The Rome-based U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization hosted a three-day summit that began June 3 with the goal of averting a looming catastrophe of widening malnutrition and civil unrest among poor people unable to afford basic foodstuffs because of what the World Bank calculates has been an 83 percent increase in prices in the last three years.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon urged world leaders June 3 to immediately suspend or eliminate many price controls, and such agricultural trade restrictions as export bans and import tariffs to try to bring down soaring food prices.