UN report calls for repurposing of agricultural subsidies
14/9/2021: A new UN report finds that 87% of annual government farm subsidies totalling $540 billion includes measures that are both price distorting and harmful to nature and health. Reform of support for the agricultural sector will benefit our planet.
Source: UN Environment Programme
Rival visions compete as UN gears up for summit to defeat hunger
26/7/2021: Debate is heating up on whether the famines of tomorrow will best be prevented by intensive production – driven by technology – or by smaller-scale, eco-friendly practices. Many activists and farmers’ groups are boycotting preparations for September’s first-ever UN Food Systems Summit.
Source: The New Humanitarian
Food systems drive a third of greenhouse gas emissions
20/4/2021: A new study concludes that food systems contribute 25% to 42% of global greenhouse gas emissions, taking account of the growing of food, its distribution, its consumption and its disposal. Experts say that reform is needed to make food systems function within the Earth’s planetary boundaries.
Source: Mongabay
Michael Fakhri: the new UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food
24/3/2021: The newly appointed UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food offers incisive ideas on local markets, international trade reform and conflict - in the context of solving world hunger.
Source: New Internationalist
Hunger deaths aren’t simply about famine or no famine
3/2/2021: The “f-word” has been on the tongues of leading humanitarians lately, with particular concerns about potential famine in South Sudan and Yemen. But a declaration of famine – or the lack thereof – doesn’t tell the whole story.
Source: The New Humanitarian
Nobel Prize for the World Food Programme
9/10/2020: This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the UN World Food Programme. A surprising choice but the Norwegian Nobel Committee has underlined the importance of global cooperation.
Source: DW
Agro-ecology risks harming the poor and worsening gender inequality in Africa
30/7/2020: In recent years, agro-ecology has come to be seen as a virtual panacea in sub-Saharan Africa. Now an analysis of conservation agriculture experiments in Africa threatens to completely up-end this dominant paradigm.
Source: Cornell Alliance for Science
The Case for a Real Restructuring of Global Ag-Research Centres
22/7/2020: A group of experts comments on proposals to merge the CGIAR’s 15 legally-independent centres, headquartered in 15 countries, into one legal entity. The impetus has come from some of its biggest funders, notably the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank, and the US and UK governments.
Source: Inter Press Service