Food and Oil Prices

Japan, EU urge action on food prices

The leaders of Japan and the European Union expressed their "strong concern" Wednesday over high food and oil prices and highlighted the "urgent need" to address it.

The comments, at the end of a Japan-EU summit in Tokyo, come as the world grapples with rising food prices. International food aid groups appealed this week for more donor money to cover the cost of food, and the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization is arranging a global emergency meeting on the issue for June.

"Summit leaders noted with strong concern the trends of high price of natural resources and commodities, in particular, prices of food and oil, which could slow down the growth in global economy and have negative effects on developed and developing countries," read a joint statement issued after the Tokyo summit. "They underlined the urgent need to address the issue particularly in light of its acute impact on developing countries' efforts to overcome poverty." Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, and Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, pledged to continue working together and with emerging economies to address the problem.

World Vision, one of the world's largest humanitarian organizations, announced Tuesday that it cannot feed 1.5 million of the 7.5 million people it fed last year, and it made an urgent appeal for international donors to step in. Read more about the global food crisis.

Among the causes for the global food crisis is the diversion of corn to ethanol production rather than food, according to Rachel Wolff, media relations manager for disaster response at World Vision.

The spiraling price of fuel has aggravated the problem by boosting the cost of fertilizer and transporting food.

The World Food Program this week increased its estimate of the money it needs to cover price rises from $500 billion to $750 billion.

(Published by CNN News 23, 2008)