|
|
 |
 |
Food Crisis Threatens Many Poor Nations
World leaders met in Rome, Italy, last week to talk about food, farming, and the poor. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations hosted the conference. The FAO called the meeting because of a growing crisis in Africa over food. The problem is that the price of rice, corn, and wheat has gone way up in the last two years.
For people in wealthier countries it's not that big a deal. If a cup of rice costs fifty cents more, most Americans can come up with the money. But in some countries a family might only have 50 cents a day to spend on food. When the price goes up, they can't buy what they need to eat. 850 million people in the world are already going hungry. Rising prices could add another 100 million. That's why the leaders at the summit want to find ways to lower the cost of food.
The conference agreed to try to raise production to increase the amount of food and lower trade barriers to help keep costs down. But it did not tackle tougher issues like how to slow global warming or whether to stop using farmland to raise biofuel instead of food. Even so, organizers felt the conference called attention to a growing problem and in that way was a success.
I'm Michelle and that's what happened in the world this week.
Do you think that richer countries must do more to feed the world's hungry?
Sound off in this week's Call Out.
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
