World Food Summit
Welcome to the Committee Page for the World Food Summit! Here, you can find details on the committee and the students who are chairing it, download the background guide, and learn about suggested primary source reading for the committee. Check the page regularly for committee updates.
Committee Dais
Chair: Chuck RobertsVice Chair: Jessica Wu
Crisis Director: Michael Samuels
Contact Email: world_food@cmunce.org
Recent Updates
[November 15, 2008]: The Background guide has been posted.
[May 2008]: Welcome to the World Food Summit webpage. Keep your eyes peeled to this site in the coming month for updates.
Committee Description
The idea of commitment to eradicate world hunger can be traced back to 1948 when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted by the UN. Article 11 of the UDHR specifically highlights "the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger".[1] The "Primary Responsibility on the implementation of this right relies on the sovereign states," namely the United States, United Kingdom and other More Developed Countries (MDCs).[2] The idea of "shared responsibility" reasserted itself in 1974 when the Universal Declaration on the Eradication of Hunger and Malnutrition was adopted by the first World Food Conference, which "affirmed the right of every man, women and child to be free from hunger and malnutrition."[3] Many more such conferences since have urged international cooperation and responsibility to address the issue of hunger. Some of the other important ones include the 1992 International Conference on Nutrition organized by the FAO and World Health Organization (WHO) where 152 countries joined to write the World Declaration on Nutrition, which emphasizes the importance of "adequate nutrition" and "adequate standard of living." Most famously, the 2000 UN Millennium Summit wrote the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), which ambitiously puts forth the proposal to cut world hunger by half by the year 2015. Unfortunately, these goals are as far from reality as possible. Now with the impending food crisis, Special Rapporteur of the U.N. Human Rights Council Olivier de Schutter estimates that a 100 million people are expected to be pushed into hunger poverty in addition with the 820 million in poverty currently.[4] Thus it can be approximated that the "number of undernourished" can total to about 920 million people if Mr. Olivier's estimates are added to the current millions undernourished. The World Food Summit of 2009 is comprised of delegates from around the world, including representatives from the Food and Agriculture Organization, World Food Program and much more. The task of the delegates is to find a workable solution to this impending food crisis.
Background Guide
Recommended Resources and Documents