The United Nations will establish a top-level task force to tackle food shortages and escalating prices that threaten to touch off a "cascade of related crises" around the world, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday.
Ban, who will lead the task force, said the group agreed on a series of measures for the medium and long term, with its first priority to meet the $755 million shortfall in funding for the World Food Program. | Even if the shortfall is met, more money probably will be needed, he said. |
"Without full funding of these emergency requirements we risk again the specter of widespread hunger, malnutrition and social unrest on an unprecedented scale," he told reporters in the Swiss capital, Bern, where the U.N. agency chiefs have been meeting. Even if the shortfall is met, more money probably will be needed, he said.
Later, in a speech at the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva, Ban said high food prices "could touch off a cascade of related crises — affecting trade, economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world."
The price increases have been dramatic, he said. "The price of rice in particular has gone from $400 a ton some weeks ago to more than $1,000 today." |