Millions of people around the world are suffering food shortages, unaffordable food prices and hunger, primarily due to industrial farming, bad harvests related to climate change, unjust terms of trade and the rush for biofuels.
There is no single solution to the crisis. The G8 leaders at the Toyako, Japan summit from 7-9 July, need to step up emergency assistance to the 850 million people who are suffering from hunger, and address the underlying causes of the current food crisis by:· Increasing public investment in research and development on ecological and limate change-resilient farming;
· Stopping funding for GE crops and prohibit patents on seed;
· Phasing out the most toxic chemicals in agriculture and eliminating environmentally destructive agricultural subsidies;
· Protecting domestic food production through trade agreements;
· Dropping mandatory targets to increase the ratio of biofuels used in transport.
