On World Food Day that was held on October 16th, former US President Bill Clinton admitted getting the issue of food security for poor nations wrong.A lot of aid that goes into poor countries is food. But that makes it even harder for the small farmers of poor countries to stay profitable. In recent years, imports of food to poor nations rose, making them even more dependent on aid. If aid was ever removed, God forbid, the poor nations would be unable to sustain themselves. Former President Clinton actually praised our current President Bush for getting food security right, but he has been stopped by politics in the US. In this Associated Press article, writer Charles Hanley has quotes from President Clinton on improving aid effectiveness to the developing world. Former President Clinton...
from the Standard, Kenya By Peter Okong’oIncreased food insecurity is now the biggest threat to Kenya’s economic development.With the level of malnourishment within the population increasing in tandem with poverty, labour productivity and access to education are rapidly being undermined.When combined with disease, this spells disaster for the country’s battered agricultural sector.Up to 70 per cent of Kenya’s malnourished population are in rural areas. The rest live in the slums that have become a permanent feature in our towns and cities.The most recent blow to Kenya’s food security was the post-election violence that rocked the North Rift region — regarded as the country’s bread basket — in January this year.This region produces most of Kenya’s maize and wheat. There...
from Africa Science News Written by Venter Mwongera In an interview to the Africa Science News Service at her Nairobi-based office, the Chief Executive Officer for Africa Harvest Biotechnology Foundation International (AHBFI), Prof Florence Wambugu said access to inputs- machinery, targeted subsidy and credit programs, secure land tenure system especially for women to increase farmers capacity to use and invest in new technology; are the best starting points to build a stable economy. She said increased investment in water technologies, increased agricultural extension services, development of new crop varieties resistant to drought, pest and diseases are other milestones needed towards alleviating poverty in developing countries. She however attributed changing global climatic...
from the Voice of America By Véronique LaCapra Worldwide, the demand for food is increasing. According to Janet Larsen, director of research at the Earth Policy Institute, the world population is growing by more than 70 million people each year. The institute is an environmental research organization that focuses on sustainable development."Around the world there are four billion people trying to move up the food chain, consuming more grain-intensive livestock products," says Larsen. She also blames the increasing diversion of food to fuel to run our growing automobile fleets.Expert Says Not Enough Money Invested in AgricultureGlobal food production has not been keeping pace with increased demand. Larsen says that in seven of the last eight years, the world has consumed more grain than...
from ISN Underneath the high prices, there is the longer term failure of development policy as imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.for Diplomatic CourierFor years, even decades, they have been sounding the alarm on what the international community has only recently recognized as a food crisis. But the crisis, they say, is not new. In fact, it has been decades in the making. And they would know: they are farmers. Hailing from Iowan cornfields to the Niger delta, attuned to the earth's subtle signs and currents in the atmosphere, they have been urging us to listen too.Now, as grain prices surge to unprecedented levels and food riots flash across the evening news broadcast, the world is starting to take notice. Dena Hoff, Vice President of the National Family Farm...
from IPS News The food and fuel crises are bad enough, but add water into the fray and it could be disastrous. The World Bank still insists on water privatization before making loans. - KaleBy Thalif DeenSTOCKHOLM, - "It's the spectre of a food, fuel and water crisis," says Lars Thunell, executive vice president of the Washington-based International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group."I believe we are at a tipping point," he said, because the scarcity of water poses a threat to the food supply just when the agricultural sector is stepping up production in response to riots over food prices, growing hunger, and rising malnutrition.Speaking at the conclusion of the weeklong Stockholm International Water Conference Friday, Thunell said the growing demand for water...
from Commodity Online A group of NGO's are trying to double rice production in Africa in 10 years. Here are details on the efforts. - Kale By Savitri MohapatraEveryone to the farm,” is the new decree of President Wade of Senegal—a country that has seen massive riots in the last few months, when thousands of citizens carrying empty rice sacks on their heads marched in protest against soaring rice prices. The President has just unveiled an ambitious agricultural plan called the Great Offensive for Food and Abundance (GOANA), which aims to make Senegal self-sufficient in food staples, especially rice.GOANA’s target is to produce in the next season 500,000 tons of rice—2.5 times more than the current production. Senegal, where rice-fish called cebbu jen is the most popular daily...
from the Mail and Guardian This article profiles new food co-operatives in South Africa that are being used to combat rising food prices. - Kaleby NOSIMILO NDLOVU Salaminah Motsoagae (23) is a single mother who lives in an informal settlement in Orange Farm, Gauteng. She lives with her mother, who is a domestic worker and the only income earner in the family.Rising food prices have put a financial strain on Motsoagae's family, leaving them with less money than before to buy food. "We are down to two meals a day," she says."Things are especially tough on people in my community who are HIV-positive because they must eat a nutritional meal each time they have to take their antiretrovirals (ARVs). Most of the time there just isn't enough for them to eat and they become very ill. Our...
