UN General Assembly
2008

supports efforts to promote agriculture and food production. It is generally assumed that rising food prices automatically benefit all farmers equally. That is not the case. Due to the concentrated and vertically integrated nature of the global food trade, a good number of agribusiness companies control all aspects of cultivation and distribution. We are therefore now witnessing smallholders being squeezed out. They are unable to benefit from rising prices. At the same time, ironically, many have to purchase food items that are available in the market at very high prices. The energy crisis has some of the same causes as the food situation. Underinvestment is one of those causes. Expectations of continued ample supply have been dashed due to speculation and increased demand. The causes of the fuel, food and climate change crises clearly lie in the unfulfilled hopes and broken promises of sustainable development. In Rio almost a decade and a half ago, the human family agreed that we would undertake concerted action to address the sustainable development challenge based, inter alia, on the