SOLUTIONS NEEDED TO ADDRESS SPIRALING
GLOBAL FOOD COSTS
~ Catholic Relief
Services Urges Immediate Hunger Relief ~
April 2008
Washington, DC - As the cost
of food around the world spirals upward, causing widespread
hunger and triggering riots in cities in several nations,
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) is urging the Bush Administration
and Congress to immediately increase global food assistance
to the developing world. At the same time, CRS is calling
on the United States and other nations to intensify
the search for a means to provide long-term food security.
To meet the pressing need
for feeding the poorest and most vulnerable people globally,
an immediate appropriation of up to $900 million is
required simply to buy the same amount of food aid that
the United States provided last year. However, rising
costs and demand for emergency aid may well require
additional resources to keep pace with last year's aid
levels.
CRS field offices around
the world are already reporting and responding to the
effects of commodity price increases. Examples of these
effects include:
-
In Haiti, Port au Prince erupted in riots directly
related to the national food shortages that will
continue until the harvest starts in June.
-
In Ethiopia, signs of the commodity price increases
include an increasing number of women, children,
elderly, and disabled people living on the streets
of Addis Ababa.
-
In Guatemala, the most recently quoted monthly
value of a typical food basket is $213 for a family
of six, compared $217, the minimum monthly salary
for agricultural work.
CRS continues to distribute
food to those who need it, including the desperately
poor, orphans and other vulnerable children, pregnant
women, and the sick. Additional emergency food distributions
are being arranged in CRS field programs as conditions
require them.
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