Make food a priority for all people

Geneva
Church-linked campaigners in the fight against hunger have urged new approaches to trade that uphold people’s right to food. “Food cannot be treated like any other commodity,” said Jose Pablo Prado Cordova, vice-chairperson of the Food Strategy Group for the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, an international Christian network. “Many current trade policies undermine food systems,” he said.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) recently launched its World Trade Report 2009. The Geneva-based group warns against protectionism as a response to the global economic crisis, noting that governments are facing pressures to adopt measures which may restrict trade.

“With a billion people now facing chronic hunger we need … a different analysis that recognizes all people have a right to food, not just a right to eat but the right to…buy or produce food,” stated Ester Wolf, a policy advisor with Bread for All in Switzerland, a church-linked group. Last July, U.S.-based Bread for the World group welcomed the Group of Eight (G8) industrial nations’ commitment to contribute US$20 billion over three years to combat global hunger.

Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, noted that 150 million more people have been pushed into extreme poverty and more than a billion people are struggling to feed their families. “This would be the most ambitious international effort in many years…” he said.