(The following article is from the June 16-30, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

People's Voice Editorial

In the tradition of "speaking truth to power", Argentina, Venezuela, and Cuba warn that the final declaration of the World Food Summit fails to identify the true causes of the global hunger crisis, sparked by a 60% rise in food prices paid in importing countries since early 2007.

     The declaration pledges to boost spending on agriculture in developing countries and to halve the number of malnourished people, now nearly 900 million, by 2015. Such noble aims have often been mouthed by the imperialist powers, only to be undermined by policies which benefit the transnational corporations rather than the countries of the South.

     The Summit failed to call for reduced subsidies in the US and other developed capitalist nations. "Appropriate cures can't result from mistaken diagnosis," Argentina's government stated. "Argentina is formally registering its dissatisfaction with a text that, while dealing with the question of food security, doesn't include a single reference that uses the term `agricultural subsidies'."

     Orlando Requeijo, Cuba's vice-minister for foreign investment and economic collaboration, condemned the "lack of political will from northern countries to promote a just and lasting solution to the world food crisis." Cuba urges reduced global military spending and cancellation of Third World debts to tackle the crisis.

     Venezuela calls the food crisis "the biggest demonstration of the historical failure of the capitalist model." Venezuela's ambassador to the FAO, Gladys Urbañeja Duran, stresses that "the main reason for the rise in food prices isn't growing demand from the Indian and Chinese markets, or the rise in petroleum prices. The main reason is that food has been turned into yet another object of market speculation."

     The answer to global hunger is not more capitalism or more "free trade" pacts that flood local markets with U.S. produce. The solution lies in strengthening local economies and in policies that put people's interests ahead of agribusiness profits.