This
book, by a leading expert in urban agriculture, offers a
genuine solution to today’s global food crisis. By
contributing more to feeding themselves, cities can allow
breathing space for the rural sector to convert to more
organic sustainable approaches. Biel’s approach connects
with current debates about agroecology and food
sovereignty, asks key questions, and proposes lines of
future research. He suggests that today’s food
insecurity – manifested in a regime of wildly
fluctuating prices – reflects not just temporary
stresses in the existing mode of production, but more
profoundly the troubled process of generating a new one.
He argues that the solution cannot be implemented at a
merely technical or political level: the force of change
can only be driven by the kind of social movements which
are now daring to challenge the existing unsustainable
order. Drawing on both his academic research and teaching,
and 15 years’ experience as a practising urban farmer,
Biel brings a unique interdisciplinary approach to this
key global issue, creating a dialogue between the physical
and social sciences
New York University Law Students for Human Rights
This paper is authored by the Law Students for Human Rights at New York
University School of Law. It was prepared at the
request of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food
to inform a multi-stakeholder consultation convening on
June 19-20, 2009 in Berlin, Germany on the role of the agribusiness
sector in the realization of the right to food
It is both ironic and tragic that eighty percent of the
world’s hungry are food producers.
Fifty percent of these are small-hold farmers, twenty percent are farm
workers, and ten percent
are pastoralists and fishermen. The other twenty percent of the world’s
hungry are made up of
the urban poor, who are acutely affected by rising food prices. In this
context, the Transnational
Corporations (“TNCs”) that operate in the food sector are crucially
important in the struggle
against hunger.
Not only is there a grave power imbalance between TNCs and the
small-hold
farmers and farm workers who supply them, but these TNCs also directly
employ approximately
700 million wage workers, some of whom are among those who have the
least access to
adequate food.
UNCTAD Discussion
papers No. 196
by Michael Herrmann,
01/11/09 (UNCTAD/OSG/DP/2009/4), 40 pages
Efforts to promote food security
must distinguish between short-term and medium-term measures,
but also between countries with agricultural potential and without such
potential, argues this paper.
Furthermore, while high international food prices provide appropriate
incentives for agricultural
development, it would be misguided to expect that they will
automatically result in an increase of
agricultural output.
Globally, food security is both a demand-side and the supply-side
challenge. High food prices
make it more difficult to address food security on the demand-side, as
more and more low-income
households become unable to afford sufficient food, but at the same
time, higher food prices can
provide impetus to address food security on the supply-side, as more
and more farmers may find
it lucrative to increase agricultural production. However, not all
countries can address both
challenges simultaneously...
From Foreign Policy
Don't blame American appetites, rising oil prices, or genetically
modified crops for rising food prices. Wall Street's at fault for the
spiraling cost of food.
Demand and supply certainly
matter. But there's another reason why food across the world has become
so expensive: Wall Street greed.
It took the brilliant minds of Goldman Sachs to realize the simple
truth that nothing is more valuable than our daily bread. And where
there's value, there's money to be made. In 1991, Goldman bankers, led
by their prescient president Gary Cohn, came up with a new kind of
investment product, a derivative that tracked 24 raw materials, from
precious metals and energy to coffee, cocoa, cattle, corn, hogs, soy,
and wheat.
They weighted the investment value of each element, blended and
commingled the parts into sums, then reduced what had been a
complicated collection of real things into a mathematical formula that
could be expressed as a single manifestation, to be known henceforth as
the Goldman Sachs Commodity Index (GSCI)...
"The global food system works only for the few – for most of us it is
broken. It leaves the billions of us who consume food lacking
sufficient power and knowledge about what we buy and eat and the
majority of small food producers disempowered and unable to fulfil
their productive potential.
"The failure of the system flows from failures of government – failures
to regulate, to correct, to protect, to resist, to invest – which mean
that companies, interest groups, and elites are able to plunder
resources and to redirect flows of finance, knowledge, and food.
"This report describes a new age of growing crisis: food price spikes
and oil price hikes, devastating weather events, financial meltdowns,
and global contagion. Behind each of these, slow-burn crises smoulder:
creeping and insidious climate change, growing inequality, chronic
hunger and vulnerability, the erosion of our natural resources."
