The UN's agency responsible for relieving hunger is drawing up plans to ration food aid in response to the spiralling cost of agricultural commodities.

    負責饑民救助的聯合國世界糧食計劃署(UN's World Food Programme)正草擬定量配給食品的救援計劃，以應對農產品價格不斷攀升的狀況。

    The World Food Programme is holding crisis talks to decide what aid to halt if new donations do not arrive in the short term.
    
    世界糧食計劃署正進行緊急會談，以便決定如果短期內沒有新的捐助，應暫停哪種救助。

    Josette Sheeran, WFP executive director, told the Financial Times that the agency would look at “cutting the food rations or even the number of people reached” if donors did not provide more money.

    世界糧食計劃署執行干事約塞特•施林(Josette Sheeran)向英國《金融時報》表示，如果捐贈者不提供更多的資金，該機構將考慮“削減食品定量甚至發放對象數量”。

    The WFP crisis talks come as the body sees the emergence of a “new area of hunger” in developing countries where even middle-class, urban people are being “priced out of the food market” because of rising food prices.

    世界糧食計劃署舉行緊急會談之時，正值該機構發現發展中國家出現一個“新的饑餓領域”，即由于食品價格不斷上漲，連中產階層城市居民都正因“價格過高而被擠出食品市場”。

    The warning suggests that the price jump in agricultural commodities – such as wheat, corn, rice and soyabeans – is having a wider impact than previously thought, hitting countries that have previously largely escaped hunger.

    上述警告表明，農產品——如小麥、玉米、大米和大豆——價格飆升，正帶來比預想更為廣泛的影響，給那些原已基本擺脫饑餓的國家帶來沖擊。

    The main focus of the WFP to date has been to provide aid in areas where food was unavailable. But the programme now faces having to help countries where the price of food, rather than shortages, is the problem. 

    迄今為止世界糧食計劃署的重點一直是為那些無法獲得食品的地區提供援助。但該機構目前面臨著不得不為那些存在食品價格問題（而非短缺問題）的國家提供幫助的局面。

    Ms Sheeran said that in response to rising food costs, families in developing countries were moving in some cases from three meals a day to just one, or dropping a diverse diet to rely on one staple food.

    施林表示，為了應對食品價格不斷上漲的局面，某些情況下，發展中國家家庭正將一日三餐變為一餐，或者放棄多樣化的飲食，轉而依賴一種主要食品。

    In response to increasing food prices, Egypt has widened its food rationing system for the first time in two decades while Pakistan has reintroduced a ration card system that was abandoned in the mid-1980s.

    為應對食品價格不斷上漲，埃及政府20年來首次放寬其食品配給體系，而巴基斯坦則重新推出了上世紀80年代中期廢棄的定量供應卡制度。

    Other countries such as China and Russia are imposing price controls while others, such as Argentina and Vietnam, are enforcing foreign sales taxes or export bans. Importing countries are lowering their tariffs.

    中國和俄羅斯等國正實施價格管制，而阿根廷和越南等其它國家則實行外國銷售稅或出口限制。（食品）進口國則在降低進口關稅。