Taoiseach Brian Cowen today pleaded with global leaders to rally together and tackle world hunger on the final day of a major summit in Beijing.
Evoking Ireland’s experiences of famine, Mr Cowen said tolerating a world of hunger alongside a world of plenty would be to deny our common humanity.
The Taoiseach told the seventh Asia-Europe meeting that the number of people across the globe without food could rise as high as one billion, a figure he branded both deeply disturbing and horrendous.
“Etched in our folk memory is our own experience of famine in the 19th century when through starvation, epidemic and emigration, our country lost half its population” Mr Cowen said.
“The failures then and the failures now were and are due above all to the lack of sufficient political will by those with the power to act.
“We cannot continue to tolerate a world of hunger alongside a world of plenty. To do so would be to deny our common humanity.”
Last month the Government launched its report of the Hunger Task Force at the United Nations.
Mr Cowen said the report made a series of recommendations on tackling the root causes of hunger, especially in Africa, and that it made for some disturbing reading.
He said the key recommendation was to ensure governments meet their commitments in tackling poverty.
The Taoiseach said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had put together a comprehensive framework for action to chart a way forward in the global food crisis.
“All of us represented here should get behind this initiative,” Mr Cowen said. “It is a global crisis and requires a global response.
“Only in this way can we ensure that that this initiative makes a real impact on ending the scandal of world hunger once and for all.”