"India is home to a quarter of the world’s hungry people. Since the
Green Revolution, the country has produced enough food to feed itself,
but it has not yet been able to wipe out mass hunger. Currently, 40 per
cent of the population is malnourished – a decline of only 10 per cent
in the past three decades.
"Stellar economic growth has not delivered on its promise for poverty
reduction and food security. Following a series of neoliberal economic
reforms in 1991, India’s GDP has doubled, but despite this, 53 million
more people now go to bed hungry every night. To make matters worse,
food prices have recently soared. Poor families, who spend more than 60
per cent of their incomes on food, are increasingly struggling to
stretch their meagre household budgets.
"Unfortunately, small-scale producers have not benefited from high
retail prices for food either, as they usually low prices for their
produce. Clearly, the country is in the midst of both an agrarian
crisis and a nutrition crisis."
Today, the world’s natural resources are under increasing pressure and
are often the object of important power struggles between corporations,
states and communities. National governments and international
institutions are responsible for shaping the environment in which these
different interests operate.
As foreign investments in land, water and other natural resources grow
in number and magnitude, international investment treaties have become
more and more relevant. The international investment legal framework
prioritizes the protection of investors’rights over almost any other
consideration.
Will this system weaken developing countries’ capacity to regulate
their food, land and water sectors and introduce policies that promote
food security and poverty reduction? What lessons can be learnt from
the past? This paper sets forth the principal elements of this debate
through the analysis of eleven international cases of state-investor
disputes.
Today, the world produces enough to feed all seven billion of its
inhabitants – but nearly a billion people still go without. This paper
is about why this global scandal continues, and what can be done to
solve it. Its central argument is that access to food is as important
as how much food is produced – and that in a world of food price
volatility, climate change and other kinds of shocks and stresses, the
challenge of building resilience in the food system takes on
overwhelming importance.
Section One of the paper looks at what needs to happen within
developing countries, focusing, in particular, on a massive scale-up in
provision of social protection systems that target the poorest and most
vulnerable people...
Section Two of the paper turns to action that needs to be taken
internationally – above all to tackle the sharp increase in food price
volatility of recent years...
Section Three focuses on ways of easing current tightness in the global
supply and demand balance for food through policies to reduce demand.
While policymakers are right to focus on increasing food production, a
range of factors – including climate change, water scarcity,
competition for land, energy security issues and falling rates of crop
yield growth – suggest that this may not be easy...
Finally, Section Four explores how this agenda can be put into
practice...
IN HIS 1981 essay, “Poverty and Famines”, Amartya Sen, an
Indian economist, argued that the 1943 Bengal famine, in which 3m
people died, was not caused by any exceptional fall in the harvest and
pointed out that food was still being exported from the state while
millions perished. He concluded that the main reason for famines is not
a shortage of basic food. Other factors—wages, distribution, even
democracy—matter more.
In
1996 the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
estimated that the world was producing enough food to provide every
man, woman and child with 2,700 calories a day, several hundred more
than most adults are thought to need (around 2,100 a day). The Lancet,
a medical journal, reckons people need no more than 90 grammes of meat
a day. On average they eat more than that now. As Abhijit Banerjee of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology says, “we live in a world
that is capable of feeding every person that lives on the planet.”
World hunger is increasing. The World Food Summit (WFS)
goal of halving the number of undernourished people in the
world by 2015 is becoming more difficult to reach for many
countries. FAO’s most recent estimates put the number of
hungry people at 923 million in 2007, an increase of more
than 80 million since the 1990–92 base period. Long-term
estimates (available up to 2003–05) show that some
countries were well on track towards reaching the WFS and
Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets before the
period of high food prices; however, even these countries
may have suffered setbacks.
