The United Nations is warning rising food prices are pushing more people into hunger worldwide. A new report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization says another 40 million people became “food insecure” this year, bringing the total to just under one billion. On Tuesday, UN Food chief Jacques Diouf said his agency’s appeal for $30 billion in emergency food aid pales before other spending priorities.

UN Food chief Jacques Diouf: “So $30 billion is nothing compared to the subsidies and support to agriculture in OECD countries. It is nothing compared to the arms. But it is nothing compared to the billions of dollars that are being spent in all developed countries to face the financial crisis. Therefore, the question is, what is the priority? Is it 923 million people who do not have the most basic of the human rights, the right to exist, which requires that they eat. We eat three times a day.”

Diouf went on to urge President-elect Obama to convene a global food summit aimed at surpassing current hunger reduction goals.

Diouf: “And that is the reason why, in my message of congratulation to President Barack Obama, I suggested that he takes a lead in the convening of a summit to eradicate hunger from the face of the earth. I think even the objective of cutting by half the number of hungry people by the year 2015 is morally unacceptable. It is morally unacceptable.”