Progress in reducing hunger and malnutrition has virtually grounded to a halt with about 36 million dying of hunger every year, a United Nations expert says.
Millions across the world are being hit by the food crisis with famine, poverty and hunger together leaving 840 million people suffering from chronic malnutrition, Special Rapporteur on Right to Food Jean Ziegler said in his latest report.
"It was time to recognize that hunger was not a question of fate but the result of human inaction or action," he said.
Ziegler cited Sudan, Ethiopia and Afghanistan as among the hardest hit countries and said at least 38 States, mostly African, are seriously affected by the food crisis.
The situation in the Palestinian territory is also 'badly deteriorating', with more than half of Palestinians dependent on food aid and humanitarian access to the population often restricted, he added.
Ziegler said an alternative model for agricultural trade is emerging from developing countries, which see the free trade promises of international trade talks as illusory.
Dubbed 'food sovereignty', the concept regards trade as a means to an end rather than an end in itself, and gives more importance to the right to food.
Therefore, subsidies would be considered acceptable to sustain small-scale agriculture production but not to support large scale farming that is used for exports.