food crisis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 29, 2009
4:52 PM

CONTACT: The Hunger Project
Anastasia Andrzejewski
+1-212-251-9129
aha@thp.org

Non-Profit Advocates for Women Farmers at Major International Food Security Conference

NEW YORK - January 29 - Since 2006, the number of undernourished people in the world has risen from 852 million to 963 million, due primarily to 2008's world food price crisis. In an effort to "design a road map" to reverse this alarming trend and achieve global food security, the Government of Spain and the United Nations hosted the "High Level Meeting on Food Security for All" on January 26-27 in Madrid.

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The Hunger Project is a global, non-profit, strategic organization committed to the sustainable end of world hunger.

Posted in food crisis, inequality

Solving the Global Food Crisis: The Case for a "Poverty Czar"

This past week, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) convened an international panel on food security at which FAO chief Jacques Diouf argued that global food production will have to double by 2050 simply to prevent another billion people from starving.

Posted in food crisis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 23, 2009
1:10 PM

CONTACT: Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

UN Madrid Food Summit Could Miss Critical Target

55 million young children at risk

MADRID - January 23 - If next week's Madrid Food Summit does not come up with a concrete implementation and funding plan focused on malnutrition, 55 million children under five will continue to face potential life-threatening malnutrition according to ACF International and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

While global prices for basic food commodities have fallen back to 2006 levels, childhood malnutrition - caused by the lack of foods rich in nutrients, vitamins, and minerals - continues to claim the lives of almost 10.000 children every day.

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Posted in food crisis, Health, Human Rights

Land Rental Deal Collapses After Backlash Against 'Colonialism'

TOKYO and NAIROBI - Madagascar was poised to sign a 99-year agreement to rent 1.3 million hectares of land to South Korea's Daewoo Logistics Corporation to plant maize and palm oil for export.

Food-importing countries with little arable land, mainly in Asia and the Middle East, are increasingly looking overseas to secure food supplies after the prices of staple foods rocketed last year.

Posted in agriculture, food crisis, Africa

New Peasant Alliance Demands Action on Food Crisis

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Haiti's peasant farmers are organising and taking action to try and bring an end to the country's dependence on food imports, and to avert the prospect of looming famine.

In recent months, meetings and demonstrations held by peasant farmer groups and supported by a number of non-governmental organisations have been taking place across Haiti. The mobilisation is part of a fledgling political campaign to end the marginalisation of the rural population and to revamp the nation's neglected agricultural sector.

Posted in food crisis, Haiti

Billions Face Food Shortages, Study Warns

Half of the world's population could face severe food shortages by the end of the century as rising temperatures take their toll on farmers' crops, scientists have warned.

Posted in food crisis

The Outcry Is Muted, But The Food Crisis Is Getting Worse

Just a few months ago, we were being told that this is a period of stark, unprecedented and unfolding food crisis, with looming shortages and huge global imbalances between demand and supply. Everyone who matters - from officials in international organisations to leaders of rich and poor countries - warned us of the terrible social, political and nutritional consequences of doing nothing, of the millions who would go hungry and the riots that would occur if the imbalances persisted or increased.

Posted in food crisis, Food/Water

The Parable of the G-20: Blind to the Elephant

The leaders of the G-20 Group of countries who met in Washington DC for an emergency meeting to revamp the global financial landscape can be compared to a parable in the Hindu ‘Panchantra'. Like the six blind men who failed to see the elephant, they grappled in bright light for six hours and yet failed to frame an action plan that could truly stimulate the global economy.

Posted in bailout, climate change, financial crisis, food crisis, global trade, inequality

Ending Poverty: Moving Beyond More Aid and Fair Trade

As the United Nations seeks increased financial assistance from donor countries to help meet the flagging Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the inadequacy of international aid and fairer trade agreements has never been so clear. In 2007 alone, aid to developing countries fell by 8.4%, leaving huge challenges ahead to meet the Gleneagles G-8 target of doubling aid to Africa by 2010.

Posted in financial crisis, food crisis, inequality, poverty

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2008
2:43 PM

CONTACT: Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP)

Speculation a Major Contributor to Global Food Crisis, New Report

Financial and Food Crises Linked by Deregulated Markets

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - November 13 - Excessive speculation in agriculture commodity markets has played a major role in the rapid rise and fall in global food prices, contributing to a massive increase in undernourished people and commodity market instability, concludes a new report by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

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IATP works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food,
farm and trade systems.

Posted in food crisis