Guide Note

Members of the United Nations met the week of June 4, 2008 to discuss the current worldwide hunger crisis. A major topic of discussion at the conference were biofuels and their effect on food costs. The contentious summit led to little in the way of agreement. $6.5 billion was pledged to solve the crisis, and nations resolved to halve global hunger in the next seven years. How they would accomplish the goal is still under debate.

Fast Facts

1. Pledge: Halve global hunger by 2015
2. People lacking food: 850 million¹
3. Money pledged for seven-year project: $6.5 billion
4. Oxfam: $14.5 billion needed for 2008 alone
5. Pressures on food supply: Rising demand, bad weather, biofuels

Droughts, floods and other worldwide weather issues have reduced food production. As nations become more affluent, they demand more food, putting more pressure on food supplies. Current interest in biofuel as a replacement for oil has led to more arable land being used to grow fuel instead of food, further reducing potential supply.

Many crops used as food are also used as biofuel. Brazil, which grows sugar cane for biofuels, argues that the use of corn for ethanol is escalating the price of the staple, and thus is at the heart of the global food crisis. United States representatives, whose nation focuses on corn as a biofuel source, respond that any land used for biofuel could be used to grow food crops, meaning the U.S. is not to blame.² Other critics argue that biofuel should be made only from nonfood crops or waste.