The global economic meltdown has the World Bank on high alert.
 
As the financial crisis deepens, the World Bank is issuing even bleaker warnings about rising poverty and hunger in the developing world.  Initially, it estimated that 46 million people in developing countries could be pushed into poverty.  Now, that level is up another 7 million.

"We estimate that about 130 million people were pushed into poverty from the food crisis and if you add the financial crisis on top of that we are estimating that about 53 million more people could be pushed into poverty as a result of the financial crisis," World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit. 
 
Children and women are being hardest hit, she said.  The World Bank estimated that the current financial downturn may add between 200,000 and 400,000 additional infant deaths per year on average in the 2009 to 2015 period.  That means a total of 1.4 million to 2.8 million more infant deaths, if the financial strain continues. 
 
"The one big piece we need to look at in this financial crisis and its translation into the food crisis is that we're talking about human beings," said Okonjo-Iweala.  "Remember that 923 million people are malnourished the world over.  When you talk about the financial crisis becoming an unemployment crisis in the developed world, in the developing world for many poor people it's not an issue of unemployment, it's an issue of life and death."
 
(Reuters photos of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Jan. 2009/Girls waiting for drinking water in Kathmandu, March 2009)

Are you worried about the rash of high-profile and often deadly tainted-food scandals involving everything from peanut butter and chili peppers to spinach and baby formula?

You are not alone.

"When I heard peanut products were being contaminated earlier this year, I immediately thought of my 7-year-old daughter, Sasha, who has peanut butter sandwiches for lunch probably three times a week," U.S. President Barack Obama said recently, referring to a salmonella outbreak that has made 683 people in 46 states sick, killed as many as nine and forced the recall of more than 3,000 products. 

"No parent should have to worry that their child is going to get sick from their lunch," said Obama, who is leading a charge to improve the U.S. food safety system. 

Parties ranging from the CEO of cereal maker Kellogg to Rosa DeLauro, chairwoman of a House of Representatives Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FDA, have joined the call for stricter oversight.

China will enact a new food-safety law on June 1aimed at preventing another massive health threat like last year's melamine-tainted milk formula that killed at least six toddlers and made almost 300,000 sick.

But in a chilling reminder of the troubles in an increasingly global food chain, China's Ministry of Health said in a document: "At present, China's food-security situation remains grim with high risks and contradictions."

World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is on the food safety bandwagon, but cautions that it could be misused by anti-trade advocates.

"If we're asking for more open trade and less protectionism on food, I think the safety issue is absolutely crucial. Countries will run away from trading if they believe you are going to export food to them that is not safe," she told the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit, referring to health threats like melamine contamination and mad cow disease. 

On the other hand, she said, "some countries use the food safety issue artifically ... as a barrier, if you will, from getting in imports from other countries."

(Photos\Reuters)

At the Reuters Food & Agriculture Summit, executives shared with the outlooks for their companies, their expansion plans and their views on the economy.

Most importantly,  they shared with us their favorite foods.

David Stark, Monsanto’s Vice President,  Consumer Traits:

“Barbecue potato chips. My dream is how can I make those healthy, because I don’t eat as many as I want. … If I have my way, someday … your doctor will say ‘you can’t eat just one.’”

 Andrea Thomas, senior vice president of private brands for Wal-Mart Stores Inc:

“I bake pies as one of my specialties, and so I am really excited for fruit season. I spent an entire summer to perfect a recipe for peach pie and so I ended up making six peach pies and adding this and changing this and all of that.”

Campbell Soup’s Chief Executive Douglas Conant:

“Cream of tomato with rice. My mother was from the South, everything had rice in it. It’s even better when you pair it with a grilled cheese sandwich made on Pepperidge Farm bread. ”   

Rosa DeLauro, U.S. House of Representatives:  
 ”One, I love to cook and two, I enjoy eating. I suppose if I draw on my national heritage it has to be, they call it pasta now, but it’s macaroni with any number of … whether it’s oil and garlic aioli or whether it’s red sauce or clams. I love pasta.”
 

Moody’s Senior Analyst Brian Weddington:

“I’m supporting the dairy industry, I’m still eating a lot of ice cream. It’s a decent substitute for a meal.”

Fitch Rating’s Senior Director Wesley Moultrie:

“Marinated poultry with pasta, along with some portobello mushrooms sliced up with garlic, with some olive oil on top of it, sauteed.”

Robert Sands, Constellation Brands’s Chief Executive:

“Pizza. Chicago Pizza New York Pizza, Any kind of pizza.” What does he wash it down with? “A corona and a cabernet savignon.”

(Photos: Reuters)

While the six degrees game is tied to Kevin Bacon, connections to other celebrities are helping a major charity.

Feeding America, formerly known as America’s Second Harvest, has several celebrities on its entertainment council, including chairman David Arquette.

