Globally, food prices have risen by an average of 83 per cent over the last three years. This is due to a number of factors, including bad weather, increased demand from fast-growing economies, population growth, demand for biofuels, and high oil prices, which force up transport costs and fertiliser prices. This has led to poor people eating less food or less nutritious food, and poor households cutting back on health care, education, and other necessities. Women and children are particularly vulnerable, as women often put men's consumption first.

Food prices are likely to remain high and volatile because of high oil prices and rising demand for cereals, linked with steady growth in worldwide consumer demand and extremely rapid growth in demand for biofuels, underpinned by generous subsidies and tax breaks in the US and EU. In addition, climate change is expected to lead to more unpredictable weather and climate-related disasters, further disrupting supply. Action is urgently needed to deal with the current crisis and to find durable solutions to hunger and poverty. The current situation primarily affects poor people, but also offers an opportunity for hundreds of millions to find their way out of poverty.

In a recent briefing note, The Time Is Now, Oxfam concluded that collective action is essential to devise solutions that are equitable and sustainable for the global population. This crisis represents an enormous challenge for the world's multilateral institutions, but also a genuine opportunity to deliver long-overdue reforms to the food and agriculture system. If those institutions fail to rise to the challenge, the cost will be measured not just in lost lives and human suffering, but also in lost legitimacy. Rich-country governments must show the poor nations and communities of the world that they are determined to agree the changes necessary to funding and policy in order to help poor and vulnerable people put food on the family table. Support to small-holder agriculture in developing countries must be at the centre of the response.

An obvious and easy quick win would be to dismantle support to biofuels, in the form of targets, subsidies, tax breaks, and tariffs (the combined value of which last year was about $15bn - the same amount that Oxfam has estimated is necessary in immediate assistance for those worst affected by the food crisis), particularly as the scientific evidence continues to mount that these 'green' fuels actually contribute to global emissions. Oxfam urges world leaders to ensure that short-term, immediate needs are guaranteed in the coming weeks, and to formulate a comprehensive plan of action, including the policy shifts and investments necessary for durable solutions to hunger and poverty.