36 Countries Including US urge UN Members to keep Food Markets Open

On Thursday, the United States and several other countries encouraged UN members to maintain their "food and agricultural markets" open and "avoid unwarranted restrictive measures, such as food or fertiliser export prohibitions." They called on all UN Member States to work together to offset the mid-term and long-term consequences of recent shocks to global agriculture and food systems in a statement issued following the ministerial conference titled "Roadmap for Global Food Security-Call to Action."

"We must collectively mitigate fertilizer shortages and the subsequent threat to food production, increase investments in agricultural capacity and resilience, buffer those in vulnerable situations from impacts to their food security, nutrition and well-being, and sustain high-level global political engagement on these critical issues," the statement said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken presided over the 'Global Food Security-Call to Action' Ministerial, which focused on increasing global food security, nutrition, and resilience. The statement's seven-point "activities" called on UN Member States with appropriate resources to make fresh, additive financial donations to major humanitarian organisations providing life-saving humanitarian assistance.

The statement further said, "All UN Member States to keep their food and agricultural markets open and to avoid unjustified restrictive measures, such as export bans on food or fertilizer, which increase market volatility and threaten food security and nutrition at a global scale, especially among those in vulnerable situations already experiencing increased poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, and call on all members to ensure safe maritime transportation in the Black Sea."