THE HIGH-LEVEL CONFERENCE ON WORLD FOOD
SECURITY:
THE CHALLENGES OF CLIMATE CHANGE AND BIOENERGY
3 - 5 JUNE 2008, ROME, ITALY Addressing the global food crisis:
Key trade, investment and commodity policies in ensuring sustainable
food
security and alleviating poverty
ADVANCE UNEDITED VERSION
The recent global food crisis can be seen as a wake-up call which can
be turned into an opportunity by
developing countries and the international community to revitalize
global agriculture production and
trade and do more to rectify the systemic imbalances in global
agricultural production and trade that
have contributed over the years to today's problems. The crisis has
highlighted inherent tensions that
exist in regard to the agricultural food sector. Responses to the
crisis will have to include both shortterm
and longer-term measures, reflecting the fact that the crisis has both
short-term and underlying
structural causes and implications. Of course the immediate and urgent
priority is to ensure that
adequate food is delivered to the people in need. This task is being
well addressed by the humanitarian
and emergency agencies. It does not stop there, however - responses to
the more fundamental and
deep-seated factors are equally important. From a trade and development
perspective, and within the
framework of a comprehensive approach to the crisis by the United
Nations System, UNCTAD
recommends a number of policy measures and concrete actions in respect
of trade, investment and
agriculture development at the national, regional and international
levels.
Changing governance
patterns in European food chains: the rise of a new divide between
global players and regional producers
F. Palpacuer and S. Tozanli - 2003
This article traces general trends in European food markets and the
strategies of leading firms in selected European food chains (milk,
sugar,
cereals, meat). The analysis highlights the emergence of a growing
divide
between the largest downstream firms on the one hand and specialty and
upstream producers on the other. The former have adopted globalization
and financialization strategies over the past decade and promoted
global
sourcing under the deregulated conditions of European primary food
and agricultural markets while the latter remain anchored in national
or
regional markets and production systems. Implications of these findings
for both Global Value Chain (GVC) analysis and European policy are
discussed.
Some papers: Assessing
the impacts of food insecurity in Sudan ( T. Frankenberger;J.
Downen;J. Meyer / Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance Project ,
2007) This study provides an
assessment of the key issues related to the impact that the
Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) has had on the most insecure food
and nutritionally vulnerable areas and people... Overcoming
barriers in developing agricultural biotechnology in Africa ( N. Clark;J. Mugabe;J.
Smith / African Centre for Technology Studies , 2008) This book provides an
overview of the potential benefits of agricultural biotechnology in
Africa in the context of continuous poor agricultural production and
rising food insecurity... Developing
agricultural practices that will achieve food sovereignty ( P. Mulvany / UK Food
Group , 2007) The article focuses on
the debates and discussions that took place at the Nyéléni 2007 Forum
for Food Sovereignty, which was held in Mali, representing
organisations across various sectors... Green
Revolution 2.0 initiatives in Africa: the start of a corporate biotech
boom? ( Action Group on
Erosion, Technology and Concentration formerly RAFI , 2008) When the G8 meets in
June 2008 in Germany they are expected to announce a new research
agenda that will again propose scientific solutions to Africa’s social
problems. This communiqué ...
( F. Kanampiu;J.
Ransom;J. Gressel / Africancrops.net , 2002) Focusing on sub-Saharan
Africa, this paper presents both challenges and possible solutions over
the weeds Striga hermonthica and S. Asiatic, which destroy maize,
millet, sorghum, and upland rice. ... Using biotechnology to
effectively manage weed problems in African agriculture
Social
protection key to mitigating famine ( R. Menon / Human
Development Report Office, UNDP , 2007) Reports of a devastating
famine in Malawi first surfaced as rumors whispered in rural areas in
the country around October 2001. However, little was done by way of
action, despite warnings from expert ... A
methodology for measuring the impact of development interventions on
food security ( R.,M. Saleth;A.
Dinar;S. Neubert / International Water Management Institute , 2007) Governments and
development agencies constantly plan, implement, and evaluate various
development interventions, and there is an understandable concern over
the actual impacts that these interventi... What are
the spatio-temporal variations of rice yields in China and Brazil? ( L. You
/ International Food Policy Research Institute , 2008) Increasing population
growth and scarcity of land suitable for rice production suggest that
China and Brazil need to further increase rice productivity if they
hope to continue meeting the... more papers here
As representatives of the world's governments gather to address
shortages in major foodstuffs and rising prices, Gonzalo Oviedo
counsels them to focus on ecosystems. The modern business-dominated
agricultural industry, he argues, promotes the degradation of nature -
and that, in turn, means less and worse food.
Four plant species - wheat, maize, rice and potato - provide over half
of the plant-based calories in the human diet.
Feeding the world requires healthy ecosystems and equitable governance.
The current model of market-driven food production is leaving people
hungry.
