Rising food costs mean more global hunger

UNITED NATIONS, April 10 (UPI) -- Rising food prices are contributing to a "new face of hunger" threatening the poor worldwide, a U.N. official said Thursday during a conference in Dubai.

"Food prices are now rising at rates that few of us can ever have seen before in our lifetimes," U.N. World Food Program Deputy Executive Director John Powell told the Dubai International Humanitarian Aid and Development conference.

He said high prices were placing food out of reach of the most vulnerable and affecting the urban poor, the United Nation said in a news release.

"We are particularly concerned with the emergence of what might be called a new face of hunger, characterized by markets full of food with large numbers of people simply unable to afford it," Powell said.

During the past few weeks, violent protests over rising food prices have erupted in a number of countries including, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Haiti, Morocco and Senegal, said the World Food Program, which feeds more than 70 million people in roughly 80 countries.