§ Lord Juddasked Her Majesty's Government:
What are their responses to the observations in the policy briefing paper by the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex on the forthcoming World Food Summit to take place in November in Rome on why the summit matters, the nature of the world food problem, the possible choices and trade-offs to be made, the principles for world food security and the action which should be taken.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Baroness Chalker of Wallasey)The Government agree that the World Food Summit offers a good opportunity to develop a global consensus on how to address the problem of hunger and malnutrition in the world. The essential requirements are to reduce poverty, the main cause of hunger, and to assure the sustainable long term expansion of global food production to feed the growing world population. We are preparing a paper for the World Food Summit which will cover the main issues raised by the Institute of Development Studies. A copy will be deposited in the Libraries of the House.