Biofuel production is certainly one of the culprits in the current
global food crisis. But while the diversion of corn from food to
biofuel feedstock has been a factor in food prices shooting up, the
more primordial problem has been the conversion of economies that are
largely food-self-sufficient into chronic food importers. Here the
World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade
Organization (WTO) figure as much more important villains
From The World Bank Group - April 2008
'7 Lost Years' - The Effect
of Rising Food Prices on Poverty
WASHINGTON,
April 11, 2008 - World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned
today of the threat posed by rising food prices world-wide.
Zoellick he stressed that food prices would be at the top of the
agenda, and that the international community must make agriculture a
priority.
Brandishing a sack of rice to make his point, World Bank president
Robert Zoellick told reporters in Washington that rice prices have
jumped 75% globally…and that’s in the last two months.
In Bangladesh, a 2 kilogram bag of rice now costs half of a family’s
daily income. And the price of rice is likely to rise again.
From the World Bank
Development Committee - 2008 Rising food
prices: Policy
options and World Bank response
The rising
trend in international food prices continued, and even accelerated, in
2008.U.S.
wheat export prices rose from $375/ton in January to $440/ton in March,
and
Thai rice export prices increased from $365/ton to $562/ton. This came
on top
of a 181 percent increase in global wheat prices over the 36 months
leading up
to February 2008, and a 83 percent increase in overall global food
prices over
the same period
Increased
bio-fuel production has contributed to the rise in food prices.
Concerns
over oil prices, energy security and climate change have prompted
governments
to take a more proactive stance towards encouraging production and use
of
bio-fuels. This has led to increased demand for bio-fuel raw materials,
such
as wheat, soy, maize and palm oil, and increased competition for
cropland. Almost
all of the increase in global maize production from 2004 to 2007 (the
period
when grain prices rose sharply) went for bio-fuels production in the
U.S.,
while existing stocks were depleted by an increase in global
consumption for
other uses. Other developments, such as droughts in Australia
and poor crops in the E.U. and Ukraine
in 2006 and 2007, were largely offset by good crops and increased
exports in
other countries and would not, on their own, have had a significant
impact on
prices. Only a relatively small share of the increase in food
production prices
(around 15%) is due directly to higher energy and fertilizer costs.
Numerous countries have set standards or targets for use
of bio-fuels. The E.U. has set a goal of 5.75 percent of motor fuel use
from
bio-fuels by 2010. The U.S.
has mandated the use of 28.4 billion liters of bio-fuels for
transportation by
2012. Brazil will require
that all diesel oil contain 2 percent bio-diesel by 2008 and 5 percent
by 2013,
and Thailand will require 10 percent ethanol in all gasoline starting
in 2007. India mandates a 5 percent ethanol blend in nine
states, and China is requiring a 10 percent ethanol blend in five
provinces.
From 2004 to 2007, global maize
production increased 51 million tons, biofuel use in the U.S. increased
50 million tons and
global consumption for all other uses increased 33 million tons, which
caused
global stocks to decline by 30 million tons.
This note is being distributed for information as background to the
discussion of recent market developments at the Development Committee
meeting. It
was prepared by PREM, ARD and DEC, drawing from work across
the Bank. Questions/comments should be addressed to Ana Revenga, PRMPR
(ext.
89850).
UNCTAD Policy Briefs No. 2 -
June 2008 Tackling the Global
Food Crisis
This policy brief addresses the systemic causes of the crisis and
identifies strategic policy measures...
From the International Food
Policy Research Institute
Washington, D. C., U.S.A. The World Food
Situation: new driving forces and required actions
J. von Braun - December 2007
The world food situation is currently being rapidly redefined by new
driving forces. Income growth, climate
change, high energy prices, globalization, and urbanization are
transforming food consumption,
production, and markets.The influence of the private sector in the
world food system, especially the leverage
of food retailers, is also rapidly increasing. Changes in food
availability, rising commodity prices, and new producer–
consumer linkages have crucial implications for the livelihoods of poor
and food-insecure people.
Analyzing and interpreting recent trends and emerging challenges in the
world food situation is essential in
order to provide policymakers with the necessary information to
mobilize adequate responses at the local,
national, regional, and international levels. It is also critical for
helping to appropriately adjust research agendas
in agriculture, nutrition, and health. Not surprisingly, renewed global
attention is being given to the role of agriculture
and food in development policy, as can be seen from the World Bank’s
World Development Report,
accelerated public action in African agriculture under the New
Partnership for Africa’s Development
(NEPAD), and the Asian Development Bank’s recent initiatives for more
investment in agriculture, to name
just a few examples.
