NEW YORK-- The World Food Summit in Rome underscored the severity of malnutrition around the world. More poignantly, it showed how slow the progress has been so far toward eliminating hunger and malnutrition. According to some estimates, 800 million people worldwide -- among them 300 million children -- suffer from hunger every day, and every 4 seconds one dies as a result. In spite of this situation, almost all leaders from the main industrialized nations refused to attend the meeting, sending instead lower level delegations.

Dr. Jacques Diouf, the director general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, stated, "With few exceptions, the number of leaders from the rich countries who didn't attend the summit is a good indicator of the political priority they give to the struggle against hunger."

The summit this year follows one that took place in 1996, which vowed to drastically cut the number of hungry people from 840 million. However, since then, it only cut it to 815 million. The number of undernourished has fallen by 6 million per year instead of the 22 million needed to attain the goal set in 1996. According to Diouf, at this rate the target will be met 45 years behind schedule.