Cuba rejects Rome Summit food crisis statement

According to a June 5 Prensa Latina report, Cuba condemned the Declaration of the Rome Summit on Food Security, describing it as "the result of the lack of political will of the countries of the North" to promote a fair, lasting solution to the issue.

The United States, the only country opposing the right to food, was the main responsible for dashing the hopes the international community had harboured on this conference, the Cuban delegation said. Cuban Deputy Minister for Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation, Orlando Requeijo, stated: "The responsibility of industrialised powers is evident in this unacceptable state of things", he said, referring to the strategy of turning grains and cereals into fuel (known as "agrofuels").

Requeijo also referred to the effect of production and consumption patterns of the North on climate change and the consequences of financial speculation on the increase of food prices.

From GLW issue 754