Contents:
Acknowledgments - The World Food Equation, Rewritten - Outlook on
Global Food Scarcity and
Food-Energy Price Links - Poverty and the Food and Nutrition Situation
- Conclusions - Notes - References
Tables:
1. China: Per capita annual household consumption
2. Change in food-consumption quantity, ratios 2005/1990
3. Expected impacts of climate change on global cereal production
4. Consumption spending response (%) when prices change by 1%
(“elasticity”)
5. Changes in world prices of feedstock crops and sugar by 2020
under two scenarios compared with baseline levels (%)
6. Net cereal exports and imports for selected countries
(three-year averages 2003–2005)
7. Purchases and sales of staple foods by the poor
(% of total expenditure of all poor)
8. Expected number of undernourished in millions, incorporating
the effects of climate change
By Eric Holt-Gimenez, Ph.D., Miguel A. Altieri, Ph.D., and Peter
Rosset, Ph.D.
...1. The Green Revolution actually deepens the divide between rich and
poor farmers. In the
1960s, at the beginning of the first Green Revolution, the Rockefeller
and Ford Foundations
promoted industrial-style agriculture in the Global South through
technology “packages”
that included modern varieties (MVs), fertilizer, pesticides, and
irrigation. The high cost of
these purchased inputs deepened the divide between large farmers and
smallholders because
the latter could not afford the technology. In both Mexico and India,
seminal studies revealed
that the Green Revolution’s expensive “packages” favored a minority of
economically
privileged farmers, put the majority smallholders at a disadvantage,
and led to the
concentration of land and resources...
RP2006/70
S. S. Acharya: National
Food Policies Impacting on Food Security: The Experience of India, a
Large
Populated Country
(PDF 138KB)
India accounts for 16.7 per cent of the world’s food consumers. With
the exception of
China, India’s size in terms of food consumers is many times larger
than the average
size of the rest of the countries. At the time of independence in 1947,
India was in the
grip of a serious food crisis, which was accentuated by the partition
of the country. The
demand for food far exceeded supply, food prices were high and more
than half of the
population living below the poverty line with inadequate purchasing
power. With high
rates of population growth, the dependence on imported food increased
further.
However, the situation improved considerably after the mid-1960s, when
new
agricultural development strategy and food policies were adopted. The
production of
staple cereals increased substantially, mainly contributed by
productivity improvements.
The dependence on food imports decreased and the country became a
marginal net
exporter of cereals. There was also an improvement in physical and
economic access of
RP2006/68
K. L. Sharma: Food
Security in the South Pacific Island Countries with Special Reference
to the
Fiji Islands
(PDF 104KB)
This paper analyses the status of food security in selected South
Pacific Island countries,
namely Cook Islands, Fiji Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon
Islands, Tonga, and
Vanuatu at the national and household levels during the period
1991-2002. Due to narrow
resource base and production conditions, Pacific Islands concentrate on
a few primary
commodities for production and exports. During recent years import
dependency for food
items has increased mainly due to a decline in per capita food
production and a rapid rate of
rural-urban migration. Currently, export earnings can finance food
imports but earnings could
fall short of the requirements needed after the expiry of some
commodity preferential price
agreements with importing countries. National food security is
dependent on the continuation
of subsistence farming and tapping ocean resources in conjunction with
the on-going
commercial farming of those crops in which Pacific Islands have a
comparative advantage.
Increased productivity is crucial for improving agricultural
performance through government
investment in rural infrastructure, agricultural research and
extension, irrigation and
appropriate price incentives. This would also help alleviate poverty
for improvement in
economic accessibility of food by households. There is also a need to
design appropriate
disaster risk management programmes to minimize any adverse effects on
the food supply.
