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INTL-BIOTECH KEY TO FIGHT HUNGER CLINTON
Alan Bjerga, Source:Bloomberg
Oct 16, 2009
Biotechnology will play a "critical role" in combating hunger, which has become a global security threat with more than 60 food riots worldwide since 2007, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
Improved technology will be one of the main tools the U.S. will use to help countries produce more food, Clinton said today in a teleconference with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, in observance of World Food Day.
Hunger is becoming a larger economic, environmental and security threat, Clinton said. The number of hungry people worldwide reached 1.02 billion for the first time this year, the UN said earlier this week. The U.S. will be "investing in all of the tools that are needed to leverage the skills and perseverance of farmers," Clinton said.
Food production will have to rise 70 percent in the next four decades to meet the world's needs, according to the United Nations, even as climate change threatens wheat, corn and rice yields in developing nations. Farming in poorer countries will need $83 billion of investment a year, the UN said last week.
In the past year, developed nations have pledged increased amounts of money for agricultural development and food aid. Last month, Clinton said that combating hunger is a major policy goal, and in July the Group of Eight nations promised $20 billion in food-security aid over three years, a number that's since grown to $22 billion.
DuPont, Monsanto
The secretary of state's comments echo those of Ellen Kullman, the chief executive officer of Wilmington, Delware- based DuPont Co., the world's second-leading seed producer after St. Louis-based Monsanto Co. Genetically modified crops will be crucial to meeting world needs without increasing the amount of land used in farming, Kullman told reporters earlier this week.
Resistance to biotech seeds remains strong in Europe, where some countries rejected the use of genetically modified crops, including BASF AG's Amflora potatoes and Monsanto corn. Elsewhere, sales are growing. The number of countries where bioengineered crops are allowed rose by three to 25 last year as soybeans, cotton and corn were planted in Bolivia, Burkina Faso and Egypt, respectively, for the first time, according to a February report by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications.
Food Security
Increased populations and demand for food has led to higher prices and a heightened threat to security in some countries, according to the UN.
Global food prices jumped 42 percent from June 2007 to June 2008, leading to food riots in Haiti, the Ivory Coast and elsewhere, the UN said. Even as costs have since retreated to 2007 levels, the world financial crisis that created more than $1.6 trillion of writedowns and credit losses at the world's biggest banks contributed to an increase in hunger, Roy Steiner, deputy director of agricultural development for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said last week.
World Food Day, first observed in 1981, is held each Oct. 16 in recognition of the 1945 founding of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization. It is designed to increase awareness, understanding and year-round action to alleviate hunger, according to U.S. organizers of the event.
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