Elizabeth Stuart, a spokesman for the Oxfam anti-poverty group, hailed Mr. Zoellick's call to action and said the switch to biofuels in the U.S. and Europe has been a major cause of raising food prices.

Rice prices have surged 75 percent over the past two months while wheat prices have more than doubled in the past year, Mr. Zoellick said. In Bangladesh, a 2-kilogram bag of rice costs about half of the daily income of a poor family.

The high prices are not only increasing hunger and fueling food riots and social unrest in 33 countries, he said, they are stunting the physical and intellectual development of children.

European Union Development Commissioner Louis Michel warned that Africa faces a new disaster if prices continue to rise.

"A world food crisis is emerging, less visible than the oil crisis, but with the potential effect of real economic and humanitarian tsunami in Africa," he said.

Not enough of the right people care.

And the more governments pay farmers to grow fuel instead of food the worse it will get.

Ethanol (and biofuel) is the stupidest rip-off in the history of the world.

It's one of many rip-offs. The main one is the greed of western consumers generally.

OIC..so that's how it's gonna be,huh?

You forget where "westerners" learned to drive that Steamroller-of-Empire...

The hungry are also found in our developed countries and we don't help them develop better lives.

Abailart has baled.