Pledge to cut hunger called empty promise
February 16, 2006A Cornell University world hunger expert says a 1990 pledge by nearly 200 nations to cut worldwide hunger in half by 2015 was an empty pledge.
Professor Per Pinstrup-Andersen, a Cornell professor of food, nutrition and public policy, predicts just as many people will be hungry in the world -- 800 million -- by 2015 as there were 16 years ago.
"Even though 186 countries agreed with the Millennium Development Goals to reduce the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day by half, no one's doing anything about it," Pinstrup-Andersen says. "It's disgraceful -- it's immoral and appalling. We could achieve the goals, but won't."
A former director general of the International Food Policy Research Institute, Pinstrup-Anderson says hunger worldwide has grown in more than half of the developing countries since 1990.
"It's very sad and makes the world much more dangerous, because more people will be motivated to commit acts of terror to express their rage at the growing disparity and unfairness between the rich and poor."
He was to speak Friday in St. Louis during the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
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