Food security is 'priority' for Washington: Clinton

Clinton announced humanitarian aid
for Libya's rebels on Thursday
© AFP Tiziana Fabi

AFP

ROME (AFP) - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned on Friday about rising food prices and said food security was "a foreign policy priority" for the United States in a speech to the UN's food agency.

"Global food crises are once again on the rise," Clinton said in Rome, adding: "Food security is a foreign policy priority for our country."

"We must act now effectively and cooperatively to blunt the negative impact of rising food prices and protect people and communities."

She also referred to the outbreaks of rioting in dozens of countries that accompanied previous price spikes in 2007 and 2008.

More than a billion people suffer from hunger around the world.

An estimate from the World Bank cited by Clinton said that high food prices had already pushed 44 million people into poverty in the past 12 months.

Clinton is to fly out later on Friday, a day after international talks in the Italian capital in which she announced humanitarian aid for Libya's rebels and said the US would tap frozen assets of Moamer Kadhafi's regime.

© AFP -- Published at Activist Post with license

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