[ti:Results of UN Food Summit Seen as Disappointing] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:Development Report] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English [00:03.11]Development Report. [00:05.06]Last week, the United Nations [00:07.42]held a World Summit [00:09.42]on Food Security. [00:11.36]But the three-day meeting in Rome [00:13.90]produced only limited measures [00:16.11]to fight rising hunger. [00:19.65]The U.N. World Food Program says [00:22.69] more than a billion people [00:25.08]-- one in six worldwide [00:27.67]-- do not get enough food [00:30.07]to be healthy. [00:31.56]The troubled world economy [00:34.11]is not the only cause [00:35.80]of recent increases. [00:37.85]The poorest countries continue [00:40.49] to face high food prices, [00:42.64]which have fallen elsewhere. [00:45.28]The U.N. Food [00:46.88]and Agriculture Organization says [00:49.82]more than thirty nations continue [00:52.71]to need emergency food assistance. [00:56.49]Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said [00:59.94]the food crisis has forced millions [01:02.98]of families into poverty and hunger. [01:07.11]He said six million children [01:09.70]die of hunger every year. [01:12.64]And he warned that food security [01:15.53]is closely connected [01:17.54]to the issue of climate change. [01:20.38]BAN KI-MOON: "At a time [01:21.22]when the global population is growing, [01:23.57]our global climate is changing. [01:26.21]By twenty fifty we will need [01:30.89]to grow seventy percent more food. [01:33.92]Yet weather is becoming [01:37.17]more extreme and unpredictable." [01:39.62]The delegates in Rome promised [01:41.96]to continue efforts to reduce [01:44.11]by half the number of hungry people [01:47.75]by two thousand fifteen. [01:49.79]But critics pointed out [01:51.98]that world leaders [01:53.12]made a similar promise [01:54.87]more than ten years ago. [01:57.11]Several countries promised [01:59.49]to increase aid for agriculture, [02:02.58]to help developing nations [02:04.70] become more independent. [02:07.09]Still, critics deplored [02:09.79]a lack of greater action. [02:11.93]Leaders from more than [02:14.12]sixty countries were in Rome. [02:16.67]But Italian Prime Minister [02:18.98]Silvio Berlusconi was the only leader [02:22.32]from a major industrial nation [02:25.05]in the Group of Eight. [02:26.85]An official from Kenya, [02:29.24]Adam Barre Duale, said [02:31.73]it showed a lack of unity [02:34.12] in the fight against hunger. [02:36.53]ADAM BARRE DUALE: "We need both [02:38.17]the developed world [02:39.33]and the developing countries [02:40.54]to come together and to give [02:43.38]and support a global initiative [02:46.03]in the war against hunger." [02:48.42]The Food and Agriculture Organization says [02:52.17]more than forty billion dollars [02:54.86]a year needs to be invested [02:57.40]in agriculture to defeat world hunger. [03:01.19]The growing problem has affected [03:04.03]developing countries, [03:05.67]but also industrialized nations. [03:08.96]The government estimates [03:10.90]that forty-nine million people [03:13.50]in the United States were [03:15.73]"food insecure" last year. [03:18.82]That means their households, [03:21.41]at some time during the year, [03:23.72]had difficulty providing [03:25.87]enough food for all members [03:28.50]because of a lack of resources. [03:31.24]Almost fifteen percent of [03:34.87]all households were in that situation. [03:38.41]And the Agriculture Department says [03:41.20]the numbers may be even higher this year. [03:45.63]And that's the VOA Special English [03:49.60]Development Report, [03:51.74]written by June Simms. [03:53.68]I'm Steve Ember.