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GLOBAL HUNGER: DON’T TRADE AWAY THE RIGHTS TO FOOD-SAY CHURCH CAMPAIGNERS

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STEPHEN BROWN reports for Ecumenical News International… 

Geneva
Ecumenical News International

Church-linked campaigners for justice in the fight against hunger have urged new approaches to trade that uphold people’s right to food, as the World Trade Organisation launched its World Trade Report 2009. 

“Food cannot be treated like any other commodity,” said José Pablo Prado Córdova, president of the board of directors of the YMCA Guatemala and vice-chairperson of the Food Strategy Group for the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance, an international Christian network committed to joint action on critical global issues. “Many current trade policies undermine food systems.”

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FOOD RIGHTS: Food cannot be treated like any other commodity, say campaigners. PICTURE: Davide Guglielmo (www.sxc.hu)

 

“This report focuses on trade in the midst of the global economic downturn but doesn’t differentiate food from any other commodity,” stated Ester Wolf, a policy advisor with Bread for All in Switzerland, a church-linked group. “Yet with a billion people now facing chronic hunger we need to start with a different analysis that recognises that all people have a right to food, not just a right to eat but the right to have the means to buy or produce their food.”

The Geneva-based WTO’s trade report published on 22nd July warned against protectionism as a response to the global economic crisis, noting that governments are facing pressures to adopt measures which may restrict trade. 

“This report focuses on trade in the midst of the global economic downturn but doesn’t differentiate food from any other commodity,” stated Ester Wolf, a policy advisor with Bread for All in Switzerland, a church-linked group. “Yet with a billion people now facing chronic hunger we need to start with a different analysis that recognises that all people have a right to food, not just a right to eat but the right to have the means to buy or produce their food.” 

On 10th July the U.S.-based Bread for the World group welcomed the stated commitment of the Group of Eight industrial nations at their meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, on reducing world hunger by increasing agricultural support and development in the world’s poorest countries. 

The Rev David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, described the agreement by G8 leaders to contribute US$20 billion over three years to a new initiative to combat global hunger as a sign of hope for tens of millions of the world’s most vulnerable people. 

“The global economic collapse has been especially hard on poor people. An additional 150 million people have been pushed into extreme poverty and more than a billion people are struggling to feed themselves and their families,” he said. “We hope and pray that the promise translates into a durable commitment to support the efforts of hungry and poor people to lift themselves out of poverty.” 

The additional resources would go towards rebuilding international capacity to address agricultural issues, and also to directly assisting farmers through improved access to higher-yielding seeds, fertilizer, credit and marketing. 

“This would be the most ambitious international effort in many years to help millions of the world’s poorest farmers to significantly increase their crop yields to the benefit of their families and communities,” said Rev Beckmann. 

On food-related issues, the WTO trade report noted that several countries had introduced export taxes but it said these might have only limited effectiveness and risked standing in the way of a rapid recovery from the current crisis. It stated that recent evidence shows that while export bans have helped to contain domestic price rises, they have contributed to a worsened food crisis. 

Malcolm Damon, director of an economic justice network in Southern Africa, said, however, that dealing with food shortages cannot be left to market conditions. 

He said the WTO report acknowledged the need to impose tariffs or other duties to offset export subsidies that generate unfair competition, but larger structural problems still exist. “The concentration of wealth, oligopolies, predatory dumping…are treated like market failures but they are consequences of a system driven by maximising profit rather than ensuring global welfare,” he stated. 

Rogate Mshana, director of the World Council of Churches’ programme on justice, diakonia and responsibility for creation, said that the report used, “neo-liberal economics to advocate for more free trade as the means to improve global welfare, but there is little reference to the fact that trading partners aren’t equal.” 

The EAA launched its campaign on food in May. It advocates for just and sustainable food production, trade and distribution systems; just and sustainable consumption; and the realisation of the right to food for all people.

 

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