Rome’s food summit: a torch passed, Open Democracy, June 2008

The emergency conference on the world's food crisis in Rome exceeded expectations. Now it's time for July's G8Group of Eight summit in Japan to show imagination by making the global economy work for aid policy, says Simon Maxwell.

The high-level conference on world food security in Rome on 3-5 June 2008 under the auspices of the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) turned out better than expected. It was not derailed by Robert Mugabe; it survived the unedifying wrangling over a final communiqué; it gave the topic a good hearing; it confirmed some practical actions; and it passed the torch successfully to the next major international gathering, the G8Group of Eight in Hokkaido, Japan on 7-9 July 2008................. (see link in title for full article)