the United Nations in September.
Writing on his webpage, Prime Minister Gordon Brown joining in the call for co-ordinated international action, saying that dealing with the issue of hunger was a “moral obligation” for everyone.
Brown also indicated that his government’s enthusiasm for using biofuels may be waning, amid concerns that the increasing use of farmland for energy crops is playing a big part in the global surge in food prices.
The UK, he suggested, will need to be “more selective in our support” for biofuels, which have been pushed as a major weapon in the fight against global warming.
It comes after the UK last week made it compulsory for all petrol and diesel sold at filling stations to include at least 2.5 per cent of biofuels. By 2010, the government’s target is set to double to rise to 5 per cent.
But Brown said that of the UK’s review of the impact “shows that we need to change our approach, we will also push for change in EU biofuels targets” which is set to go up to 10 per cent by 2020.
Britain’s Oxfam relief agency has already expressed concern that the switch to energy crops from food production is contributing to the rising food prices and has warned millions of people faced clearance from lands to make way for biofuel plantations.