World Bank Head Urges Action On Food Costs

(AP)  The president of the World Bank on Sunday urged immediate action to deal with rapidly rising food prices that have caused hunger and deadly violence in several countries.

Robert Zoellick said the international community has "to put our money where our mouth is" and act now to help hungry people. "It is as stark as that."

He called on governments to rapidly carry out commitments to provide the U.N. World Food Program with $500 million in emergency aid it needs by May 1.

"It is critical that governments confirm their commitments as soon as possible and others begin to commit," Zoellick said. Prices have only risen further since the WFP issued that appeal, so it is urgent that governments step up."

After a meeting of the bank's policy-setting committee, Zoellick said that the fall of the government in Haiti over the weekend after a wave of deadly rioting and looting over food prices underscores the importance of quick international action. A U.N. police officer was killed Sunday in Haiti's capital.

He said the bank is granting an additional $10 million to Haiti for feeding programs, "and I understand others are looking to help."

Zoellick said the bank was responding to a number of other countries with conditional cash transfer programs, providing food at workplaces, and seeds for planting in the new season.

He said that based on a rough analysis the bank estimates that a doubling of food prices over the last three years could potentially push people in low income countries deeper into poverty.

"This is not just a question of short term needs, as important as they are," Zoellick said." This is about ensuring that future generations don't pay a price too."

Zoellick spoke as the bank and its sister institution, the International Monetary Fund, wound up two days of meetings that dealt with the financial crises roiling global markets and rising food and energy prices.

The head of the IMF also sounded the alarm on food prices, warning that if they remain high there will be dire consequences for people in many developing countries, especially in Africa.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Saturday that the problem could also create trade imbalances that would impact major advanced economies, "so it is not only a humanitarian question."

He said if the price spike continues, "Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people will be starving. Children will be suffering from malnutrition, with consequences for all their lives."

Zoellick said the bank's policy-setting Development Committee endorsed his call for a "New Deal for Global Food Policy" that would aim to boost agricultural productivity in poor nations, improve access to food through schools or work places, and help small farmers.

He said earlier this month the bank would nearly double the money it lends for agriculture in Africa from $450 million to $800 million.

Zoellick said he had received positive feedback for his proposal to have sovereign wealth funds - huge pools of capital controlled by governments - invest one percent of their resources in Africa. He said this could provide $30 billion to African growth.

He said the bank was following up on the proposal in discussions with countries that have sovereign wealth funds, mainly in Asia and the Middle East, through the International Finance Corporation, the bank's private sector arm.

"Hunger, malnutrition and food policy have formed a recurrent theme at this weekend's meetings, and I believe that we have made progress," Zoellick said. "But it will be important to continue to retain the focus on this as we leave Washington."

[lewiston14]

Well RGMiron: You said you were heading to hard times, Guess what Bush just spent hundres of millions of food aid to save the world so now you can pay $3 for that loaf of bread. And you have the guts to call me cold? If Aferica and Haiti vanished tomorrow I would not know or care. Your a jerk what do we look like the world food bank

[quetzal0666]

What, first Bush War, now Famine????
When does Wormwood fall from the sky???

[bgwinnett]

lewiston14: Thats a cold thing to say, we are going into hard times ourselves.
The culling of a herd can be a sad thing to witness!!!! Especially when your in the herd!!!!!!
Good Luck to All.

Posted by RGMiron at 08:12 PM : Apr 13, 2008

lewiston14: Thats a cold thing to say, we are going into hard times ourselves.
The culling of a herd can be a sad thing to witness!!!! Especially when your in the herd!!!!!!
Good Luck to All.

Posted by RGMiron at 08:12 PM : Apr 13, 2008

Yup. social Darwinism is going to be put into experiment by this country''s elite. Quite ironic really because the US is the only so called advanced nation that has a large minority of it''s citizenship that actually don''t believe in any form of evolution.
On the plus side though everyone will be slim, 6 foot tall, smart and really strong, but there won''t be nearly as many of us and we will probably be all related to the Harvard rowing team.Who will do all the labor though? I suppose they will create a version of HG Wells''s Morlocks for that.

[termtex01]

"I bet there''''s no food shortage on (the former Goldman Sachs exec, Harvard Law graduate, trade representative to China, and NAFTA supporter) Zoelick''''s table.

