"Nichts mehr davon, ich bitt euch. Zu essen gebt ihm, zu wohnen.
Habt ihr die Blöße bedeckt, gibt sich die Würde von selbst."
Friedrich Schiller
  May 2008 FOOD
for PEACE

Former Italian EU-Commisioner Emma Bonino: Warns of a “hunger holocaust”; demands agenda to solve world food crisis for FAO- and G8-meetings

Returning from the World Economic Forum in Egypt, former EU Commissioner and ex Italian minister Emma Bonino wrote a letter to the editor of {Corriere della Sera} which was published under the headline: "The Poor Can Live Without Oil, But Not Without Grain." Bonino called for an agenda to solve the food crisis to be discussed at the next FAO meeting in Rome and at the G8 meeting in Tokio in July.

Bonino set a list of priorities to solve the food crisis, including a ban on biofuels and the use of genetically modified organisms (GMO). The world is witnessing shocking increases in the prices of energy and food, Bonino wrote; however, "For the last of the planet, to survive without oil is the rule, but not without basic grains". This is the drama that "leads to popular revolts and to the threat of a growing 'hunger holocaust.'" After unfortunately having called for a demographic "soft landing" (i.e., population reduction) and abolition of food protectionism, Bonino demands "a more efficient strategy of stocking and mobilizing resources." "It is urgent to review policies of subsidies to biofuels, given the very high production costs and the extension of land used to that purpose". And "It is necessary to look at GMOs without ideological prejudices, carefully evaluating its potential especially for countries hit by the food threat."