We need our readers` Feedback for a synthesis document for the Madrid meeting

Securing world food security in light of the impact of climate change may be one of the biggest challenges we face in this century. More than 860 million people in the world today suffer from hunger. Of those, about 830 million live in developing countries, the very countries expected to be most affected by climate change.

At the beginning of June, world leaders and policymakers converged upon Rome to discuss these challenges and to devise ways in which to safeguard the world's most vulnerable populations.

The High-Level Conference on World Food Security: The Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy opened at FAO Headquarters in Rome, Italy on 3 June 2008.

Rising food prices are a global concern and have led to riots against high food prices in a growing number of countries such as Egypt, Senegal and Cameroon. Using government funds to lower prices can only be a short-term policy. Egypt already spends more on subsidies, including gasoline and bread, than on education and health combined. The United Nations food specialists indicate serious food shortages in many countries of Africa: In East and Southern Africa: Lesotho, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Somalia, Mozambique, and Eritrea. In West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, and Cameroon.

Thus in Rome, there were 43 heads of government, and Ministers of Agriculture headed the other delegations. The world's funding agencies were all there pledging increased funds. There were representatives from inter-governmental organizations such as the European Union as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and a larger-than-usual press corps.

However, the agreements reached during the preparatory phase on longer-range planning in the light of climate change were largely put aside and attention given to the current crisis. As these crisis issues had not been at the center of the preparatory phase, no important agreements could be reached. It is impossible to negotiate with over 180 delegations present, often headed by political leaders who want to make a speech useful for domestic reasons and then leave. The political speeches, however, give a good indication of what issues are central and where agreements may be reached later. Thus Spain proposed to host a follow-up conference in Madrid in November or December. Between now and then, government specialists will work on formulating policies on which agreements can be made.

Thus, the period from June to November 2008 is crucial for NGOs interested in a world food policy. It is impossible for NGOs to modify the policies of governments during a conference. It is during the preparatory phase that governments are willing to consider new ideas. Many of these ideas are, in fact, not new. They have been lying around for some time but not put into practice and not structured in a wholistic way. As the US economist Milton Friedman wrote "Only a crisis- actual or perceived - produces real change. When the crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, and to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable."

In the next couple of months, it will be important for NGOs to discuss food policy at the EU Secretariat and with French officials as France will have the EU presidency. Agricultural policy has always been a priority in France's EU activities and so France will play a major role in trying to build a European consensus on food and agriculture for the follow up conference in Madrid. However, a world perspective is needed. A world food policy for the welfare of all requires a close look at world institutions and patterns of production and trade. As Stringfellow Barr wrote in his 1952 book Citizens of the World "Since the hungry billion in the world community believe that we can all eat if we set our common house in order, they believe also that it is unjust that some men die because it is too much trouble to arrange for them to live."

We need our readers` Feedback for a synthesis document for the Madrid meeting. These will be sent to Rene Wadlow is the Representative to the United Nations, Geneva of the Association of World Citizens and the editor of the journal of world politics: www.transnational-perspectives.org. Please see his article - Worldwide Food Shortages: The Rich Have Already Eaten - Rene Wadlow
http://www.transnational-perspectives.org/transnational/articles/article352.pdf