At the Group of Eight (G8) meetings this past weekend at Camp David, President Obama and the leaders of the rest of the world's richest nations abandoned their governments' previous commitments to donate $7.3 billion a year to end hunger in Africa and instead left the problem in the hands of the so-called New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition where private corporations will invest $3 billion over 10 years - Monsanto has committed $50 million - beginning in three countries, Tanzania, Ghana and Ethiopia.

Leaving the problem of hunger in the hand of multinationals like Monsanto and Cargill will only exacerbate the conditions already driving poverty in Africa - rich countries' protectionism, land-grabbing, commodity speculation, food waste, and diversion of crops to livestock feed and biofuels - and ratchet up the costs of farming for small farmers by encouraging the use of expensive and unsustainable GMO seeds, pesticides and fertilizers.