Elders join HungerFREE demanding action

Elders join HungerFREE to demand urgent action on global food crisis Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu, Mary Robinson and other Elders joined forces with ActionAid’s HungerFREE campaign last night to continue the fight against the global food crisis.

At an event in Johannesburg the Elders – joined by ActionAid chief executive Ramesh Singh - called on governments around the world to do more to tackle the crisis.

Elders chairman Desmond Tutu described the right to food as "fundamental."

"We have it in us to make this a better world, a caring world, a compassionate world in which everyone would enjoy the right to food and freedom from hunger," he said.

The former Archbishop of Capetown, rose to his feet and applauded – bringing the whole room with him - after an impassioned speech by Activista South Africa spokesperson Salamina Motsoagae.

Kofi Anan, the former UN secretary general, called on governments to do more to help small scale farmers, especially women. He also said banks should extend loans to smallholders so they could grow more food.

He added that countries needed to improve rural infrastructure, develop better seeds and improve soil in Africa, "the only continent that cannot feed itself."

Mary Robinson, the former first female president of Ireland, said it was an outrage that people were still going hungry when there was enough food in the world to feed everyone.

“One child dies every five seconds from hunger-related causes and, despite doing the bulk of the work to grow and feed their families, women go hungry the most, accounting for sixty per cent of the world’s hungry people. And all this happens when there is enough food in the world to feed everybody.”

“ActionAid has joined forces with the Elders to make sure that everyone can secure their most fundamental human right – the right to food,” he said.

“In a world of plenty, it is a crime that people still die of hunger. We are calling for urgent action to end the global food crisis.”