World hunger is not new. Before the current price increase, 850 million people 13% of the worlds population were chronically hungry. The number of under-fed people has steadily climbed over the past decade. Now, the World Food Programme estimates that the crisis has driven another 100 million people into hunger, including even urban middle class people in Indonesia and Mexico. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, World Bank President Robert Zoellick and other leaders are urging governments to act promptly. But before jumping on the official bandwagon, we must ask what kind of action, and what brought this crisis on.
