Unilever chief warns on global food crisis

Unilever’s Dutch CEO Paul Polman believes the global crisis in food production is reaching ‘dangerous territory’ with prices soaring and demand outstripping supply, according to an interview with the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.


The paper says Polman will say in a speech on Tuesday that market distortions created by European Union subsidies work against the needs of the developing world.
He will also demand fewer subsidies for harmful first-generation bio-fuels and say that climate change must be tackled by companies changing to sustainable models of agriculture, the paper says.
Polman also states in the interview he believes short-term speculators are driving up prices. ‘One of the main things in food inflation is that it has attracted speculators for short-term profit at the expense of people living a dignified life,’ the Anglo Dutch food group chief is quoted as saying.

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