RP2006/67
Vasco Molini: Food
Security in Vietnam during the 1990s: The Empirical Evidence
(PDF
127KB)
Analysing the performance of ten developing countries, Hoddinot and
Yohannes (2002) find
a strong association between two measures of food security (calorie
intake and mostly
dietary diversity) and the increase in expenditures per capita. Using
various indicators of
food security, we describe the changes in food balances in Vietnam and
find evidence of a
substitution of poor micronutrients items (rice and cereals) with rich
ones like fruit,
vegetables fish and meat. Poor households, while increasing the amount
of calories
consumed, still lack vitamins, iron, calcium, etc. A preliminary
assessment of the food
security variation showed that improvements were, as expected, more
concentrated among
the richer Vietnamese households than the poor ones, although there was
some
improvement among poorer strata as well. We also focus on the
calorie/expenditure
elasticity and compare results for the years 1993 and 1998. Our
findings confirm that this
link is strong, and show that calorie income elasticity changed in the
expected direction. We
conclude that in general food security improved in Vietnam during 1990s
although
considerable differences still remain among expenditure deciles and
among regions due to
the accentuated spatial difference.RP2006/61
Margret Vidar: State
Recognition of the Right to Food at the National Level
(PDF
114KB)
This paper considers to what extent the human right to food has been
recognized by
countries in the world, by analysing international obligations and
constitutional
provisions, bearing in mind that the right to food may be either
explicitly or implicitly
protected at the constitutional level. It considers constitutional
examples from
Switzerland, South Africa and India.RP2006/60
Samuel K. Gayi: Does
the WTO Agreement on Agriculture Endanger Food Security in Sub-Saharan
Africa?
(PDF 192KB)
The paper examines the state of food security in Sub-Saharan Africa
(SSA), based on an
analysis of a selection of indicators of food security and nutritional
wellbeing during the
period 1990-2002 within the context of the WTO Agreement on
Agriculture. It argues
that it may be advisable for those SSA countries with both static and
dynamic
comparative advantage in agriculture to pursue policies towards ‘food
self-sufficiency’
as a means to attaining food security, considering their large rural
farming population, at
least until such time that international trade in agriculture is fully
integrated into the
WTO disciplines. This is particularly relevant in view of the fact that
high agricultural
protectionism in the north currently distorts price signals and thus
the opportunity costs
of allocating factors of production in these economies. The SSA
countries that lack
comparative advantage in agriculture may want to aim for a ‘food
self-reliance’ strategy
to attain food security.
From The Independent - 22 May 2005 Revealed:
health fears over secret study into GM food Rats fed GM corn
due for sale in Britain developed abnormalities in blood and kidneys By
Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor - When
fed to rats it affected their kidneys and blood counts. So what might
it do to humans? We think you should be told The secret research
we reveal today raises the potential health risks of genetically
modified foods. Here, environment editor Geoffrey Lean, who has led
this paper's campaign on GM technology for the past six years, examines
the new evidence. And he asks the questions that must concern us all:
why is Monsanto, the company trying to sell GM corn to Britain and
Europe, so reluctant to publish the full results of its alarming tests
on lab rats? Why are our leaders so keen to buy the unproven technology
against the wishes of consumers? And why is the man who first raised
these concerns six years ago shunned by the scientific establishment
and his former political masters?
- How
the technology works and what it promises
By Tom Anderson
Genetically modified (GM) food is produced from plants or animals that
have had their genetic material altered by scientists. Scientists are
able to extract genes from organisms with desirable properties - such
as a particular colour or resistance to a disease - and transfer them
to another organism.
The process has
sharply divided opinion, between those who believe the technology will
enhance our lives and those who fear it will prove an advance too far.
By far the most commonly modified organisms are crop plants. But the
technology has been applied to almost all forms of life, from pets that
glow under UV light to bacteria that form HIV-blocking "living
condoms", and pigs bearing spinach gene
The
Hunger Project
The Hunger
Project is an unconventional, strategic organization. The Hunger
Project does not provide “relief.” Rather, The Hunger Projects works in
authentic partnership with the people of developing countries to
address the root causes of hunger and to ensure that all people have
the chance to lead healthy and productive lives.
Today, The Hunger Project works in more than 10,000 villages across 13
developing countries in Africa, South Asia and Latin America. It
carries out proven strategies that are empowering millions of people to
achieve lasting progress in health, education, nutrition and family
income.
