World Bank chief: High prices mean $6 billion in food aid needed every year

International Herald Tribune: Poor countries will need some $6 billion in food aid annually, with food and energy prices expected to remain high for years to come, the president of the World Bank said Saturday. Robert Zoellick said the bank also was seeking billions more dollars to finance climate investment funds to help developing countries combat global warming and facilitate the transfer of technologies from the industrial world.

Zoellick estimated that this year $10 billion would be needed to ease the effects of food inflation, including $3.5 billion for "short term safety net" projects in more than 50 countries, like school lunches and work-for-food programs. He said the World Food Program, which feeds the world's hungry, would require $6 billion on a continuing basis….

This is a wheat field nearAuvers-sur-Oise, June 2007, copyright © 2007 David Monniaux. Image found on Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation license, Version 1.2