Washington — Enabling the world’s poor to feed themselves through sustainable farming will help alleviate the crises caused by one of the most urgent threats facing the world: chronic hunger and its consequences, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says.

“This is an issue that affects all of us, because food security is about economic, environmental and national security for our individual homelands and the world,” Clinton said September 26 at a food security conference co-hosted by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the U.N. General Assembly in New York. Representatives from 130 countries, international organizations and nongovernmental organizations attended the brief conference to address the underlying causes of global hunger.

Food shortages swept across the globe in 2008, threatening the security of more than 50 nations and millions of people, toppling governments in some of the poorest areas as people suffering from chronic hunger lashed out at governments. The Group of Eight industrialized economies meeting in Italy in July committed $20 billion over three years to alleviate chronic food hunger through sustainable farming. At the Group of 20 meeting just held in Pittsburgh, the leaders committed an additional $2 billion. The United States is contributing $3.5 billion for its portion of the effort. (See "U.S. Launches Multibillion-Dollar Effort to Fight Global Hunger")

The G20 nations called on the World Bank and relief agencies to establish a multilateral trust fund that would expand investment in agricultural assistance in the poorest nations. A world food summit is planned for November.

“There is more than enough food in the world, yet today, more than 1 billion people are hungry. This is unacceptable,” Ban said.

The food riots have largely disappeared as nations rushed food assistance and supported efforts by the World Food Programme to address immediate shortages. But Ban said the shortages and disparities serve to illustrate that the current approaches to food relief are inadequate.

“The food crisis is far from over. Ever more people are denied the food they need because prices are stubbornly high, because their purchasing power has fallen due to the economic crisis or because rains have failed and reserve stocks of grain have been eaten,” Ban said.

Clinton said the new efforts must invest in country-led plans that concentrate on the obstacles that hinder a country’s food supply. “We will have the greatest chance at success if we pursue partnership, not patronage,” she said.

Efforts should fight the underlying causes of hunger by investing in everything from research to better seeds to insurance programs for small farmers to large-scale infrastructure projects that create sustainable, systemic change, Clinton said, drawing from objectives proposed at the July G8 summit. She also called for improved coordination to avoid duplicating efforts that drain resources.

The food conference called for support for ongoing reform processes aimed at improved efficiency and effectiveness of international organizations, including the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

To help fulfill country plans, Clinton proposed leveraging the benefits of multilateral institutions because they have the reach and resources to help more than one country.

Clinton said developed nations should pledge a long-term commitment that is based on accountability.

“We will continue, of course, to invest in the crises and the emergencies, but we want to begin to try to alleviate the crises and the emergencies by once again enabling people to feed themselves,” Clinton said. “Together, these principles represent an approach based on investments in our collective future. And they will help us achieve broad-based results that last.”