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Although G8 agriculture ministers met recently to discuss the current food crisis, little was agreed beyond broad statements that the global food security outlook is grim. By failing to make new pledges and strike a bold new direction, an important opportunity for averting an intensification of the food crisis was lost. What is needed is […]

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

A right to food means that ‘victims must have a right to recourse mechanisms; that governments must be held accountable if they adopt policies which violate that right; and that courts are empowered to protect this right’ writes De Schutter. He argues that ‘the daily and massive denial of the right to food has its

“If fundamental climate change mitigation and adaptation goals are to be met, international climate negotiations must include agriculture,” appeals an international food policy think tank.

Don’t forget about agriculture in the upcoming global negotiations to combat climate change, experts warn. Not only is farming most at risk in an increasingly variable and tempestuous climate, it is also a major emitter of greenhouse gases. But with the right policies in place, agriculture could both continue to feed the world and play

As the world’s population approaches ten billion, issues like climate change, growing scarcity of oil and availability of quality land and water are challenging the planet’s capacity to produce enough food for everyone – a paradigm shift that could potentially pave the way for a new global ‘food crunch’.

At a World Food Programme summit, Gordon Brown said he will try to negotiate a new fund to help the world’s poorest through the economic downturn at April’s G20 meeting. Yet increased funding will not solve everything, says UNESCO’s Koichiro Matsuura. He outlines UNESCO’s efforts to inform decision-makers and explains what he thinks can create

Each month Andrew Simms is analysing how much closer the world has moved to catastrophic climate change. Desperate times might seem to call for desperate measures. And there is a tendency is to make a grab for the first and apparently the easiest solution to come to hand. In this context, magic-bullet technological fixes are

Organic and eco-friendly farming can feed the world, contrary to the common belief that biotechnology and chemical-intensive farming are indispensable, modern strategies to increase production, agricultural experts say.

With doubts lingering over its ultimate productivity, Lim Li Ching seeks to dispel fears around ecological agriculture’s low yields and demonstrate its capacity to be more than simply an idealistic socio-environmental approach. Drawing upon evidence from Ethiopia’s Tigray Project and data accrued from a variety of environments around the world, Lim Li discusses the benefits