The Group of Eight summit is deservedly derided as a glorified but vacuous photo opportunity. But the world leaders gathered in L’Aquila will redeem much if they make good on the food security initiative announced on Friday.

The boom made it easy to overlook that not all was well with the economy’s most basic function: keeping people fed. The world’s poor, already smarting from record food prices, now have to contend with the recession’s devastating effect on incomes. This year, there will for the first time be more than 1bn chronically hungry people.