Without action, world faces permanent food crisis

As food costs spike for the second time in three years, international organizations are warning that, without immediate action and long-term planning, the world will face a permanent crisis caused by rising demand, flat crop yields and climate change.

The London-based Oxfam International organization released a report Tuesday, saying increasingly frequent droughts, floods and changes in agricultural patterns from global warming will add pressure to what the agency calls an already broken system.

Titled, “Growing a Better Future”, the report warns that depletion of the earth’s natural resources and increasingly severe climate change impacts will create millions more hungry people. Also Tuesday, in conjunction with the release of the report, Oxfam launched its GROW campaign. GROW seeks to secure active and coordinated cooperation of governments - especially the powerful G20 - to lead the transformation to a more sustainable food system by investing in agriculture, valuing the world’s natural resources, managing the food system better and delivering equality for women who produce much of the world's food.

Oxfam is also calling on the private sector to shift to a business model where profit does not come at the expense of poor producers, consumers and the environment.


Oxfam UK Campaigns Manager, Adam Askew told Vatican Radio that his agency’s campaign seeks to ensure that everyone always has enough to eat. “We have almost a billion people hungry now every day,” he said, adding, “governments and businesses need to act.” Oxfam’s report assigns a portion of responsibility for the crisis to commodities traders, saying three companies control 90 percent of the trade in grain, and urging greater regulation of speculation in the international food market.

Listen to Chris Altieri's extended interview with Oxfam's Adam Askew: