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On Saturday, Deutsche Bank – Europe’s largest bank in terms of assets – announced it would continue trading in agricultural-based financial products, products which food campaigners blame for rising food prices. In a panel discussion at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture in Berlin, Deutsche Bank Co-Chief Executive Jürgen Fitschen said an internal review […]

Campaigners will continue their protest against a large palm oil plantation which is threatening a rainforest in southwest Cameroon, as well as the livelihoods of thousands of people living in the area. This is the announcement made by Nasako Besingi, director of the local NGO ‘Struggle to Economize the Future’, in an interview published today

A new study published on Friday examines the state of local food production in western Washington and identifies ways to develop a food supply that is more local. The report ‘Planting the Seeds’ summarises the findings of the Western Washington Foodshed Study, a project carried out by the American Farmland Trust and the University of

On Tuesday, the European Parliament approved a unified European patent scheme, which is intended to accelerate the granting of patents within the EU and make it less expensive for companies to file patents. Ahead of the vote, a coalition of civil society organisations – ‘No Patents on Seeds’ called for the rejection of the proposal.

As the United Nations Conference on Climate Change came to a close on Saturday, NGOs criticised the lack of commitment to address the disastrous impacts of climate change, especially with regard to food security. Michiel Schaeffer, a scientist at Climate Analytics, expressed surprise that very little emphasis had been placed on food security at the

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), global food prices decreased by 1.5% between October and November, and were on average 3% lower than in the same month in 2011. The FAO Food Price Index, published today, measures the monthly change in price of commodities such as cereals, dairy products and oilseed, using a

Ahead of a global farmland investment conference opening today in London, civil society organisations have called on major agricultural investors to stop facilitating the practice of land grabbing. In a joint press release, Friends of the Earth Europe, together with Anywaa Survival Organisation, GRAIN and Re: Common, urge the banks and pension funds attending the

The European Commission has decided to recognise a certification scheme which will see biofuels produced from palm oil labelled as sustainable. The decision, made last Friday, comes despite recent studies by the Commission itself that have proved that the carbon footprint of palm oil biofuels is worse than that of conventional diesel. The approval of

The United Nations Conference on Climate Change opened in Doha, Qatar on Monday, with representatives from almost 200 states gathering for the two week event to agree on commitments to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Ahead of the conference, NGOs and research institutions highlighted the pivotal role agriculture plays in international efforts to adapt to and

In an article published in the journal ‘Nature Geoscience’ earlier this week, scientists have warned that the excessive extraction of groundwater for agricultural irrigation is one of the main reasons for the decline in groundwater levels. At a global level, groundwater depletion contributes to rising sea levels and a lack of water for food production.