VOA常速英语2008年-UN Task Force Seeks Solutions to Global Food Cr

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
30 April 2008

A senior U.N. official says a new task force set up to tackle the global food crisis hopes to have a comprehensive, integrated action plan produced in short order. The official says key agencies such as the World Bank, World Food Program, and World Trade Organization will work to resolve problems such as food insecurity, agricultural production, climate change, bio-fuels and trade. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

About 100 million people in the world are going hungry because they cannot afford food.

But U.N. task force coordinator¹ John Holmes says solutions can be found and new opportunities can be created.

He says world demand for food exceeds supply and this has to be corrected. He says there is recognition that investment in agriculture in developing countries has been neglected for a very long time.

"I think most of the studies show that if you can increase the profitability of agriculture and yields of agriculture in developing countries, this is an excellent way of tackling poverty so the development gains from this could be very considerable," Holmes said. "Let us face this, most people in the world live in rural communities where agriculture is absolutely fundamental. So, I think there is a very good opportunity there to correct that in a sustainable way."

Holmes says the task force will look at many issues, including agricultural subsidies², which he says distort trade and cause food prices to rise. He says the question of bio-fuels and how they play into the crisis will be addressed, as well as the need to explore new technologies in food production, such as genetically³ modified crops.

He says it will not be possible to come up with a comprehensive action plan for tackling the global food crisis overnight. But he says it is possible to have something on the table for early June, when world leaders hold a food summit in Rome.

"I think it is a pretty ambitious target to produce such a plan in the next four weeks by the time of that June meeting," he said. "I repeat that does not mean nothing is happening in the meantime. All the emergency responses we are talking about in the usual way will be happening and action will be taken, I think, also to try and make sure that the agricultural imports needed for particularly farmers in the developing world to stimulate⁴ their production for this year's harvest will be taken. What we are trying to do is draw it all together into a package which makes sense and which everybody can rally around."

Holmes says soaring food prices can become a matter of life and death and increased suffering and malnutrition⁵ for the tens of millions of people who live on $1 a day.

1 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

2 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

4 stimulate   

vt.刺激，使兴奋；激励，使…振奋

参考例句：

• Your encouragement will stimulate me to further efforts.你的鼓励会激发我进一步努力。
• Success will stimulate the people for fresh efforts.成功能鼓舞人们去作新的努力。

5 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。