Black Sea grain deal releases food and fertilizer exports
22/7/2022: Russian and Ukrainian ministers have signed the Black Sea Grain Initiative which should stabilize global food prices and bring relief for developing countries on the edge of bankruptcy.
Source: UN News
Joint Statement by UN leaders on the global food crisis
15/7/2022: Leaders of UN food and finance agencies have again voiced their concern for global food security. They urge actions in four key areas: providing support to the vulnerable, facilitating trade and international supply of food, boosting production and investing in climate-resilient agriculture.
Source: World Food Programme
Securing food supply with wheat alternatives
12/7/2022: As war in Ukraine strangles global wheat supplies, hardy and climate-resilient wild grains could bring greater food security. For example, millet requires far less water than wheat, rice or corn, and can be grown on relatively poor soils.
Source: DW
World is moving backwards on eliminating hunger
6/7/2022: The UN's 2022 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World reports that as many as 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021, 150 million more than in 2019. The Sustainable Development Goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition by 2030 is in trouble.
Source: UN News
G-7 pledges $4.5 billion for global food security
28/6/2022: The G-7 group of leading nations has pledged contributions totaling $4.5 billion to address the deterioration of global food security due to Russia’s war in Ukraine and the continued effects from COVID-19 and climate change. Apart from the US share, few details have been presented.
Source: Devex
FAO outlines five urgent steps to address global food crisis
24/6/2022: The G7 ministerial conference "Uniting for Global Food Security” hosted in Germany was addressed by the Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. He outlined five urgent steps to halt the global food crisis.
Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization
WTO finally nets deal curbing fisheries subsidies
17/6/2022: The World Trade Organization has reached a multilateral agreement that bans government subsidies for fishing of already-overfished stocks and curbs those that contribute to illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing. Governments spend around $35 billion annually on fishing subsidies, with $22 billion of that amount regarded as harmful.
Source: Mongabay
Food security now top priority for G20 cooperation
5/6/2022: Many countries have panicked in the face of global food shortages, restricting trade in essential produce in defiance of lessons learned in the 2008 crisis. The G20 summit meeting in Bali in November will be an opportunity to restore global coordination and roll back trade restrictions.
Source: East Asia Forum
Overlapping crises raise risk of famine in six countries
6/6/2022: UN food agencies are concerned that the perfect storm of global crises is undermining relief operations in the world's hunger hotspots. Ethiopia, Nigeria, South Sudan, Yemen, Afghanistan and Somalia all have areas at risk of the most catastrophic conditions, with up to 750,000 people facing starvation.
Source: UN News
Investors cash in on food commodities as the poor go hungry
2/6/2022: A significant increase in speculative investment in food commodity contracts could see prices decoupling from the fundamentals of supply and demand. Experts have called for measures to protect food systems against speculation. According to the World Bank, every one percentage point increase in food prices pushes 10 million more people into extreme poverty.
Source: DW