"The sixty-fourth session of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific took place at a time when rocketing prices of both food and oil were causing serious hardship. In response, the Commission decided that the theme topic for the sixty-fifth session in 2009 should be on food security and sustainable agriculture. Since then, the picture has been transformed. The global economy has sunk into recession ? and prices for food, oil and other commodities have fallen back sharply. From this, you might conclude that the food emergency has passed ? that we should concentrate only on the financial and economic crises. In fact, however, the economic crisis makes it even more urgent that we tackle food insecurity now. For millions of people across the Asia-Pacific region, the economic crisis will also be a food crisis. The prices they pay may have fallen, but their incomes have fallen further still. As governments face up to the current economic storms, they must ensure that everyone, everywhere, has enough to eat. This is a clear humanitarian and development priority, but it is also a political imperative; food insecure people make angry citizens. The first priority, therefore, is to check the resilience of social safety nets ? and, if necessary, bolster them to meet the immediate crisis. But the region also needs to look to the future. As this study emphasizes, the world?s food system has become increasingly fragile. Food prices have dipped, but they will surely surge again when the global economy and the demand for food starts to recover. On present trends, the region will be hard pressed to meet that demand. Food security is being threatened from many directions, not least from unsustainable forms of agriculture that are degrading the soil, water and biological diversity ? problems that will be exacerbated by climate change. Time to turn again, therefore, to sustainable agriculture ? ensuring that farmers, and particularly small producers, have the support they need to grow nutritious food in ways that meet human needs today, while protecting vital environmental resources for future generations. Time also to capitalize on our efforts in regional cooperation ? ensuring that we avoid food protectionism and, instead, use our regional strengths to build flexible and resilient systems of food security."