from the Wall Street Journal's Live Mint Finally some good news! Signs that the world food crisis is easing. - KaleFarmers from Australia to China have increased plantings of wheat, corn, rice and soya bean, helping stockpiles gain from 30-year lowsby Thomas Kutty Abraham and Pratik ParijaMumbai / New Delhi: A worldwide food crisis that sent wheat, corn and rice prices to records and sparked riots earlier this year may be over after farmers increased plantings, a top official at the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution said.“I don’t think there’s a crisis now,” said T. Nanda Kumar, food secretary, who is responsible for formulating food security policy in the world’s second most populous nation. “Food will be available.”Farmers from Australia to...
from Emirates Business The impact of the global food crisi in the middle east will be the subject of an upcoming conference in Dubai. - KaleThe crisis has triggered a broad review of agricultural and economic priorities in the region, where nearly all the states are net food importers. And new challenges such as climate change have hit agricultural production in the poorest countries.These problems will be discussed at the 2008 Regional Round Table Meeting on Commodity Development. The event is being held on August 24 and 25 by Amsterdam-based Common Fund for Commodities, an international financial institution established by the United Nations.The round table meetings are normally held in Africa, Asia and Latin America. However, this year the fund decided to hold a separate session in...
from the Guardian A study finds widespread use of waste water used for growing crops. At least 200 million people are at risk of disease from this use of waste water. The study from the UN surveyed 53 cities thought the word. - Kaleby John VidalUrban farmers in 80% of the cities surveyed were found to be using untreated waste water, but the study said they also provided vital food for burgeoning cities at a time of unprecedented water scarcity and the worst food crisis in 30 years.The study from the UN-backed International Water Management Institute (IMWI), said the practice of using waste water to grow food in urban areas was not confined to the poorest countries."It's a widespread phenomenon, occurring on 20m hectares across the developing world, especially in Asian countries like...
from the Guardian A lot of the stories we share on here only touch on the fertilizer issue. This one gives more detail on how the higher costs of fertilizer is hurting food supply. - Kale by John VidalA global fertiliser crisis caused by high oil prices and the US rush to biofuel crops is reducing the harvests of the world's poorest farmers and could lead to millions more people going hungry, according to the UN and global food analysts.Optimism that soaring food commodity prices could lift millions of developing country farmers out of poverty and lead to more food being grown have been dashed, says the UN. This is because small farmers either consume their own crop or have no access to global markets to take advantage of the higher food prices.There is little prospect of relief. A world...
from the New York Daily News Bono's guru finally weighs in on the global food crisis. - KaleBY JEFFREY SACHSThe surge of world food prices this year came like a bolt out of the blue, but warning lights were in fact flashing. Imbalances of global food supply and demand had been building for years beneath the public view.It's our job now to restore a balance of food supply and demand, and to defuse the long-term factors that can still come back to haunt us.To date, American policy has been part of the problem, not the solution. In a mix of misguided energy policy and brazen special interest politics, the U.S. adopted a bio-fuel boondoggle. Taxpayers pay billions of dollars each year to subsidize large grain companies to covert corn to ethanol. Yet on balance, corn-based ethanol saves...
from the Washington Post In Burkina Faso, many women prepare the meals, but have the rest of their family eat, while they go without. A great story here on the global food crisi. - KaleCultural Expectations Ensure Women Are Hit Hardest by Burgeoning Food CrisisBy Kevin SullivanOUAGADOUGOU, Burkina FasoAfter she woke in the dark to sweep city streets, after she walked an hour to buy less than $2 worth of food, after she cooked for two hours in the searing noon heat, Fanta Lingani served her family's only meal of the day.First she set out a bowl of corn mush, seasoned with tree leaves, dried fish and wood ashes, for the 11 smallest children, who tore into it with bare hands.Then she set out a bowl for her husband. Then two bowls for a dozen older children. Then finally, after everyone else...
from ReutersHere are some more details on the EU's newly proposed food fund. It is already being welcomed by NGO's that work in Africa. - Kale By Jeremy SmithBRUSSELS - The European Commission backed a plan on Friday to give 1 billion euros to farmers in Africa next year to help tackle high food prices and boost output, despite opposition by many EU states.The EU cash, largely the result of underspending and leeway in the bloc's massive agriculture budget, comprises 750 million euros earmarked for 2008 and the remainder for 2009. This year's amount could be given retrospectively from mid-June. At least eight EU member countries, including Britain, Sweden and the Netherlands, have questioned the legality of the scheme but have not challenged the merit of the idea.EU ministers and the...
