Scottish Catholic Observer

SCIAF has backed a UK government-commissioned study that has called for urgent action to avert global hunger.

The Foresight Report on Food and Farming Futures says the current global food system is unsustainable and will fail to end hunger unless radically redesigned.

The report is the culmination of a two-year study, involving 400 experts from 35 countries.

The report emphasises changes to farming, to ensure that increasing yields does not come at the expense of sustainability and to provide incentives to the agricultural sector that address malnutrition.

Paul Chitnis, chief executive of the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund (SCIAF), said the report proved change was required.
“The current food crisis has left nearly one billion people going hungry,” he said. “Unfair trade rules and financial systems that put profit before people threaten to drive millions more into a life of poverty.  There is no simple solution to ending global hunger.”

Mr Chitnis (seen above with Cardinal O’Brien in Haiti this month) added that there is substantial evidence that ‘financial market speculation can exacerbate the swing in food prices, which harm small scale producers and consumers of food.’

“Olivier de Schutter, UN rapporteur on the right to food, recently highlighted that the prices of wheat, maize and rice have increased significantly due to traders reacting to information and speculating on the markets, and not to low stock levels or poor harvests,” he said.

“SCIAF has joined forces with other agencies to call for a ‘Robin Hood Tax.’ This would put in place a 0.05 per cent charge on large financial market transactions such as trust funds and derivatives, which could deter this speculation and provide billions of pounds in additional funding to reduce poverty and hunger.”