Former Italian EU-Commisioner Emma Bonino: Warns of a “hunger holocaust”; demands agenda to solve world food crisis for FAO- and G8-meetings
Returning from the World Economic Forum in Egypt,
former EU Commissioner and ex Italian minister Emma Bonino
wrote a letter to the editor of {Corriere della Sera} which was
published under the headline: "The Poor Can Live Without Oil, But
Not Without Grain." Bonino called for an agenda to solve the food
crisis to be discussed at the next FAO meeting in Rome and at the
G8 meeting in Tokio in July.
Bonino set a list of priorities to solve the food crisis, including a ban
on biofuels and the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO).
The world is witnessing shocking increases in the prices of
energy and food, Bonino wrote; however, "For the last of the
planet, to survive without oil is the rule, but not without basic
grains". This is the drama that "leads to popular revolts and to
the threat of a growing 'hunger holocaust.'" After unfortunately having called
for a demographic "soft landing" (i.e., population reduction) and
abolition of food protectionism, Bonino demands "a more
efficient strategy of stocking and mobilizing resources." "It is
urgent to review policies of subsidies to biofuels, given the
very high production costs and the extension of land used to that
purpose". And "It is necessary to look at GMOs without
ideological prejudices, carefully evaluating its potential
especially for countries hit by the food threat."
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