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CSD-17 presents a unique opportunity for global governance to rise above the selfish interests of individual countries and regional blocks to work towards sustainable development worldwide, writes Nnimmo Bassey. But, he warns, a complicated negotiation text lacking in ideas to galvanise nations into acting in solidarity, is likely to maintain the status quo. Bassey expresses […]

Commenting on the declaration published today following the first G8 meeting dedicated to agriculture, Greenpeace said that the G8 Agriculture Ministers appear to be taking one step forward in putting agriculture and food security at the heart of the international agenda, but two steps back because they have failed to present proposals that will effectively

It’s a decade since GM products were hurriedly swept from UK shops after a panic about their safety. In the meantime, GM crops have been widely – and successfully – cultivated elsewhere. So is it time we embraced the new food?

On January 13th 2009 The European Parliament adopted by 482 votes to 24, with 59 abstentions, a resolution on the Common Agricultural Policy and Global Food Security. The resolution affirms that global food security is a question of the utmost urgency for the European Union and calls for immediate and continual action to ensure food

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.