In addition to directly empowering hungry people, The Hunger Project
works strategically to change policies, catalyze society-wide
transformation of the conditions holding hunger in place, and
strengthen the local democratic structures through which people can
meet their basic needs on a sustainable basis. Topics Monthly Newsletter
World Hunger Education Service From the Washington Post, November 17, 2009 America's economic
pain brings hunger pangs
by Amy Goldstein
2009
USDA report on access to food 'unsettling,' Obama says
The nation's economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who
lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been
keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that
nearly 50 million people -- including almost one child in four --
struggled last year to get enough to eat.
J. Dreze and A. Sen: Hunger
and Public Action (1991) This book
analyses the role of public action in solving the problem of hunger in
the modern world. The study is divided into four parts. The first,
making extensive use of the concepts of entitlements and capabilities
explores the interaction of nutritional, economic, social, and
political elements and their influence on hunger and deprivation. The
problem of famine prevention is the main focus of the second part, with
special attention given to Africa and India. The third part is devoted
to the issue of fighting chronic undernourishment and the lessons to be
learnt from the policies of China, India, and some other countries. The
last part draws together the main themes and concerns of the earlier
chapters, and provides an integrated view of the role of public action
in eliminating hunger. The study suggests that there is indeed some
space for public action in solving the problem of hunger and
deprivation. In the case of famine prevention, social security could
provide early warning systems and employment provision plans. To fight
endemic deprivation, the authors suggest, among other things, that
basic health care, elementary education, and food programmes should be
looked at.
A. Sen: Public Action to remedy
hunger (1990) I shall
argue that systematic public action can eradicate the terrible and
resilient problems of starvation and hunger in the world in which we
live. But I shall also argue that for this to be secured on a lasting
basis it is important to integrate the protective role of the
government with the efficient functioning of other economic and social
institutions - varying from trade and commerce to the news media and
political parties. It is also important to see public action in a broad
perspective - involving active parts played by the public
itself, going well beyond state planning and governmental actions.
J.Hammond: Famines: Myths, Media and Misundertanding
From Links 22, September 1985
Interpretations of famine are often confused and shrouded in myth. To
start our investigation of the causes of famines, Jenny Hammond
isolates
and explains some of the most common myths
Conference on Hunger and
Poverty.-1995
After months of preparations and an interactive process, involving the
collaboration of many diverse stakeholders, the Conference on Hunger
and Poverty was held in Brussels on 20-21 November 1995. The focus was
on the civil society, its experiences and potential in fighting hunger
and poverty. Near to one thousand people welcomed the opportunity to
participate in this event which held the promises of being
action-oriented and down-to-earth. Together, they examined the
possibilities of forming a coalition to increase the ability and the
capacity of organizations within the civil society to empower the poor
and hungry, provide them with appropriate and meaningful technology,
strengthen the coping strategies of vulnerable groups and provide ways
and means by which the people and the local communities can reverse the
degradation of their natural resource base. The Conference debate was
organized into four substantive sessions dedicated to these challenges.
Food First The
Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First shapes how people
think by analyzing the root causes of global hunger, poverty, and
ecological degradation and developing solutions in partnership with
movements working for social change.
----------------------
Foreign Policy IN FOCUS Food and Farm in Focus
- WTO Agreement on Agriculture:
Suitable Model for a Global Food System?
Sophia Murphy (June 2002)
- The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is part of the document founding
the World Trade Organization and provides international rules governing
agricultural trade and production.
- The AoA permits countries some freedom in devising agricultural
support programs, but this is circumscribed by the agreement’s broader
commitment to liberalization.
- Debates over the future of the AoA are between those who view
agricultural trade as a means to food security and rural development
and those who consider it an end in itself.
The Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) is a product of the Uruguay Round of
the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations
(1986-94). GATT’s Uruguay Round of trade talks led to the founding of
the World Trade Organization (WTO). The AoA provides the rules
governing international agricultural trade and, by extension,
production. It bans the use of border measures other than tariffs, and
it puts tariffs on a schedule of phased reduction. Under the AoA,
domestic support programs are categorized as either acceptable or
unacceptable, with the latter also scheduled for reduction, and export
subsidies, while effectively legalized by the agreement, have also been
disciplined and slated for reduction. The content of the AoA reflects
the shared agenda of the U.S. negotiating team and the non-European
Union (EU) grain exporting countries (known as the Cairns Group) to
push for as much liberalization of agriculture as possible. The "Buy American" Aid Package
Conn Hallinan (November 27, 2002)
The recent White House proposal to aid impoverished countries if they
drop trade barriers and open their markets is likely to substantially
accelerate the misery index in Latin America and Africa, the main
targets of the $5 billion plan.
