Brazil's Lula: food riots are alert to fight poverty

from the Guardian

BRASILIA, April 16 (Reuters) - Foods riots in Haiti and elsewhere are a wake-up call for the world to fight harder against poverty, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Wednesday.

"It was necessary to watch dramatic scenes for the international community to wake up to the urgency of finding a definitive solution to the challenge of poverty," Lula said during a lunch with visiting Indian President Pratibha Patil.

Protests in Haiti over high prices for rice, beans and other staples ousted the government on Saturday.

Rising food prices showed that the world "was poorly equipped to face and solve the worst evil of our times," namely hunger, said Lula.

Across the globe bread, milk and other foods have become more expensive, fueling inflation in some countries.

Patil, whose 3-day visit to Brazil was her first foreign trip since taking office last year, praised Lula's flagship social welfare program "Zero Hunger."

Experts blamed price rises on strong Asian demand, adverse climate in some producer countries and increased use of corn to produce fuel in the United States.

The United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization during a conference in Brasilia warned this week that rising prices threatened to increase malnutrition in Latin America.