food crisis

Food Security in Africa: Will Obama Let USAID’s Genetically Modified Trojan Horse Ride Again?

Yesterday Secretary Clinton was in Kenya with a delegation that included Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, as well as Representatives Donald M. Payne (D-NJ) and Nita M. Lowey (D-NY). While the group was there on a broad platform to discuss economic development in Africa, including food security issues, the delegation took the opportunity yesterday afternoon to visit the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI) lab, which is best known for unsuccessfully trying to produce a genetically modified, virus-resistant sweet potato under a US-led program.

Posted in agriculture, food crisis, gm food, Sustainability, Africa

A Recipe for America and How You Can Help

Americans are more obese than ever, our current agriculture system is dependent on oil and other limited resources, our waterways and air are polluted by factory-like farming operations, and still opponents try to push sustainable agriculture to the margins.

Posted in agriculture, food, food crisis

G8 Promises $20 Billion in Agricultural Aid: Real Change or Business as Usual?

Today, the Group of 8 meeting in L'Aquila, Italy pledged 20 billion dollars in agricultural aid, responding to a request made yesterday by President Obama. For the first time, instead of being given directly as food aid, these funds are set to be allotted for building an agricultural economy in nations in need, specifically in Africa.

Posted in food crisis, gm food, Africa

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 8, 2009
10:37 AM

CONTACT: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and CIDSE

Roeland Scholtalbers, CIDSE (Brussels, with contacts at the G8 Summit in L'Aquila available for interviews): + 32 477 06 83 84, scholtalbers@cidse.org
Anne Laure Constantin, IATP (Geneva): +41 79 764 86 58, aconstantin@iatp.org

G8 Commitment on Hunger Must Support Smallholder Farmers and Sustainable Practices

L'AQUILA, Italy - July 8 - G8 discussions on the food crisis must include more than additional money, and prioritize agriculture and food policies that improve the position of small producers, in particular women.

###

CIDSE is an international alliance of Catholic development agencies. Its members share a common strategy in their efforts to eradicate poverty and establish global justice. CIDSE's advocacy work covers global governance; resources for development; climate change; food, agriculture & sustainable trade; EU development policy and business & human rights. www.cidse.org.

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems. www.iatp.org.

Posted in agriculture, food crisis, Sustainability

What Will the G8 Summit Accomplish: Feed the Hungry or Fuel Hunger?

As the rich G8 nations convene for their next extravaganza in L'Aquila, Italy from July 8-10, 2009, world hunger will once again take center stage. It is expected that the U.S. will announce "significant" increase in funding for agricultural development aid along with multi-year commitments from other G8 countries. This follows G8's admission of failure in tackling hunger at its first ever farm conference in Treviso, Italy in April 2009.

Posted in agriculture, food crisis, gm food

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2009
12:43 PM

CONTACT: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)
Cliona Sharkey, CIDSE Policy & Advocacy Officer, sharkey@cidse.org, +32 2 223 37 51
Ben Lilliston, IATP (Minneapolis), ben@iatp.org, 612-870-3416

Europe and US Bear Special Responsibility for Food Crisis, New Report Finds

Key steps identified to shift course and create a just and sustainable global food system

BRUSSELS/MINNEAPOLIS/GENEVA - May 19 - Policies enacted by the United States and the European Union, and aggressively pushed through global institutions during the last several decades, laid the ground for the ongoing food crisis, finds a new report by CIDSE, an international alliance of Catholic development agencies, and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). Nearly 1 billion people are currently suffering from hunger around the world and the economic crisis is increasing this number, worsening the situation by the day.

###

CIDSE is an international alliance of Catholic development agencies. Its members share a common strategy in their efforts to eradicate poverty and establish global justice. CIDSE's advocacy work covers global governance; resources for development; climate change; food, agriculture & sustainable trade; EU development policy and business & human rights. www.cidse.org.

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems. www.iatp.org.