Entitled the Millennium Challenge Account, the administration says it
will be doled out to countries like Senegal, Ghana, Bolivia, and
Honduras if they institute "the rule of law," as well as "sound fiscal
policies." This latter includes free trade for "American goods and
services."
But 15 years of free trade and open markets have inflicted ruinous
damage on poor countries in Latin America and Africa. When added to the
recently passed U.S. Agriculture Bill that increases U.S. export
subsidies, this plan to tie aid to U.S. political and economic rules
will likely make an already bad situation worse. The World
Food Summit: What Went Wrong?
Peter Rosset (June 4, 2002)
Why do more than 800 million people still go hungry in a world marked
by incredible affluence? 180 nations are gathering in Rome from June 10
to 13 to address just that question at the "World Food Summit: Five
Years Later" meeting. At the 1996 World Food Summit, also held in Rome,
185 nations signed a commitment to cut the number of hungry people in
half by 2015. There, Cuban President Fidel Castro made waves--echoing
the feelings of many--when he called that goal "shameful" for its
abandonment of any notion of eliminating hunger. Subsequent trends have
been more shameful still. Farm Bill
Outrage Goes Global
Sophia Murphy (May 22, 2002)
- Protecting
Agriculture: "Zero-Tolerance" on Farm Subsidies
Devinder Sharma (February 5, 2003)
- Sustainable
Farming: Faulty Lessons From America
Devinder Sharma (August 29, 2002)
- Food
Supremacy: America's Other War
Devinder Sharma (February 13, 2002)
As the American and allied military forces continue to operate in
Afghanistan, the world is increasingly getting dragged into yet another
war--the war for food supremacy. And like the war against terrorism,
the battle for food superiority is also going to be long drawn. With
the battle lines already sketched and with the back-up support of
international financial institutions, this war is being aggressively
pursued on the trade front.
While the United States, the European Union, and the Cairns Group have
allied to emerge as the biggest food exporters, at stake is the very
survival of over 1.5 billion small and marginal farmers of developing
countries. With food poised to become the weapon of the future, it is
the food sovereignty and the underlying economic independence of the
majority of the world that faces the biggest threat in this ongoing
war. And in this “clash of civilizations” the battle is primarily
between the developed and the developing countries, between industrial
agriculture and food security, between value-added functional foods and
growing hunger. Arm-twisting, browbeating, and simply bullying the
countries into accepting the American food doctrine is becoming a
common practice. Intellectual Property Rights and
the Privatization of Life
Kristin Dawkins (January 1999)
- International Tobacco Sales
Robert Weissman (June 1998)
- Overseas Rural Development Policy
Peter Rosset (January 1997)
- U.S. Foreign Agricultural Policy
Gigi DiGiacomo (November 1996)
-
Since the U.S. is the world's largest exporter of cereal grains, its
domestic and foreign agricultural policy has a significant impact on
the world market.
- U.S. agricultural policy is aggressively targeted at building new
market share and promoting international reliance on U.S. food exports.
- Import dependency undermines international goals (formulated at the
1974 UN World Food Conference and embodied in the International
Declaration of Human Rights) to encourage food self-reliance and
security from hunger.
U.S. agricultural policymakers have long relied on the world
marketplace to serve a diverse agenda–including management of the
domestic farm economy, promotion of geopolitical interests, and most
prominently, bolstering exports. The U.S. has aggressively pursued
agroexport growth since the 1970s, when the nation experienced its
first trade deficit of the century and the international community
suffered a widespread food crisis.
The "EC/FAO Programme on Linking Information and
Decision Making to Improve Food Security”, is based at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
(FAO) and funded by the European Union’s “Food Security Thematic Programme (FSTP)”. Its
overall aim is to:
- improve the quantity and quality of food security information and
analysis; and
- promote its use in decision making processes.
Learning Center
The Learning Center offers self-paced e-learning courses on a wide
range of Food Security related topics. The courses have been designed
and developed by international experts to support capacity building and
on-the-job training at national and local food security information
systems and networks. More details can be found on the courses
page.
