Oxfam has today (World Food Day, October 16th) launched a massive fundraising appeal to tackle the impact of rising world food prices, which have pushed an extra 119 million people into hunger, taking the global total to nearly 1 billion.

The appeal has been launched on World Food Day alongside a new Oxfam report, Double Edged Prices, showing that the increases in food prices have pushed the world’s poorest further into destitution while quadrupling profits for some international businesses.

Oxfam needs an extra £15 million to pay for its international development and humanitarian work on food and agriculture, and to campaign for changes to the flawed trade and agricultural polices that have left poor farmers vulnerable.

Oxfam Chief Executive Barbara Stocking said: “These are tough times for many of us, but huge increases in food prices mean that the world’s poorest are being hit hardest. Oxfam needs £15 million to help us to tackle this problem, anything you can do to help will make a real difference.”

The prices of basic foods such as rice and cereals have increased by up to 300 per cent in some places and nearly a billion people around the world are now malnourished, according to the World Bank. In Double Edged Prices,Oxfam says that all governments, donors, and agencies, must learn the lessons from the crisis and take action by investing in agriculture, having trade policies that ensure food security, and designing social protection systems that protect the poorest.

Barbara Stocking said: “The trend in agriculture, as in international finance, has been towards deregulation and a reduced role for the State. This has had devastating effects and innocent lives have been blighted by exposure to market volatility. It is time the world woke up to the need for developing country governments to support their poor farmers, and the obligation of developed countries to help them to do so.”

“In countries where governments have invested in agriculture, and put policies in place to target vulnerable or marginalised groups, the impacts of food price inflation have been less severe. In contrast, where there has been unmanaged trade liberalisation, underinvestment in agriculture, and little support from government, the effects have been devastating,” she added.

Higher food prices mean people are eating less and lower quality food, children are being taken out of school and farmers are being forced to migrate to cities to live in slums (see case studies below). Women are especially vulnerable because they rarely own land and have limited access to credit and other services, but they bear much of the responsibility for feeding and caring for families.

Meanwhile, some of the biggest international food companies have made windfall profits. Commodity-trader, Bunge, saw its profits in the second fiscal quarter of 2008 increase by $583m, or quadruple, compared with the same period last year. Nestlé’s global sales grew nearly 9% in the first half of 2008, and UK supermarket Tesco, has reported profits up 10% from last year. Seed company, Monsanto, reported a 26% increase in revenue to a record $3.6bn in the fiscal quarter that ended May 31, 2008.

“Misguided or inadequate national agricultural policies, coupled with unfair trade rules and poor economic advice, has created a situation where big traders and supermarkets are gaining from price rises, and small farmers and consumers are losing out,” said Barbara Stocking.

Oxfam criticises the international community’s inadequate response - both in terms of money and coordination. At an emergency meeting in Rome earlier this year, $12.3bn was pledged for the food crisis, but little more than $1bn has been disbursed so far. This is in stark contrast with the response to the current financial crisis, where huge financial resources have been mobilised by the international community in a matter of days.

Barbara Stocking said: “It is shocking that the international community has failed to organise itself to respond adequately to this. The UN taskforce produced a good plan - the Comprehensive Framework for Action - but there is still not clear leadership to implement it. Developing countries are being bombarded with different initiatives and asked to produce multiple plans for different donors. We need to see one coordinated international response, led by the UN, which channels funds urgently to those in need, and leads on implementation of the longer-term reforms.”

Oxfam’s appeal is supported by Ian Hislop, Private Eye Editor and Have I Got News For You panelist. He said: “Whilst we in the rich world have been frantically worrying this week about the thought that we might become a bit less rich it is rather shaming to be told by Oxfam that there are currently one billion poor people actually going hungry. And the problem is getting worse as the price of food increases sharply.  Oxfam needs us to donate to this appeal to help them change this, by getting assistance to the people who need it and to tackle the unfair policies that have allowed this situation to come about. If we can save the banks then perhaps we can put our hands in our pockets for the hungry.”

/ Ends

For more info:

Amy Barry, +44 (0) 1865 472313, +44 (0) 7980 664397, abarry@oxfam.org.uk; Jon Slater, +44 1865 472249, +44 (0) 7876 476403,  jslater@oxfam.org.uk; Rob McNeil, +44 (0) 7909 860370, rmcneil@oxfam.org.uk; www.oxfam.org.uk/news

Selected case studies (more available, with video, audio, photos and personal testimonies):

In Haiti, existing deep poverty has been exacerbated by food price rises and hurricanes. Five million Haitians live on less than a dollar a day and in 2007 almost half the population was undernourished. Haitians have labelled the food price crisis Clorox after a brand of chlorine tablets for water purification, which cause terrible stomach pains if swallowed - like permanent hunger.

In Malawi, government subsidies have successfully boosted production levels in many areas, resulting in consecutive surpluses at the national level (a reversal of previous shortages). However, pockets of serious food insecurity still exist and some poor households are already facing a food crisis, eating only one meal a day. In some areas, women have resorted to cooking wild beans, which are poisonous if not prepared properly. This means cooking them for hours, using scarce water and firewood.

In Cambodia, soaring food prices are impacting hard on the poor in both urban and rural areas. Even rice farmers who are supposed to benefit from the high prices are struggling to feed their family, as many of them are net food buyers. Overall, 1.7 million people are facing food insecurity. Von Siphou, 42, sells fruit at a stall in Phnom Penh. She says: “I am working as hard as I can and it is not good enough. The only thing left to do is to not eat.”

In Honduras, which is highly dependent on imports, food consumption among the poorest families has reduced by 8%.  The most affected are urban poor, subsistence farmers, day labourers, and non-farming rural poor.  60% of the rural population is affected.

In Tajikistan, an exceptionally severe winter followed by a hot spring led to large losses of livestock and crops. Locusts in the south also destroyed crops. One third of the rural population is now food insecure (at least 1.7 million people).

In Brazil, well-targeted government agricultural policies have shielded small farmers and consumers from the harshest impacts. The urban poor, among others, are however, still feeling the effects of higher prices.

Oxfam activity around the world (for more see www.oxfam.org.uk):

Oxfam and its partners and allies will be launching the report in many different countries around the world, including Albania, Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, France, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Tajikistan, and Tanzania. In many cases there will be additional national activities, including campaign launches and agricultural debates and workshops. Individual countries and regions will also be producing their own analysis and reports.

Interviewees: available in a range of languages, from different locations, both Oxfam and partners.

Where the money will go: Funds from the appeal will be spent on four areas of work.
1 - Helping people to meet immediate needs such as food, cash and water
2 - Promoting smallholder agricultural production and access to markets
3 - Working to deal with underlying causes such as climate change and HIV/AIDS
4 - Promoting national food security in affected countries

Tags: Appeal, foodprices, globalfoodcrisis, worldfoodday

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