NewsWhore
05-23-2008, 03:30 PM
President Leonel Fernandez will be attending the World Food Summit organized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome on 3, 4 and 5 June. He will travel with First Lady Margarita Cedeno, Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso, Agriculture Minister Salvador (Chio) Jimenez, Administrative Minister of the Presidency Luis Manuel Bonetti and Hacienda Minister Vicente Bengoa.
The summit on food security will discuss the current global food shortage crisis. The summit will be held at a time of mass migration to cities, when food output has stagnated, prices have risen and food stocks are at their lowest since 1980, while economic growth has created a higher demand for food. All this is combined with the effects of global warming, rising fuel and fertilizer prices and diverting of farmland for biofuel production. The FAO says that the situation is "alarming" and that by the end of 2008 food import costs could be four times what they were in 2000.
The head of the UN's Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Kandeh Yumkella, said that wider trade links and a focus on agribusiness, or the business of food production, were the long-term answers to the shortages. He said that by 2030, more than half the world's population would live in urban areas and require sophisticated methods to bring in food.
Also expected to attend the summit are President Lula da Silva of Brazil, Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Giorgio Napolitano of Italy and Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, among other heads of state. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will give the opening address. Ban Ki-Moon told Dominican Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso that the DR could become the breadbasket of the Caribbean.
According to Dominican representative at the FAO Mario Arvelo, FAO chief Jacques Diouf visited President Fernandez in Santo Domingo earlier this month and invited him to the summit so that he could share measures implemented in the DR to increase farm production and competitiveness.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)
The summit on food security will discuss the current global food shortage crisis. The summit will be held at a time of mass migration to cities, when food output has stagnated, prices have risen and food stocks are at their lowest since 1980, while economic growth has created a higher demand for food. All this is combined with the effects of global warming, rising fuel and fertilizer prices and diverting of farmland for biofuel production. The FAO says that the situation is "alarming" and that by the end of 2008 food import costs could be four times what they were in 2000.
The head of the UN's Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Kandeh Yumkella, said that wider trade links and a focus on agribusiness, or the business of food production, were the long-term answers to the shortages. He said that by 2030, more than half the world's population would live in urban areas and require sophisticated methods to bring in food.
Also expected to attend the summit are President Lula da Silva of Brazil, Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, Giorgio Napolitano of Italy and Cristina Fernandez of Argentina, among other heads of state. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon will give the opening address. Ban Ki-Moon told Dominican Foreign Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso that the DR could become the breadbasket of the Caribbean.
According to Dominican representative at the FAO Mario Arvelo, FAO chief Jacques Diouf visited President Fernandez in Santo Domingo earlier this month and invited him to the summit so that he could share measures implemented in the DR to increase farm production and competitiveness.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#1)