U.N. sees food prices unleashing silent tsunami

LONDON (Reuters) - A "silent tsunami" unleashed by costlierfood threatens 100 million people, the United Nations said onTuesday, but views differed as to how to stop it.

Aid bodies said there was enough food to go round but thekey was to help the poor afford it, and urged producing nationsnot to curb exports to stockpile food at home.

In London, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Britain wouldseek changes to EU biofuels targets if it was shown thatplanting crops for fuel was driving up food prices -- a dayafter the bloc stood by its plans to boost biofuel use.

The government also pledged $900 million (452 millionpounds) to help the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) alleviateimmediate problems and address longer-term solutions to "helpput food on the table for nearly a billion people going hungryacross the world".

The WFP, whose head Josette Sheeran took part in a meetingof experts Brown called on Tuesday to discuss the crisis, saida "silent tsunami" threatened to plunge over 100 million peopleon every continent into hunger.

"This is the new face of hunger -- the millions of peoplewho were not in the urgent hunger category six months ago butnow are," she said ahead of the meeting.

Riots in poor Asian and African countries have followedsteep rises in food prices caused by many factors -- dearerfuel, bad weather, rising disposable incomes boosting demandand the conversion of land to grow crops for biofuel.

Rice from Thailand, the world's top exporter, has more thandoubled in price this year.

Sheeran said artificially created shortages, such as thosecaused by countries that have slowed or stopped exports, wereworsening the problem.

Major food exporters including Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Egyptand Cambodia have closed their stocks to safeguard supplies.

"The world has been consuming more than it has beenproducing for the past three years, so stocks have been drawndown," Sheeran said. "The world knows how to produce food andwill do so. But we will have a couple of challenging years."

Rising prices meant the WFP was running short of money tobuy food for its programmes and had already curtailed schoolfeeding plans in Tajikistan, Kenya and Cambodia.

Sheeran said WFP, which last year estimated it would need$2.9 billion in 2008 to cover its needs, now calculated itwould have to raise that figure by one quarter because of thesurge in prices of staples like wheat, maize and rice.

END OF AN ERA

She said this was the biggest challenge in the WFP's45-year history.

"The era of cheap food is over," said Rajat Nag, managingdirector general of the Asian Development Bank. He urged Asiangovernments not to distort markets with export curbs but usefiscal measures to help the poor.

"We want to temper what we think is a bit of anover-reaction. There is still enough supply," he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said dearer foodrisked wiping out progress on cutting poverty.

Brown raised further doubts about the wisdom of using cropsto help produce fuel, an idea whose recent popularity in theUnited States and Europe has been dented by fears it harms theenvironment and makes food dearer.

"We need to look closely at the impact on food prices andthe environment of different production methods and to ensurewe are more selective in our support (for biofuels)," he said.

"If our UK review shows that we need to change ourapproach, we will also push for change in EU biofuels targets,"he said a day after the EU stood by its target of getting atenth of road transport fuel from crops and agricultural wasteby 2020.

(Written by Richard Meares, edited by Jon Boyle)