People in India spend more than twice as much on food in proportion to their income as do Britons, the development agency Oxfam said in a report today. In the Philippines, it is four times as much. And it will get worse, with food prices increasing by 120-180 per cent in 20 years unless there is reform, the agency warns. The report, Growing a Better Future, acknowledges that climate change will cause half of that increase. But the British-based development agency calls on world leaders to increase transparency in commodities markets, regulate futures markets, increase food reserves, end promotion of biofuels and invest in small farming, particularly helping women farmers. It also calls on the international community to launch a global climate fund “so that people can protect themselves from the impact of climate change and are better equipped to grow the food they need.” “We are sleepwalking towards an avoidable age of crisis,” said Barbara Stocking, Oxfam’s chief executive. “One in seven people in the planet goes hungry every day despite the fact that the world is capable of feeding everyone,” she said.
