World Food Day -- not a day to celebrate

FAO has designated the 16th October 'World Food Day'. This year's theme is “Food Prices—From Crisis to Stability”, highlighting the need to stabilise food prices in order to prevent more people from going hungry. According to the World Bank, in 2010-2011 rising food costs pushed nearly 70 million people into extreme poverty. Data compiled by IFPRI shows that the countries that are already suffering the highest levels of food insecurity are in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. However, the most hungry people can be found in Burundi, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Eritrea.

Many charities and development organisations were hoping that the European Union would play it's part in stabilising world food prices by reducing the amount of money that EU tax-payers give to their big farmers and food processors under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).  Research has shown that these huge EU subsidies are distorting Africa's economies and impoverishing her farmers.  The largest UK recipients of these subsidies include large multinational companies, such as Tate & Lyle, Nestle, Cadbury, Kraft and a host of manufacturers of bulk animal fats, sugars and refined starches.  In effect, these companies and being paid to export their products more cheaply to poorer countries, thereby undercutting local production.  Many of these companies are also destroying the world's remaining rain-forests in order to grow animal feed for factory farms.

Although the European Commission has proposed a 9% cut in these subsidies, €435 bn of tax-payers' money will still be paid to some of the most destructive corporations and richest individuals in Europe over the next 10 years.  Thereby stifling increased productivity by food producers in developing countries and encouraging more environmental damage world-wide.

These proposals are currently being discussed in the European Parliament, please make your voice heard by signing the European Food Declaration or writing to your local MEP.