For the first time in history, the number of people in the world experiencing hunger has exceeded one billion this year, up by 115 million since 2007. Every six seconds a child dies because of hunger and related causes. One out of four children–roughly 146 million–in developing countries is underweight.[1][

The maneuvering of the world’s biggest rice exporter Thailand to get the Philippines, the world’s biggest rice importer, to speed up liberalization of its rice sector during the ASEAN summit meeting this weekend highlights the hazards of entering into free trade deals from a position of weakness. The local economy is under threat not just from First World countries like the United States, Japan and the European Union but also from other Third World countries. Thailand is understandably out to promote its export interests even if this is at the expense of the Philippines.

The recent typhoons highlighted land and crop use conversion as a factor in worsening the effects of disasters on food production and the need to ensure adequate land for food production. However amidst all these, government has reserved more agricultural land for export crops and use of foreign agro-corporations.

The intensifying food crisis that started with the steeply rising prices of staple food from 2005-2008 had resource-hungry rich countries and private investors scrambling for vast tracts of land in developing countries to secure their food and biofuels supply. This global phenomenon, called “land grab”, is already responsible for 20 million hectares of land in Africa, Asia and Latin America being bought or leased since 2006.

The threat of climate change on human society and the biosphere as a whole has emerged as a critical and urgent issue. The impact of climate change on human production systems is already being felt as increasingly erratic weather conditions upset agricultural production patterns.

27-29 September 2009, Penang, Malaysia

We, 113 participants from 22 countries representing peasants, small farmers, agricultural workers, women, indigenous peoples’, fisherfolk organizations, and health, environmental and consumers CSOs met in the Conference on Confronting the Food Crisis and Climate Change from 27-29 September, 2009 in Penang, Malaysia.

The role of multilaterals as ideal delivery platforms for the neoliberal agenda were torpedoed by popular protests and profound disagreements even among WTO members. From the Seattle Ministerial in November 1999 to the Geneva talks in July 2006, festering resentments against Northern dominance repeatedly led to deadlocks in negotiations, exerting pressure on bilaterals – heretofor considered a secondary delivery platform – to compensate for the more coherent but scuttle-prone multilaterals.

Four years after its last minister-level gathering in Hong Kong in 2005, the 7th Ministerial Conference (MC) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) is slated to take place in Geneva from 30 November to 02 December 2009. The MC is being held during an unprecedented period of global economic turbulence and ecological challenges. The global financial crisis that originated in rich, industrialised countries in 2008 continues to wreak havoc on many economies including developing economies; and the reality of climate change and its adverse consequences have rapidly moved to the forefront of the most urgent issues confronting the international community today. What then can we expect from this global trade summit?

Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives
By Carolyn Steel
Chatto and Windus

The End of Food: The Coming Crisis in the World Food Industry
By Paul Roberts
Bloombury

• 1.02 billion people do not have enough to eat - more than the populations of USA, Canada and the European Union; (Source: FAO news release, 19 June 2009)