Posted by SistaTee at 08:42 PM : Apr 13, 2008"

I noticed that the article never mentions ANYTHING about a shortage of food. It''s what the food COSTS is what the article is about. So, yes, you are right, the would be no shortage on the table of ANYONE who can afford food. The issue is the high prices because of biofuels eating up the supply of staples like corn and other crops that are traditionally food sources; the cost of oil from OPEC nations; and the lack of push to acquire more ''home-grown'' sources of fuels.

[ranger1948]

He is right about one thing. If this problem is not addressed, then the people of the world will finally have something worthwhile to fight about, where their next meal is coming from.

[gce65]

By the way, who''s the guy next to Zoellick in the picture? He certainly looks like the World Bank face of concern for a global food crisis. Not! Looks more like that fat kid Augustus Gloop in the old Willie Wonka movie.

Ha! Check this out: His name IS basically Augustus. He''s Development Committee Chairman Agustin Carstens, Mexico''s secretary of finance and public credit.

Doesn''t look like he''s missed too many meals.

[gce65]

cattlekate:
Totally right. Zoellick''s too late! He''s reacting after the fact, just like in Darfur where he talked a good game and wore his "not on our watch" bracelet, but it did in fact occur on his watch. And it still occurs.

Now the global food crisis is occurring on his watch. Could he have made different choices decades ago? Probably.

But Zoellick was one of the signatories way back in 1998--including Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Zal Khalilzad, John Bolton, Bill Kristol--of a letter to Clinton from the Project for the New American Century calling for war with Iraq.

He''s a neocon through and through, and only got his current job at the World Bank because Wolfowitz was arrogant and stupid enough to give his girlfriend Shaha Riza a huge raise she didn''t deserve and got caught!

If the neocons touch this problem it''ll likely end in failure, like everything else they''ve touched.

[cattlekate]

"Meet Bush''s World Bank Nominee - PNAC Member, Bilderberg Attendee, CFR Member, Trilateral Commission Member, NAFTA Architect and Enron Advisor
Robert Zoellick is a Globalist all rounder.

President Bush''s reaction to the loss of close ally, ultra globalist and PNAC war hawk Paul Wolfowitz as President of the World Bank has been to nominate one of his best friends, closest allies and ultra globalist PNAC war hawks, Robert Zoellick for the position.

Zoellick is the Crhme de la Crhme of Washington''s elite. His wikipedia entry reveals him to be a globalist all rounder who has worked his way into the upper echelons of every shadowy body and organisation of thinkers and power-brokers you can think of.

Like Wolfowitz, Zoellick is a member of the hawkish neo-conservative think tank Project for the New American Century (PNAC) who pushed hard to invoke the notion that evil foreign enemies who hated America should be preemptively dealt with.

Meet Bush''s World Bank Nominee - PNAC Member, Bilderberg Attendee, CFR Member, Trilateral Commission Member, NAFTA Architect and Enron Advisor
Robert Zoellick is a Globalist.

Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Thursday, May 31, 2007


A PNACer demonstrating worry about the commoner?

Don''t think so.

He''ll use food carrots in order to get what his stick can''t.

[rudy654-2009]

Here comes folks . . . we already paid 240 Billion for farm sudsidies. Now, the Government is going to have to pay Major food distributors government welfare. And the beat goes on, and on, and on.
Posted by mcv57 at 08:11 PM

A while back when they started this krap about turning corn into ethanol, I posted about the ridiculous consequences that would result in turning food into a fuel that cost more to produce than it is worth. Furthermore, it is fairly well known that it is not cleaner for the environment, in fact it''s worse. But oh no, the corporate farmers of Iowa have their control base in politics and weren''t about to hear of keeping corn for food. The worse part of this is we are paying corporate welfare out to these so-called farms to mass produce our food supply and turn it into ethanol for which they become richer at our expense (Let''s hear you critics go after the poor welfare people now). On top of that, gas prices are being kept artificially high while our beloved president piles more of it away in reserves thanks again to the taxpayer. Making prices in every category go through the roof. But you won''t hear any of this in the wisdom of their radio god Limbaugh.

[jt_lancer]

How ironic that they are ''reaching out'' to governments for help, when governments are causing the problem. Farm subsidies, ethanol subsidies, import and export tariffs that prevent free trade between buyers and sellers.

For example, the price of sugar in the US is artificially inflated by about 300% because of the tariffs imposed by government on imported sugar.

It is also why soda companies use artificial sweeteners - because govts make it too expensive to use the real thing.