Juliana Andrade
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - Continuity in government policies in the area of food and nutritional security is essential for Brazil to be successful in eliminating hunger. This assessment was made today (18) by the president of the National Council on Food and Nutritional Security (CONSEA), Chico Menezes, in comments on an unprecedented study of this topic by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). According to the IBGE study, which was released yesterday (17), approximately 14 million people experience hunger in Brazil.

"If policies remain unstable - implemented by one Administration and abandoned by the next - we shall not overcome this shame, which is the matter of food insecurity, as this research now demonstrates," Menezes said in an interview with the radio network commanded by Radiobrás. In his view, the results of the IBGE study are relevant to an evaluation of the government policies developed in the country.

Menezes observed that the study was based on data from the 2004 National Household Sample Survey (PNAD). In that year, he said, the Family Grant program reached 5.5 million families. "Now the number of families served by the Family Grant is nearing 10 million, and this and other programs will surely result in substantial progress."

Translation: David Silberstein