World Food Crisis -- Story Assignment

Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
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Thursday, June 5, 2008

Rome Food Conference

Interviews Available

As government leaders from around the world meet at the U.N. food
conference in Rome, nonprofit organizations have also been meeting
there. The following analysts are available for a limited number of
interviews and are in contact with others in Rome from around the
world:

FLAVIO VALENTE, in Rome, valente@fian.org, http://www.fian.org, http://www.foodsovereignty.org
Secretary general of FIAN [Food First Information and Action Network], an international food rights group, Valente said: "I see very little good coming from the governmental meeting in Rome. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are being turned to as if they will help solve the problem, but it was largely their policies of structural adjustment that made poor countries lose their capacity to control their
food policies and helped bring on the current crisis. The U.S. government -- and to some extent the European Union -- are blocking desperately needed advances; for example any reference in the final documents to people having a right to food."

RACHEL SMOLKER, currently in Rome, rsmolker@globaljusticeecology.org, http://www.globaljusticeecology.org,also via Orin Langelle, orin.langelle@globalforestcoalition.org
Research biologist at the Global Justice Ecology Project, Smolker
said today: "Unfortunately this crisis is being used as an opportunity
to advance GMOs [genetically modified organisms]. The question of land
is emerging as a central issue and business interests are grabbing it up
for biofuels and other purposes. Millions of people were added to the
ranks of the hungry in the last quarter. Meanwhile, the big agribusiness
companies are making huge profits."
Smolker recently wrote the piece "Agrofuels in the belly of the
hungry beast," at: www.egovmonitor.com
She also wrote "Go Ahead, Blame Biofuels: A switch from fossil
fuels to ethanol and its kin diverts resources from food production, leading
to hunger and destabilization of farming" published in Business Week, www.businessweek.com.