The actor, who volunteers at a Venice, California, food pantry twice a week, and wife Courteney Cox Arquette introduced Feeding America to Ben Silverman, the co-chairman of NBC Entertainment and NBC Universal Television Studio, President and CEO Vicki Escarra said at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit.
 
One large way Feeding America has gotten its name out over the past few months is through its mentions on NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” weight loss television show.
    
Escarra said Feeding America met last week with Silverman “to see if there’s a way that Feeding America can really be more involved in the properties of NBC.”
 
She said Silverman is now considering the idea.

Among many campaigns from corporations that highlight Feeding America is one that caught even Escarra by surprise. 
 
“We now have a really nice piece that I didn’t even know we had. I was watching TV Sunday night and I saw this really beautiful Visa commercial,” she said.
 
Escarra also spoke about some upcoming campaigns.  The Arquettes will appear in 40 magazines and on signs in U.S. post offices in April and May promoting the Letter Carriers’ food drive. Last year, the drive collected 73 million pounds of food, according to Feeding America.
 
And for Easter, along with the egg producers, Feeding America is doing an event in Hollywood. For every egg decorated by celebrities and their children, a tractor trailer full of eggs will go to a food bank. 

(Reuters photo)

B&G Foods Inc wants the small, orphan brands that no one else loves. 

"We have a laundry list and any number companies that we talk to on a regular basis," said B&G Chief Executive David Wenner. "We're buying all these things people don't want to run."

B&G pointed to the success of its acquisition of Cream of Wheat, saying "no one was paying any attention to it. So that's where we come in."

"We're looking for things are aren't commodities. Higher margin products, ethnic foods are great. Las Palmas and Ortega -- they've grown steadily over the years and we love that," Wenner said.

B&G aims to stick to its tried-and-true practice of buying dry grocery products that immediately add to earnings or revenues.

B&G wants to carve out orphan products from larger food companies. When it approaches potential sellers, B&G says "We're able to come in and take these five things  you don't want.  We're able to come in and take these things over very very quickly," Wenner said. 

The company targets smaller brands or private companies. "We're not buying Kraft tomorrow." 

Still, some acquisitions may have to wait. Sellers are still looking for premiums that reflect higher stock prices from a year ago, rather than the current depressed prices, Wenner said.

"The brands that may be available are on hold -- I see some more consolidation in the food industry at some point," Wenner said. "But we still have sellers that are looking for double-digit EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization), and that's not where the world is today."

(Reuters photo)

The weakening of the U.S. dollar and other currencies has led farmers around the world to value their crops more highly than they do money, said Dan Basse, president of agricultural research firm AgResource Co. 

“In Argentina, for example, farmers down there are more anxious to hold onto soybeans than pesos. When they need currency they’re willing to take a bag of beans and trade it for whatever they need during that particular day or week.

“I can even say the same in places of the world like eastern Europe and Russia, where the rouble has lost a tremendous amount of value and farmers there feel more comfortable storing some of their grain.”

Basse, speaking at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit, also said he is watching governments in countries like China, Russia and even Saudi Arabia forming crop reserves.

(Reuters photo)

Tired of paying high prices for everything from soup to cereal? See your butcher.

While food makers like Kellogg and Campbell Soup have yet to take back price hikes on boxes of cereal and cans of soup spurred by last year's spike in commodity costs, beef companies have to move their premium, perishable product in a environment where restaurants aren't buying and consumers are pinching pennies. 

"You are seeing some of the best value in grocery stores for steaks than what you have seen in
an awfully long time," Gregg Doud, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association's chief economist said at the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit in Chicago.

"You are seeing a lot of features for rib-eyes and T-bones at below $5 a pound. That is some of the best featuring we have seen in many many years," Doud said.

In April 2008, the retail price for boneless rib-eye steaks averaged $9.49 per pound and T-bones averaged $6.88 a pound, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

(Photo\Reuters)

Wal-Mart’s Great Value private brand is getting a makeover just in time for its sweet sixteen. 

Great Value, which first hit stores in 1993, is being relaunched with more than 80 new products and packaging that “pops” according to Andrea Thomas, who helped oversee the relaunch and spoke to the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit in Chicago.

Want to take a look?

Here is a picture of Wal-Mart’s Great Value broccoli, pulled from its website:

Here is a picture Wal-Mart provided to Reuters, showing us what the new Great Value packaging will look like: 

The recession has hit U.S. consumers, yet Reckitt Benckiser has not felt as much of a pinch.  The maker of Lysol disinfectants and Air Wick air fresheners said shoppers did not shy away from its products even as the overall household products industry felt the impact of pantry destocking, or consumers using up what they had at home rather than buying more products.
   
Rob De Groot, head of the group’s North America and Australia region, told the Reuters Food and Agriculture Summit in Chicago that he did not see a massive consumer destocking.  Click here to hear his comments. 

De Groot expects Reckitt’s U.S. market share to rise this year, even as the overall market remains flat.

He added that the group had not seen any effect of the U.S. recession hitting its results.  Click here for De Groot’s thoughts.