Q&A: Food summit

ROME, Italy – Representatives from more than 180 countries have gathered in Rome for a four-day United Nations' Food Summit aimed at cutting the number of hungry people by 50 percent by 2015. (Full story)

But CNN's Walter Rodgers says the ambitious target was set by the last World Food Summit in 1996, and since then there has been little progress.

Question: From the still huge numbers of people who continue to suffer from hunger in 2002, it seems the political will and financial resources of the last six years have not matched the humanitarian aims.

Answer: That's correct and this new conference aims to provide a new impetus to the world's commitment to reduce hunger and malnutrition.

There are many, many people in the world who go to bed hungry every night -- 54 million in Latin America and the Caribbean, 200 million in Africa and half-a-billion in Asia -- and all are suffering from chronic malnutrition in some form or other.

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The U.N. goal at this conference is a repeat of the goal it set at a similar event in 1996 -- to reduce those numbers by 50 percent. The problem is, that the reductions set back in 1996 have yet to me like anywhere met.

So this conference is really to prick the conscience of the developed world.

Q: One of the issues appears to be the disparity between the developed world's business interests and its humanitarian aims.

A: It's a vicious circle -- farmers in developing countries do not produce as much as the developed countries, but the richer countries subsidise their own agriculture to allow cheaply produced exports to poor countries.

Europe pays enormous subsidies to their farmers and the crops produced there blocks the developing countries' agricultural products on world markets. Such subsidies make it impossible for these less developed countries to compete in the global agricultural market place, so in effect, there is not a level playing field.

Then there is the fact that many of the developing counties have less than acceptable governments which do not devote enough of their country's resources to help their own people.

It may be the 21st century, but millions are starving

Q: Will the summit consider the controversial issue of Genetically Modified (GM) crops?

A: Some scientists believe that genetic manipulation of crops can ease hunger through new varieties that boost yields and are more resistant to drought and global warming.

The U.S. has developed GM crops -- such as corn, soya beans and rice -- that could greatly help farmers in tropical Asia and Africa who often lose up to 30 percent of their crops through insects and crop disease.

But the backlash and bad publicity in some quarters, especially Europe, over GM crops, has blocked the use of these in the areas where they could do most help. So, the people who could most benefit from these crops have no voice.

Q: What are the other issues adding to what appears to be a dire situation?

A: Another very important issue is that even where crops can be grown in these countries affected by hunger is that there may be no one to harvest them or even get them to market.

The huge HIV and Aids problem, for example, in Africa, has decimated the agricultural labour force.

It's estimated that 16 million people will die due to HIV in the sub-Sahara and Africa, so no one can sell or harvest the crops even where they can be grown.