Soaring Food Prices could Trigger a Global Catastrophe

Soaring food prices could trigger a global catastrophe, with the world's poor unable to feed their families, human rights activists said today. The warning came as world leaders arrived in Rome for a U.N. summit to tackle a food crisis that is pushing 100 million people into hunger, triggering food protests and could intensify violence in war zones. Poor harvests, low stocks and rising demand, especially from India and China, caused huge food price increases over the last few years, fueling protests, strikes and violence in Africa, Asia and Latin America. A combination of high oil prices, urbanization, flawed trade policies, production of bio-feuls and other factors have caused food prices to escalate around the world. These factors have provoked protests and riots in Africa and Asia in recent months and left aid organizations that feed the poor struggling. Close to a billion people on the planet live on a dollar a day and it is estimated that close to 15,000 children die daily due to food shortage related issues in third world countries. Hunger campaigners have targeted the recent rise in bio-fuels -- usually the conversion of food crops into energy -- as one of the main reasons for the rising food prices and say the summit should declare a ban on arable land being switched to biofuel production.