World Bank weighs in to ‘food versus fuel’ debate

World Bank President Robert Zoellick has warned that high food prices are threatening to undo seven years of progress in global poverty reduction. Zoellick has encouraged donor countries to take immediate action to increase funding to the UN World Food Programme and coordinate a ‘New Deal on World Food Policy’. The World Bank has released a new analysis which points the finger squarely at biofuels as the prime cause of the recent surge in global commodity prices.

You can read a transcript of Zoellick’s press briefing here, and the analysis note which includes a discussion of the policy options available to address the problem of food affordability in developing countries.

I will turn to what the end of the era of cheap food means for the CAP in a forthcoming blog post.