Ending World Hunger Will Require $44 Billion a Year

[struggle4progress]

By Jeffrey Donovan

(Corrects last name of U.S. ambassador in sixth paragraph.)

Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- World governments need to invest $44 billion a year to end global hunger and achieve “food security,” Food and Agriculture Organization Director General Jacques Diouf said.

More than 1 billion people suffer from hunger, and another global food crisis like the one that led to record prices in 2007-2008 “can’t be excluded,” Diouf told a news conference in Rome today before the FAO’s food-security summit next week.

More than half of the $44 billion should come from already committed funds, Diouf said. Between 16 percent and 18 percent of Official Development Assistance, which totaled $119.8 billion in 2008 according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, should be invested in improving small and local farming in countries with grave hunger problems, Diouf said ... http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601082&sid=axB4c8xDmBAk

[niyad]

1. less than 5% of the acknowledged DoD budget for a year.

[rrneck]

2. K&R nt

[dreamnightwind]

3. Food not bombs!

Sometimes it really is simple. We just need people of integrity in positions of power instead of people looking to help maximize corporate profits, and this world could be a much better place.

[unhappycamper]

4. The occupations are costing us at least $164 billion a year.

And that does not include the pain and suffering.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. Wow! Almost as much as Golden Sacks' bankers' bonuses....! Or is it, actually, more?

[notesdev]

6. Sorry, Goldman Sachs needs that money more nt