Human rights most important factor in combating global hunger, report says

"Human rights are the most powerful tool to ensure efforts against hunger and malnutrition tackle structural causes and are not reduced to short-term strategies, civil society groups said in a report published on Tuesday," the Guardian reports. The report, "Who Decides About Global Food and Nutrition? -- Strategies to Regain Control," "argues that it is impossible to combat the causes of hunger while keeping existing power relations untouched" and "expresses particular concern about the increasing influence and control of agribusinesses and financial companies over food and nutrition," the newspaper writes.

"The report points to a fault line in how to deal with food security -- access to safe and nutritious food," the Guardian adds. "[T]he civil society groups behind the fifth annual report on the right to food and nutrition put the emphasis on a rights-based approach," the newspaper writes, noting, "They say an agricultural system that features large U.S. and E.U. farm subsidies, along with a concentration of power among a few grain giants such as ADM, Cargill and Bunge (the main corporate beneficiaries of U.S. food aid), contribute to food insecurity in poor countries." The Guardian continues, "The guidelines promote secure tenure rights and equitable access to land, fisheries and forests as a means of eradicating hunger and poverty, supporting sustainable development and enhancing the environment" (Tran, 9/26).