Call to Action!

U.S. Delegation to World Food Summit Denies Right to Food

The Declaration goes on to say: "We pledge our political will and our common and national commitment to achieving food security for all and to an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries, with an immediate view to reducing the number of undernourished people to half their present level no later than 2015.

"We consider it intolerable that more than 800 million people throughout the world, and particularly in developing countries, do not have enough food to meet their basic nutritional needs. This situation is unacceptable. Food supplies have increased substantially, but constraints on access to food and continuing inadequacy of household and national incomes to purchase food, instability of supply and demand, as well as natural and man-made disasters, prevent basic food needs from being fulfilled. The problems of hunger and food insecurity have global dimensions and are likely to persist, and even increase dramatically in some regions, unless urgent, determined and concerted action is taken, given the anticipated increase in the world's population and the stress on natural resources."

Yet the United States government issued a dissenting opinion - it was one of 15 written reservations to the Declaration - in which the right to food for all was labeled a "goal or aspiration," that "does not give rise to any international obligations nor diminish the responsibility of national governments toward their citizens."

Action!
Express your opinion. If you believe that food for all should be a right, and not just a goal or an aspiration, then write to: The Honorable Dan Glickman, Secretary of Agriculture, US Department of Agriculture, Washington, DC 20250.