from the Winnipeg Sun The EU is making a move to help in the global food crisis. They have asked member nations to ratify this proposal by November. - KaleBRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Union is proposing a $1.6-billion, two-year emergency fund to help poor countries cope with the global food crisis.European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says the fund will aim to help mostly African nations and stabilize supply markets.The fund has been put together from cash that has gone unspent in this year’s EU farm budget.Barroso says if European nations don’t help, United Nations goals to halve world poverty would be put at risk.The EU Commission will only give out cash to countries that are found to be the most reliant on food imports and have been hardest hit by food price...
from the AFP via Google A farmer collects melons from his field in Djilakh, SenegalThe UN chief speaks out on the Global food crisis, during debate at the UN General Assembly. - Kale UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday called for a sharp hike in world farm output, warning that high food and fuel prices threatened much of the progress made in reaching global poverty-reduction targets.Addressing a day-long debate of the UN General Assembly on the global food and energy crisis, the secretary general warned: "the double jeopardy of high food and fuel prices threatens to undermine much of the progress made in achieving the Millenium Development Goals (MDGs)."And he noted that the effects of climate change, including increased exposure to drought, rising temperatures, more...
from Reuters Even prosperous countries are growing more food do to food secuirity concerns. As this Reuters article explains, the British government has a new report on ways to tackle the global food crisis. - Kale By Nigel HuntLONDON - More fertiliser in Africa, a global trade pact and maybe even genetically modified crops could help tackle global food security as rising prices drive millions into poverty, Britain's farm ministry said on Thursday.Britons are increasingly growing their own food as prices rise and fears mount about future supplies, the ministry said in a report launching a debate on food security. "High energy prices, poor harvests, rising demand from a growing population, use of biofuels and export bans have all pushed up prices and ... have sparked riots and...
from Caribbean 360 PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, July 14, 2008 -The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has given Haiti an additional US$26.5 million in assistance to help it cope with the impact of rising food and fuel prices, following its third review of Haiti's economic performance under the Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) arrangement.The completion of the review will enable the immediate disbursement of US$38.7 million."Despite numerous external shocks, including rising international commodity prices and inclement weather, as well as political difficulties, Haiti's performance under its PRGF-supported programme and progress in structural reform have been commendable," said the IMF's Deputy Managing Director and Acting Chair of the Executive Board, Takatoshi Kato."However,...
from Reuters By Lesley Wroughton - AnalysisWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A leading World Bank economist's claims that biofuels are a major cause of soaring world food prices could further undermine support for the alternative fuel worldwide and cause tensions with the White House, which fervently supports the new industry.The draft report by the World Bank's top agricultural economist, Don Mitchell, estimates that the growing use of food for fuel, combined with low grain stocks, market speculation and export food bans, contributed as much as 75 percent of the 140 percent rise in prices between January 2002 and February 2008.The remainder of the increase is due to a weakening U.S. dollar, higher energy prices and related increases in fertilizer costs, he said."Increased biofuel production has...
from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Reporter: Pip CourtneyBRENDAN TREMBATH: As the world reels from rising rice, wheat and corn prices, one expert recommends the humble potato be taken more seriously.A top potato scientist says the world food crisis can't be solved by rice and grains alone.The United Nations has declared 2008 to be the International Year of the Potato.Pip Courtney from the ABC TV show Landline has been in the great potato producing nation of Peru and she filed this report.(Sound of llama bells ringing)PIP COURTNEY: High up in the Andes mountains in Peru - the home of the potato, its harvest time.Potatoes have been grown in the highlands for thousands of years, for the villagers here, here spuds are the key to survival.VILLAGER (translated): We eat potatoes...
from Reuters, Africa By Lesley WroughtonWASHINGTON - In impoverished Haiti, the government and aid groups hand out lunches at schools in slums. In Brazil, mothers who regularly take their children to medical check-ups qualify for small cash payments.In Mexico and Bangladesh, governments give millions of poor families cash or wheat and rice for sending their children to school and health clinics.For more than a decade programs like these have been helping millions of the world's poor by ensuring children are educated and women have access to basic medical care.Targeted social programs like these have been around for more than a decade but are particularly valuable now when millions of the world's poor are struggling to cope with soaring food and fuel prices.Some programs, such as the...
