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![Protests against high food prices have erupted across the world [EPA]](http://mwcnews.net/images/stories/Global2/1/2/3/4/5/6/7/8/American-food.jpg "Protests against high food prices have erupted across the world [EPA]") | | Protests against high food prices have erupted across the world [EPA] |
Leaders from four Latin American countries have set up a $100m food security fund for staples such as rice, beans and corn in a bid to offset rising food prices that have sparked global protests.
The presidents of Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela as well as Cuba's vice-president also promised joint agricultural programmes.
"This issue is really crucial for the future of our people, most of all to the people of the poorest countries," Daniel Ortega, Nicaragua's president, said at the meeting in Venezuela on Thursday.
Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, said the fund was an "urgent geopolitical issue".
"This food crisis is the biggest demonstration of the historic failure of
the capitalist model," he said at the Alternative for the People of Our America (ALBA) summit in Caracas.
Also at the summit, leaders pledged their support to Bolivia ahead of a referendum vote in May in which the nation's more prosperous eastern provinces are seeking greater autonomy from the capital, La Paz, and its socialist policies.
'Silent tsunami' Chavez said a regional food distribution system was needed to cut out the so-called "middle-men" who were increasing prices."We have to create a regional trade network to stop us falling into the hands of speculators," he said.
Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia all import much of their foodstuff, with Bolivia forced to grant small farmers who grow corn, rice, wheat and soya beans interest-free loans as incentives for production.
The group's food security plan includes projects to help boost
output of grains, especially corn and rice and vegetables, as well as milk
and water, and improve irrigation, the Venezuelan leader said.
Global food prices, affected by rising fuel prices, environmental changes and increased demand from India and China, have sparked often violent protests this year in more than 35 countries in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
The leaders' announcement comes after the head of the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) warned that a "silent tsunami" of hunger is sweeping across the globe, with an additional 100 million people facing poverty.
"This is the new face of hunger - the millions of people who were not in the urgent hunger category six months ago, but now are," Josette Sheeran said in a speech during a UK summit on the global food crisis.
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Tags: Latin America food fund
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