Today, I joined the Oakland Institute and other protestors outside of the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. We were outside the hotel because “nearly a thousand representatives of pension funds, university and foundation endowments, private equity firms, hedge funds and other high rollers have gathered together to figure how to make huge returns through grabbing land and water rights in the developing world.”
In our Food and Hunger Working Group statement issued in September 2011, we said:
The world food crisis is decades old, but now it is gravely worsening. Food prices have risen rapidly, reaching historically high levels. Floods, fires and droughts have reduced harvests in key producer countries, warning of the dangerous effect of climate change. Many factors, well- known to the food policy community, are damaging the prospects of the human food supply. Optimistic projections for the future, based on supposed technological breakthroughs and market miracles, should not distract us from the danger signals. We cannot ignore the painful reality of spreading hunger and famine in which emergency response systems are already overwhelmed.
Taking a stand against illegal and immoral land grabbing is important as we continue to work for a world where all God’s children can benefit from the land and where none of God’s children go hungry.