In a new paper issued ahead of World Food Day 2011 (16/10/2011) and an upcoming food summit in Rome at the UN Committee on World Food Security (17-22/10/2011), CIDSE says volatile food prices put both consumers and farmers in developing countries at risk.
(Brussels/Rome, 10 Oct 2011) According to the international alliance of Catholic development agencies, food price volatility is one of the structural problems which governments need to urgently address to guarantee the right to food for all human beings.
Bernd Nilles, Secretary General of CIDSE said: “Nearly 1 billion people are hungry. Yet, roughly a third of food produced globally is wasted. Our food system is a leaky bucket. It makes no sense to continue pouring water in it without plugging the holes first. To stop the leak, issues like unpredictable food prices, land rights, investment in smallholder agriculture, and the impacts of climate change on food production must be addressed.”
Food prices figure high on the agenda as governments meet in Rome next week for the 37th session of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS). In Food Price Volatility – Consequences and impacts on the Right to Food CIDSE looks at the increased price volatility since the 2007-2008 price spikes, which affects both consumers and producers in developing countries.
“We must all eat. But millions of people around the world are unable to pay more for food as prices increase. For a poor family which spends most of its household budget on food, price volatility is a matter of life and death. But small farmers are also affected, as they often don’t have enough investment capital to deal with unpredictable prices. We urgently need coherent trade and agriculture policies, tighter rules on food speculation and the establishment of food reserves to deal with emergencies and to stabilise markets,” Nilles said.
The FAO estimates that the 2007 and 2008 price spikes increased the number of undernourished people from 850 million in 2007 to over 1 billion in 2009.* Despite a drop in prices between 2009 and 2010, food prices have not returned to the pre-2007 levels and are now fluctuating around double the average level during the period 1990–2006.
The UN Committee on World Food Security also faces an important test of its authority as global coordinating body on food governance next week as it aims to adopt far-reaching guidelines on land governance**, which are vital for small farmers who are threatened by large scale land acquisitions, which is also referred to as ‘land grabbing’. ***
Sergio Marelli, Secretary General of Italian CIDSE member FOCSIV said: “The CFS is best placed to negotiate solutions between governments and oversee global action on food. Forging an agreement between countries on land governance would show that the multilateral approach works. The guidelines on land governance are crucial in the fight against hunger as they would secure the rights of small producers whose land and natural resources are targeted by investors.”
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Contact:
Roeland Scholtalbers, Media & Communication Officer, scholtalbers(at)cidse.org, +32(0)477068384
Notes to the editors
*FAO, The State of Food and Agriculture, June 2011
**the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries, and Forests
*** As much as 227 million hectares of land in developing countries (about the size of Western Europe) has been sold or leased since 2001 by large scale investments. The bulk of these transactions have taken place in the last 2 years, most of them in Africa. Investors include national elites, foreign companies and international governments, driven by biofuel policies, the demand for timber or, as in the case of oil rich states and China, to secure food supply. National governments who have the responsibility to protect their populations are often aligned with investors, providing incentives and in some cases helping clear people off the land.
- CIDSE is an international alliance of Catholic development agencies. Its members share a common strategy in their efforts to eradicate poverty and establish global justice. www.cidse.org
- Food Price Volatility: Consequences and impacts on the Right to Food, CIDSE recommendations, October 2011
- Global witnesses to land grabbing, civil society expectations of the 37th meeting of the UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS). Side-event at the FAO in Rome, 17 Oct 2011, 12.30pm
- CIDSE Advocacy Newsletter ‘Just Food’ special, October 2011
- CIDSE representatives attending the 37th session of the UN CFS:
– Gisele Henriques (Brazil), CIDSE, henriques(at)cidse.org, +32 485144640
– Jo Dalemans (Belgium), Broederlijk Delen, jo.dalemans(at)broederlijkdelen.be, +32 473 749389
– Jeanne-Maureen Jorand (France), CCFD-Terre Solidaire, jm.jorand(at)ccfd.asso.fr, +33 662837231
– Michael O’Brien (Ireland), Trócaire mobrien(at)trocaire.ie, + 353 1 629 3333
– Armin Paasch (Germany), MISEREOR, armin.paasch(at)misereor.de, +49 76 22630755
– Damiano Sabuzi Giuliani (Italy), FOCSIV, policy(at)focsiv.it, +39.3803133311