Dear President Bush:
All over the world, the prices of nearly all major food and feed commodities have skyrocketed. Poor people in developing countries already spend approximately 50-80 percent of their income on food. With the price hikes, many people who used to eat two meals a day are now eating one, while others go without. For many of the world’s poorest people, the current food crisis could literally be a matter of life and death.
United States policy and practice are in part to blame for the food crisis. Almost three decades of failed donor–driven agricultural policies, in combination with a massive disinvestment in agriculture, has laid the foundation for the crisis and has made poor people particularly vulnerable. Additionally, the massive biofuels expansion as a result of US policy has been a significant cause of the price hikes. And finally, climate change, which is in large part caused by emissions of the United States, is wreaking havoc on agriculture in the developing world, further straining the global food supply and driving up prices.
With bold US leadership, G8 members have the power to help reverse the crisis. As a concerned American and global citizen, I am writing to ask for United States action on this issue.
I urge you to commit at the upcoming G8 Summit to:
-Support a five-year moratorium on biofuel expansion to prevent farmland being converted into biofuel plantations;
-End subsidies for corn ethanol production and revoke targets for increased use of biofuels;
-Scale up alternative renewable energy sources instead of subsidizing biofuels;
-Agree to medium-term targets in the range of 25-40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and pay the fair share – US $29.27 billion -- of the adaptation costs facing poor countries;
-Increase aid to agriculture to US $9.5 billion;
-Reverse failed liberalization policies that have led to massive destruction in the livelihoods and productivity of millions of small farmers in the developing world;
-Abolish in-kind food aid and replace it with cash donations to the World Food Programme or local governments to purchase food at the regional or local level.
Thank you for your attention to this important issue.
