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On the sidelines of the UN Climate Summit, the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture was launched, which aims to achieve “sustainable and equitable increases in agricultural productivity and incomes” and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the same time. More than 20 governments, and 30 organisations and companies announced they would join the initiative, including […]

More than ninety NGOs and campaign groups have condemned the G7’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, warning that the initiative will exacerbate poverty by depriving farmers of control over land and seeds. Representatives of governments and multinational companies, including UK development secretary Justine Greening, meet in New York today to discuss the controversial

The ‘International Symposium on Agroecology for Food and Nutrition Security’, hosted by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on September 18 and 19, has opened this morning in Rome. Ahead of the forum, more than 70 scientists and scholars of sustainable agriculture and food systems signed an open letter praising and challenging the FAO

About 805 million people in the world, or one in nine, suffer from hunger, according to new estimates published today by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development and the World Food Programme (WFP). The vast majority of hungry people – 791 million – lived in developing regions in 2012-14,

Growing international demand for agricultural commodities such as palm oil, beef, soy and wood is driving the illegal destruction of tropical forests. 71% of all tropical deforestation between 2000 and 2012 was caused by commercial agriculture, according to a new report published today by the Washington-based NGO Forest Trends. Almost half (49%) of this deforestation

In Guatemala, resistance from farmers and indigenous rights groups has led to the repeal of the controversial ‘Monsanto Law’ which would have authorised stricter property rights over new plant varieties. On Thursday, the Congress of Guatemala voted 117-111 in favour of repealing the “Law for the Protection of New Plant Varieties”, which was supposed to

Scientists have questioned the concept of “sustainable intensification” in international conversations about agriculture and food security, arguing it focuses too narrowly on food production and does not address access to food. In a new paper, published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, researchers from Leuphana University Lüneburg, AgroParisTech and Washington State University

Eating less meat and reducing food waste is essential to ensure food security and avoid climate change, according to a new study published in the journal Nature Climate Change. Researchers from Cambridge and Aberdeen universities found that food production alone could exceed targets for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2050 if current trends continue. The

On Tuesday, indigenous and farmers’ organisations marched in the capital of Guatemala to demand the repeal of a new law which grants breeders exclusive rights over new plant varieties. The “Law for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants” was adopted by Congress on June 26 as a requirement of the Free Trade Agreement between

The production of agrofuel crops is playing a decisive role in the international scramble for arable land in developing and emerging countries, according to a new study from the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA). The study looked at 956 concluded large-scale land acquisitions (covering 36 million hectares of land) currently listed by