UN agencies call for more integrated approach to food crisis in poor countries

The world’s two billion poorest people are continuously on the edge of a food and nutrition crisis, and the current economic recession has made the situation much worse, warned a meeting of United Nations agencies and financial institutions this week.

The recent spike in food prices and lack of availability of food “are symptoms of a system that is seriously dysfunctional,” said David Nabarro, UN assistant secretary general, at the workshop organised by the US Institute of Medicine and held on 14-16 July in Washington, DC.

Dr Nabarro …