World Bank on the Food Price Crisis

This weekend, finance ministers gathered at the biannual World Bank-IMF meetings and endorsed a series of measures, including a $10 million grant to Haiti. World Bank President Robert Zoellick said more than 100 million people are at risk of further impoverishment by the rising costs. On On April 10, he had saidthat prices of rice have risen 75 percent over the last two years, hitting poor people the hardest. He urged additional help from the wealthiest countries:

This is about recognizing a growing emergency, acting and seizing opportunity, too. The world can do this. We can do this. We can have a new deal on global food policy. First, for the immediate crisis, the international community must fill the at least $500 million food gap identified by the UN’s World Food Program to meet emergency needs.