World leaders meet on global food crisis

ROME (Reuters) - World leaders opened a conference on theglobal food crisis on Tuesday with the World Bank andhumanitarian agencies demanding action to curb soaring pricesthat could push up to 100 million people into hunger.

The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)called the Rome summit at the end of last year originally todiscuss the risks posed to food security by climate change butthe focus has changed over recent months.

"World public opinion has been taken by surprise by theexplosion of a rapid chain of events affecting food followed bythe rapid, dramatic rise in the price of foodstuffs," ItalianPresident Giorgio Napolitano said in a speech opening thesummit.

The cost of major food commodities has doubled over thelast couple of years, with rice, corn and wheat at recordhighs. Some prices have hit their highest levels in 30 years inreal terms, provoking protests and riots in some developingcountries where people may spend more than half their income onfood.

Some 44 national leaders attended, including the Japanese,French and Spanish prime ministers, the presidents of majorfarming nations like Brazil and Argentina and the leaders ofmany African nations including Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.

Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made his first trip to theEuropean Union as president to attend the summit.

"Iran can play a determining role in order to get out ofthe current global issue related to high prices and a shortageof food products and agricultural products," said Ahmadinejadas he left Iran.

Delegates at the three days of talks will discuss issuessuch as aid, trade and technology to improve farm yields.Hunger campaigners single out biofuels -- often made byconverting food crops into fuel -- as a prime culprit for thecrisis.

"Countries are justifying the pursuit of biofuels on thegrounds that they offer a means to reduce emissions fromtransport and improve energy security," Oxfam said in a reportreleased for the summit.

"But there is mounting scientific evidence that biofuelmandates (policy support) are actually accelerating climatechange by driving the expansion of agriculture into criticalhabitats such as forests and wetlands."

ETHANOL PRODUCTION

The United States is channelling about a quarter of itsmaize crop into ethanol production by 2022 and the EuropeanUnion plans to get 10 percent of auto fuel from bio-energy by2020. Biofuel supporters say its effect on global food pricesis small.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Shafer said before the summitbegan that biofuels accounted for only around 3 percent of thetotal food price rise. Oxfam said the real impact was about 30percent.

World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said the issue should notbe allowed to dominate the summit, although biofuels clearlycompeted with food production. However, he said Africa couldbenefit from sugar-based biofuel production as Brazil has.

The World Bank estimates higher food prices are pushing 30million Africans into poverty. Zoellick said African leaderswanted action, not words.

"It would be unfortunate if (bio-energy) becomes the solepoint of debate, because then we would not meet what poorcountries tell me they want, which is resources for safety netprogrammes, seeds and fertilisers, and export bans lifted," hetold Reuters on Monday.

Brazil, a pioneer in sugar-cane based biofuels, is set todefend them at the summit. Its foreign minister, Celso Amorim,said fair trade and the abolition of rich countries' subsidiesto farmers were crucial issues for the summit.