U.N. rights advocate sees more malnutrition

Jean Ziegler, a U.N. expert on food rights, said that some 852 million people were “gravely, permanently undernourished on this planet” at the end of 2005, an increase of 11 million from the year earlier.

Much of that increase came in Africa, where drought, climate change and poor farming practices are spreading the Sahara Desert farther southward into once-fertile lands, Ziegler told a news conference.

He also charged that unfair trade practices by rich nations hurt food production in Africa, where excess food from rich nations can be dumped in local markets, undercutting local producers.