UN food summit ends in Rome with little progress made in fight against hunger

November 18, 2009

The UN Food Summit wraps up in Rome today. Leaders signed a declaration to end world hunger, but the meeting concludes without a firm commitment to fund the efforts. And critics say the meeting did little to address food pricing, agriculture development aid, or the effects that hunger has on women - all issues that are critical to confronting the needs of some one billion people who go hungry every night.

Well, while the Food and Agriculture Organization meeting ran this week, a parallel meeting was taking place. That's the People's Food Sovereignty Forum. And it released a final declaration today that criticizes the failure of state leaders to come to a meaningful response to hunger. FSRN's Dilette Varlese has more from Rome.

And now we turn to an in-depth look at the Food Summit and what it means for efforts to confront hunger.

We're joined by Raj Patel. He's a fellow with Food First, a think tank on food in Oakland, California. He's also the author of the upcoming book, The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy.

Listen to the interview here:
http://www.fsrn.org/audio/un-food-summit-ends-rome-with-little-progress-...