News

20th May 2002

John Bowis MEP calls on EU to take determined action to combat global hunger

John Bowis – Conservative Euro MP for London – has proposed a motion in the European Parliament in Strasbourg calling on the EU to take radical steps in order to combat global poverty and hunger. The aim is to push the proposals outlined by John Bowis to the UN World Food Summit, that is due to take place in Rome next month.

Speaking from the European Parliament in Strasbourg John Bowis said, “The reality is there are for too many people in the world who are desperately poor and need food to survive. 1.2 billion people are surviving on less than 1 US dollar a day, millions of them without access to safe drinking water. The paradox is that world food production has outpaced population growth: the 5.8 billion in the world today have, on average, 15% more food per person than the 4 billion 20 years' ago.”

“In 2000 out of 5.8 billion people, 826 million people were still hungry. The United Nations Development Programme estimates that it would take just 13 billion US Dollars a year to solve this problem. This is the same amount that we in Europe and America spend on cosmetics every year. In the last 50 years almost 400 million worldwide have died from hunger and poor sanitation. That is three times the number of people killed in all the wars fought in the entire 20th century. Lastly, every year some nine million people die from hunger. That is 24,000 deaths a day; it is one life lost every 3.6 seconds. Those are the things we should be thinking about when we are in Rome on 10 June, and that is why I ask for action and not just statements.”