UN adds 100 million people to ‘new hungry’ list

The United Nations warned that the global economic crisis could create up to 100 million ''new hungry'' as it wipes out jobs in poorer countries.

Speaking ahead of an ''Agriculture Summit'' organised by the G-8 nations, which will run from April 18 to April 20 at Treviso in Italy, David Nabarro, a UN assistant secretary general and coordinator of a task force on global food security, said the crisis would swell the ranks of the estimated one billion who are at risk of malnutrition.

''The evidence that we have, still anecdotal, is that the problem is starting up,'' said Nabarro.

''The figure and estimate that has been put on the number of new hungry that are likely to result from the crisis by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is between 50 and 100 million,'' he told journalists.

The threat brought about by unemployment would be grafted on to the food crisis caused by rising prices last year, which triggered riots in some countries. The ILO estimated in January that two years of global financial and economic meltdown could add 50 million more people to the ranks of the world's unemployed by the end of 2009, threatening social unrest.

''We're anticipating that, with the reduction of their purchasing power as a result of this unemployment, they are going to be facing extreme problems with ensuring that they could feed themselves and their families,'' Nabarro said

''As well as the many other difficulties that people of the world are facing... they're also going to be heading into another period of hunger,'' he added.

The farm ministers meeting aim to forge a strategy to secure food supplies and stabilise prices, as rich nations scramble for acreage abroad to feed their people.

But tensions caused by the pull toward protectionism may also simmer at the first-ever meeting of G-8 farm ministers and their counterparts from major developing nations.

The task force is urging the three-day meeting of G-8 agriculture ministers to ensure that food and farm reform are included in attempts to revive the global economy, especially through support for smallholders in developing nations, and trade.
 
The idea of creating a global grain reserve was likely to be on the agenda, said Italy's agriculture minister Luca Zaia.

''We want to come out of the meeting with concrete facts, not just talks,'' Zaia said.

The ministers will seek ways to boost farm productivity and rein in speculative trade in agricultural commodities - a major cause for surging food prices last year leading to a food crisis with riots and raising the number of hungry people in the world to nearly one billion, he said.

Zia said ministers would spare no effort to avert a new food crisis.

''We are talking about food security, hunger in the world and (protection) of product identity,'' Zaia said yesterday ahead of the meeting.

Zaia hinted at potential frictions with the US and Russian agriculture ministers over curbs of some Italian exports.

Ministers and farmers seem to agree on the need to boost farm output, especially in developing countries to ensure there is enough food supplies for everyone.

The G-8 includes Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the US. Farm ministers from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, South Africa and the European Commission have also been invited to the meeting.