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By Will Ockenden
Thursday, 16/10/2008
Australian farm groups say lowering international trade barriers is the best way to ensure global food security.Today's World Food Day, an annual event promoted by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture organisation. The focus this year is global food security. As financial turmoil becomes the major focus for politicians, there are warnings that food security remains an critical issue.Earlier this year, there were riots in Indonesia, Haiti and the Philippines as wheat and rice prices more than doubled. Mick Keogh, from the Australian Farm Institute, said there'd be a lot fewer hungry people in the world if agricultural trade was opened up. "The balance between demand and supply is tipping back towards increased demand, which hasn't been the case for the last 50 years," he said. "I think that's going to put pressure on governments to recognise the need to free up agricultural trade, and in that way to increase the flow of food and food supplies globally."At a busy inner-city Melbourne supermarket shoppers are buying food for dinner. Shopper Cameron Wolf said while food prices in Australia have increased, at least it's available. "I think it's one of the things we take for granted. It's hard to say weather we appreciate what we've got or the fact that the country we live in runs itself to provide markets for food."Shortages of rice are now common in many parts of the world, but that only hit home in Australia when supermarkets put limits on how much rice could be bought per person.Dr Beth Woods chairs the International Rice Research Institute. She said the rising price of food has caused the most pain for poor people in third world countries. "Some countries have provided additional payments to poor people, others have released government stores of food. Some of those are measures you wouldn't want to see in the long term, but in the short term governments should see it as a number one priority to ensure their people have food."
In this report: Director of the Australian Farm Institute Mick Keogh;Chair of the International Rice Research Institute Dr Beth WoodsSupermarket shopper Cameron Wolf
Thursday, 16/10/2008
Australian farm groups say lowering international trade barriers is the best way to ensure global food security.Today's World Food Day, an annual event promoted by the United Nation's Food and Agriculture organisation. The focus this year is global food security. As financial turmoil becomes the major focus for politicians, there are warnings that food security remains an critical issue.Earlier this year, there were riots in Indonesia, Haiti and the Philippines as wheat and rice prices more than doubled. Mick Keogh, from the Australian Farm Institute, said there'd be a lot fewer hungry people in the world if agricultural trade was opened up. "The balance between demand and supply is tipping back towards increased demand, which hasn't been the case for the last 50 years," he said. "I think that's going to put pressure on governments to recognise the need to free up agricultural trade, and in that way to increase the flow of food and food supplies globally."At a busy inner-city Melbourne supermarket shoppers are buying food for dinner. Shopper Cameron Wolf said while food prices in Australia have increased, at least it's available. "I think it's one of the things we take for granted. It's hard to say weather we appreciate what we've got or the fact that the country we live in runs itself to provide markets for food."Shortages of rice are now common in many parts of the world, but that only hit home in Australia when supermarkets put limits on how much rice could be bought per person.Dr Beth Woods chairs the International Rice Research Institute. She said the rising price of food has caused the most pain for poor people in third world countries. "Some countries have provided additional payments to poor people, others have released government stores of food. Some of those are measures you wouldn't want to see in the long term, but in the short term governments should see it as a number one priority to ensure their people have food."
In this report: Director of the Australian Farm Institute Mick Keogh;Chair of the International Rice Research Institute Dr Beth WoodsSupermarket shopper Cameron Wolf
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