from the AFP via Google WASHINGTON (AFP) — Rocketing oil and food prices are being felt around the globe and the surging inflationary pressures could worsen poverty, the International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday.A new IMF study, looking at the impact of soaring oil and food costs, said many poor and developing countries will likely have to adjust their economic policies in response to soaring commodity prices."Some countries are at a tipping point," cautioned IMF managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn."If food prices rise further and oil prices stay the same, some governments will no longer be able to feed their people and at the same time maintain stability in their economies," Strauss-Kahn said.The IMF chief called for a "broad cooperative approach" to help tackle higher oil and...
from All Africa BuaNews (Tshwane)By Modern BweemaSharm-El-SheikhThe United Nations (UN) has warned that the current global food crisis, compounded by a hike in fuel prices and climate change, will push more than 100 million people into poverty.United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Asha Rose-Migiro said on Monday at the official opening of the 11th AU Heads of State and Government Summit that this development risked reversing the positive steps made towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).Dr Migiro, however, noted that many African countries had made tremendous progress towards the achievement of the MDGs.She said well designed and properly financed programmes had helped reduce child mortality, improve water and sanitation and expanded primary education in some African...
from Maktoob Business Leaders from the Group of Eight industrial powers will agree to establish a task force at their summit next month to tackle the world food crisis, a report said on Monday.The group will aim to address the immediate problem of food shortages in poorer countries as well as address longer-term challenges such as boosting food production, the Yomiuri Shimbun said, citing unnamed government sources.The working group is also expected to discuss removal of export restrictions and directing global food stockpiles to those most in need, the daily said.The report came after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would press G8 leaders at their July summit in Japan to tackle the world food crisis, as well as climate change and the flagging fight against global poverty.The G8...
from the AFP via Google UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Thursday he would press Group of Eight (G8) leaders at their summit in Japan next month to tackle the world food crisis, climate change and the flagging fight against global poverty.On the eve of his departure on a two-week, three-nation Asian tour, the secretary general said the July 7-9 summit in the northern Japanese resort town of Toyako must face the three inter-related crises which demand "our immediate action."He said that before departing, he would write to each of the G8 leaders to lay out his concerns about the global food crisis, the need "to act now" on climate change if a deal to cut greenhouse gases is to be reached by the end of next year, and the emergency of development."If ever there were a time...
from Reuters By Pete HarrisonBRUSSELS (Reuters) - Biofuels are responsible for 30 percent of the increase in global food prices, pushing 30 million people worldwide into poverty, aid agency Oxfam said in a report on Wednesday.The use of biofuels is soaring as developed countries try to reduce their dependence on imported oil and cut emissions of carbon dioxide, but critics say they have led to a shortage of grain, pushing up commodity prices."Rich countries' demands for more biofuels in their transport fuels are causing spiraling production and food inflation," said Oxfam biofuel policy adviser Rob Bailey, who wrote the report. "Grain reserves are now at an all-time low."Oxfam called on rich countries to dismantle subsidies for biofuels and reduce import tariffs."Rich countries spent up...
from IRIN News KATHMANDU - Worldwide food price hikes are particularly hitting remote villages in western Nepal, the most food-deficit and impoverished part of the country, according to food security experts."We can't grow enough food. We have no source of employment. The rising food prices are making our life very difficult,” said Kanchi Biswakarma, a villager from the remote hill district of Jumla, some 700km northwest of the capital, Kathmandu.Biswakarma said her six-member family could afford only one meal a day. "If we eat in the morning, we have to skip a meal at night," she said."My whole family has to work as daily wage labourers to find enough money to buy food," said Maneta Chettri, a villager from the remote Dolpa District. Her children had to drop out of school to help her...
from the Voice of America By Tendai MaphosaOxfam on Monday published a book warning that the food and fuel price hikes have signaled the start of a new age of scarcity which could drag millions of people further into poverty. It urges immediate action to tackle the huge inequalities that prevent poor people from having access to resources such as food fuel and water. For VOA, Tendai Maphosa has more from London.From Power to Poverty calls for urgent action to address the gap between the world's rich and poor. Duncan Green, the book's author, spoke to VOA."The comparison would be with the U.S. in the Depression or with Europe after the Second World War where you had the New Deal, you had the creation of welfare states," he explained. "We need some level of political inspiration like that...
from Business Day The world’s hungriest people are the rural poor who starve even when prices are low, writes ROBERT PAARLBERGTHE price of many basic foodstuffs has surged in the past six months. High import prices, on top of high fuel prices, place an acute economic squeeze on urban consumers in developing countries that depend heavily on the world market. In Haiti, Egypt, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and Ethiopia, the urban poor have been taking to the streets.Yet it is a mistake to see high prices as a proxy for actual hunger. Most of the world’s hungry citizens do not get their food from the world market and most who rely on the world market are not poor or vulnerable to hunger.In south Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, hunger levels are twice as high as in the developing...