News

An international study belied the claims of big corporations that chemically-driven and corporate agriculture will solve the problem of hunger and poverty in Mindanao.

A coalition of organic agriculture practitioners and advocates under the Go Organic Mindanao said that chemically-driven and corporate agriculture in Mindanao failed to address hunger and poverty as confirmed by a recent scientific assessment report prepared by the world's experts and supported by 58 governments across the globe.

Greenpeace is calling on G8 agriculture ministers to stop business-as-usual and start supporting a transition to an ecological agriculture that feeds people while protecting the environment. The first G8 meeting dedicated to Agriculture is being held in Treviso, Italy, this weekend, when discussions will focus on how to address the continuing food crisis.

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 the UN and World Bank argues for agroecological and sustainable agriculture, rather than reliance on chemical-intensive practices and genetic engineering.

"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.

Calling for a new type of "food democracy" that would start from the bottom and nourish those facing hunger in the midst of abundance, President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann today opened the General Assembly's Interactive Thematic Dialogue on the Global Food Crisis and the Right to 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 a crucial role in solving the climate problem.

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 a viable solution

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 enjoying a renaissance. From nuclear power to GM crops, once-unpopular technologies are struggling anew for public acceptance.

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.