News

In an open letter to the FAO CSO representatives from around the world expressed concern that the World Food Organisation's high level expert meeting "how to feed the world 2050" on October 12-13 2009 did not draw from the major groundwork conducted by the IAASTD and was about to ignore the Assessment's key findings. In a response, Hafez Ghanem, FAO Assistant Director-General assured the CSOs that the IAASTD was indeed taken into account, would be presented at the meeting and was now linked to it's key background documents.

Biofuels production today can be more harmful than help-
ful, says the Worldwatch Insti-tute’s ‘Red, White, and Green: Transforming US Biofuels’ report coauthor Jane Earley.

Indigenous peoples risk losing control over their traditional knowledge if the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) insists on strict standards for managing access to information.

Olivier De Schutter: UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food

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 dismay at G-77 references to 'national laws and cultural contexts' when the Commission for Sustainable Development 'should be raising the bar, not subjecting universal ideals to parochial local regimes'. Bassey suggests that restoring confidence in global governance and democracy is an important part of tackling the food, climate and economic crises on every delegates' mind. What is even more problematic to the negotiations, however, is the lack of unanimity in defining what 'sustainability' actually is.

Robert Watson, Director, International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), highlighted, inter alia: the multi-functionality of agriculture; agro-ecological practices and the critical role of natural resources and biodiversity; adapting to a changing climate; increasing water efficiency; acknowledging the role of women; reforming international trade; investing in science and technology and improving extension services; and investing in rural development. Tesfai Tecle, Special Advisor to the Chairman, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, introduced his organization’s strategy to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa through agricultural development.

Farmers and food consumers worldwide need a stronger say in how agricultural research is funded, designed, implemented and controlled to ensure that the knowledge produced brings the most social and environmental benefits. So says a multimedia e-book published by the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) today to coincide with the annual meeting of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, which focuses heavily on agriculture.

As an African American farmer from Mississippi who has visited and traveled to Africa many times, I am stunned that the real solutions continue to be ignored. We face multiple crises -- financial, climate, energy, and water. Business as usual will not solve our global hunger crisis. More expensive genetically modified seeds, pesticides and chemical-intensive practices won’t help the hungry and will only allow more profits and control for seed companies like Monsanto and Syngenta.

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 nothing short of a global agricultural new deal. Four elements of this new deal are vital....

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 source, not in an insufficient quantity of food produced, but in a system of production whose limits have now become clear.' De Schutter calls for support for states, an assessment of different models of agricultural production, the redesign of trade, improvements in the situation of agricultural workers and incentives and regulations for agri-food companies, with a view to realising the right to food.