Oxfam urges reform to break cycle of hunger

Millions more people across the world will be locked into a cycle of hunger unless governments tackle a "broken" production system which is being exploited by speculators and will cause a doubling in basic foodstuff prices in the next 20 years, Oxfam has warned.

Research by Oxfam has highlighted factors ranging from climate change and population growth to subsidies for biofuels and the actions of commodities traders, which will throw development in poor countries into reverse unless radical reform of the global food system is undertaken.

The charity found that the world currently produces enough food to sustain the population, but 925 million people go hungry every year. This situation will dramatically worsen as the population reaches 9 billion by 2050, meaning demand for food will increase by 70 per cent at a time when capacity to increase yields is running at less than 1 per cent a year.

Barbara Stocking, Oxfam's chief executive, said: "The food system is pretty well bust. All the signs are that the number of people going hungry is going up."

In a 74-page report drawn up for the start of a four-year campaign to pressure governments and corporations to make staple foods more affordable, Oxfam apportioned some of the blame for the drastic increase in food costs - prices have doubled since 1990 - to commodities traders and speculation in the global foodstuffs market.

With the world's poorest people now spending up to 80 per cent of their income on food, the aid agency said they were particularly vulnerable to the volatility in prices.

It said that up to 90 per cent of global grain trading happened between just three firms - each had made substantial profits from price fluctuations since the 2008 food crisis.

Oxfam is calling for regulators to place limits on trading in agricultural futures - contracts designed to reduce uncertainty in prices, but which critics say are perversely driving prices higher.

- Independent