Thomas W. Lippman examines a looming food and water crisis in Saudi Arabia.

CFR Senior Fellow Laurie Garrett says President Barack Obama's agriculture development and food security initiative holds promise, but it must focus on how to assist women, who are responsible for the majority of agricultural work in Africa.

High food prices have swelled the number of people going hungry around the world. Food aid is also a culprit, say some experts.

We, Heads of State, Government and International and Regional Organizations convened in L'Aquila, remain deeply concerned about global food security, the impact of the global financial and economic crisis and last year's spike in food prices on the countries least able to respond to increased hunger and poverty. While the prices of food commodities have decreased since their peak of 2008, they remain high in historical terms and volatile. The combined effect of longstanding underinvestment in agriculture and food security, price trends and the economic crisis have led to increased hunger and poverty in developing countries, plunging more than a further 100 million people into extreme poverty and jeopardising the progress achieved so far in meeting the Millennium Development Goals. The number of people suffering from hunger and poverty now exceeds 1 billion.