2008 - Volume 11 Number 5
Increases in the prices of energy and food in recent years pose an enormous problem for the 5.1 billion people in developing nations – roughly a billion of whom live on the equivalent of one dollar a day.
Access to adequate food is a right protected by international law, yet the ongoing emergency may reinforce long-entrenched patterns of exclusion and discrimination. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Association 854 million people of the world’s 6.5 billion people do not receive their minimum daily food requirement. The 83% increase in food prices over the last three years has been catastrophic for these people on the margins of the global economy.
The most severe repercussions of this crisis will be felt by people already living in precarious and marginalised situations, particularly women and children, minorities and people with disabilities.