Last week the UN's global food conference was held in Rome. Leaders discussed how to prevent a further 130million people falling into the hunger trap. There are already about 850million poor starving all over the world. Whether they will be successful in this or not, we have no means of knowing, although we have very serious doubts on the matter. However, there are no doubts at all on one thing: the leaders were not allowed to go hungry. They sat down to enjoy a three-course lunch at the headquarters of the Food and Agriculture Organisation. There was a good choice on the menu, which included pumpkin or crevette pate or sweetcorn and mozzarella vol-au-vents followed by a choice of veal cutlets with cherry tomatoes and basil or spinach a la romaine and a dessert of fruit salad with ice-cream, all accompanied by a white Orvieto Classico wine. This raises the question if they have the slightest idea about the reality of the starving men and women they are talking about. In the words of the Russian proverb: a man with a full stomach cannot understand a man with an empty one.