Food summit talks the talk, but won’t quite walk the walk
A UN food summit agreed on more help to farmers in poor nations, but declined to back a UN appeal committing billions to the plan. Sixty heads of state and dozens of ministers from other nations endorsed increases in agricultural aid to developing nations, but would not commit to the $44 billion a year the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation says is necessary to do the deed. Pope Benedict XVI, attending the summit as well, decried "opulence and waste" and called for improved access to international markets for poor countries’ products. The FAO had hoped the summit would adopt 2025 as a deadline to eradicate hunger, but the meeting went for the earlier pledge to halve the number of hungry people by 2015. For more, read the AP.