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) Links:

Posted in food crisis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 7, 2009
3:35 PM

CONTACT: North American Congress on Latin America
Joao Da Silva, Outreach Coordinator
(646) 613 1440 ext. 203
joao@nacla.org

New NACLA Report Examines the Causes and Consequences of the Food Crisis in Latin America and the Caribbean

NEW YORK - May 7 - In response to the mainstream media's short-lived and sometimes superficial coverage of rising food prices, the May/June 2009 issue of the NACLA Report on the Americas aims to reconsider the ongoing food crisis within its long-term context, focusing on the corporate monopoly on food production.

Key pieces in this Report, which can be accessed both in the print edition as well as at http://nacla.org, include:

###

The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) is an independent, nonprofit organization founded in 1966 that works toward a world in which the nations and peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean are free from oppression and injustice, and enjoy a relationship with the United States based on mutual respect, free from economic and political subordination. To that end, our mission is to provide information and analysis on the region, and on its complex and changing relationship with the United States, as tools for education and advocacy - to foster knowledge beyond borders.

Posted in food crisis, Latin America

A Tsunami of Hunger

A crisis is brewing and Carlos Rodriguez sees it in ever longer lines. "More work boots with plaster or paint on them," he says. "Guys clearly coming in from the work site."

A spokesperson for the Food Bank for New York City, Rodriguez has experienced tough times before, but not like this. "It takes a lot of pride for a New York construction worker to stand on the soup kitchen line. That's something I never saw, even during 9/11, during that recession."

Posted in financial crisis, food crisis

Just $6bn Will Save a Generation From Starvation, Says UN

Agriculture ministers from the world's richest countries are holding an unprecedented meeting this weekend as the United Nations warns that hunger threatens to "spiral out of control" in the wake of the financial crisis.

The three-day meeting, which opened in Italy yesterday, will address a growing food crisis as harvests threaten to slump at a time when record numbers of people are already hungry. Crops are being hit by a combination of bad weather, falling food prices and farmers' being refused credit to buy seeds and fertilisers.

Posted in food crisis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 16, 2009
2:53 PM

CONTACT: US Working Group on the Food Crisis
Eric Holt-Gimenez, Food First/Institute for Food and Development Policy,
510-654-4400 x 257, eholtgim@foodfirst.org

Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, PhD, Pesticide Action Network North America,
415-981-6205, ext.325; mie@panna.org

Dave Kane, Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns,
202-832-1780, dkane@maryknoll.org

Andrew Kang Bartlett, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.),
502-569-5388, Andrew.KangBartlett@pcusa.org

Katherine Ozer, National Family Farm Coalition,
202-543-5675, kozer@nffc.net

Christina M. Schiavoni, World Hunger Year,
212-629-9788, Christina@whyhunger.org

G8 Urged to Reject Another 'Green Revolution'

U.S. working group on the food crisis urges G8 to reject failed green revolution policies for Africa

"'Business as Usual' Will Not Solve Global Hunger Crisis"

WASHINGTON - April 16 - The U.S. Working Group on the Food Crisis, a group representing anti-hunger, family farm, community food security, environmental, international aid, labor, food justice, consumers and other food system actors, urges the G8 at the upcoming Agricultural Ministerial in Treviso, Italy to reject the failed policies of the Green Revolution. A recent landmark report backed by the UN and World Bank argues for agroecological and sustainable agriculture, rather than reliance on chemical-intensive practices and genetic engineering.

The U.S. Working Group is deeply disappointed by the U.S.

###

The US Working Group on the Food Crisis is an ad hoc group of organizations from around the US, representing various sectors of the food system, including anti-hunger, family farm, community food security, environmental, international aid, labor, food justice, consumer, and other groups. We do not view the food crisis as an unexpected, sudden emergency of the last year, but as the inevitable consequence of the development of a long list of misguided agricultural and food policies over the last 30+ years.

Posted in food crisis, gm food

CommonDreams.org