MONTREAL — McGill University will host the second McGill Conference on Global Food Security Oct. 5-7. With the theme "Impacts of global financial turmoil on food security," the program will feature speakers from a variety of disciplines discussing food security in developing countries.

Speakers from a number of different countries where food shortages are severe will present their perspectives on the current situation. In addition, international aid agencies will review ongoing food security problems and the effect of the economic crisis on their ability to respond both in the short and long term.

"McGill has decided to take leadership in global food security because of the urgent need to deal with the global development problem of over 1 billion people who do not have access to food and who live on less than $1 per day," said Chandra A. Madramootoo, dean of the school of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the university. "There is a need for an academic organization such as McGill to convene a high level conference by bringing together governments, the private sector, N.G.O.s, international development experts and scholars, to debate the issues in a neutral environment and to map the way forward with respect to finding solutions to the problems of global food security."

Those who attend the conference will be engaged in discussions of the major issues that affect global food security and will generate recommendations for long-term policy planning. Priority areas for investments, research and capacity required to increase agricultural production will be identified during the program.

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