| | |  Editorials | Issues | October 2009 
World's Hungry Reaches More Than 1 Billion in '09
 Reuters
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October 15, 2009
Rome - A combination of the food crisis and the global economic downturn has pushed more than 1 billion people into hunger in 2009, United Nation agencies said Wednesday, speaking from at a two-day forum in Rome, confirming a grim forecast released earlier this year.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP) said 1.02 billion people - about 100 million people more than last year - are undernourished in 2009, the highest number in four decades.
"The rising number of hungry people is intolerable," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf as the new annual report on world hunger was released.
"We have the economic and technical means to make hunger disappear, what is missing is a stronger political will to eradicate hunger forever," he said.
The increase in the number of hungry people is not a result of poor harvests but is due to high food prices - particularly in developing countries - lower incomes and lost jobs.
Even before the recent twin crises of food and recession, the number of undernourished people had risen steadily for a decade, reversing progress made in the 1980s and early 1990s.
The Group of Eight countries in July pledged $20 billion over three years to help poor nations feed themselves, signaling a new focus on longer-term agricultural development. That has sparked some concerns that emergency food aid might be cut back as a result.
The WFP last year raised a record $5 billion to feed poor people as a spike in food prices in 2006-2008 sparked rioting and hoarding in some countries.
So far this year it has received $2.9 billion, and has had to cut food rations or scale back operations in places such as Kenya and Bangladesh.
FAO and WFP urge a twin-track approach, saying longer-term investment in agriculture development should not come at the expense of short-term initiatives to fight acute hunger spurred by sudden food shortages. |
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