Food First's blog
A New Colonial Era for Africa?
by Annie Shattuck
Land grabs in Africa are on the rise as foreign companies consolidate territory for both agrofuels development and export-oriented agriculture. Nations with a lack of arable land are turning to land investment in Africa to supply agricultural goods. Angola has offered farmland to foreign companies to stimulate investment, and Ethiopia's prime minister has said he is eager to see foreign companies take a stake in the nation's agriculture. Recent examples include:
There never was a better time to end hunger--equitably, sustainably, and permanently.
On November 4th, a groundswell of enthusiasm and goodwill opened a door toward a brighter future for our nation and the world. President-elect Barack Obama put it succinctly in his acceptance speech when he said, "This victory alone is not the change we seek. It is only the chance for us to make that change."
Help Stop GM Trees
This Action Alert is
a cooperative effort of the STOP GE Trees Campaign and its
affiiliated groups: http://www.nogetrees.org.
COMMENTS NEEDED BY NOVEMBER 3 TO STOP GE PAPAYA IN FLORIDA!
Help stop the commercial planting of genetically engineered
papayas in
Florida and the mainland US -- the first
major cultivated GE tree on
the US
mainland.
The US Department of Agriculture is accepting public
comments between
Will a Bailout for Wall Street Spell Hunger for the World?
By Annie Shattuck and Amanda El-Khoury
Institute for Food and Development Policy
THE WALL STREET MELTDOWN: THE VIEW FROM ASIA
By Walden Bello*
For many, the Wall Street crisis is a replay, though on a much larger
scale, of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which brought down the red- hot "tiger economies" of the East. The shocking absence of Wall Street
regulation brings back awful memories of the elimination of capital
controls by East Asian governments, which were under pressure from the
International Monetary Fund and the US Treasury Department. That move
triggered a tsunami of speculative capital onto Asian markets that
Africa’s Food Crisis: A Letter From Uganda
Ethically and morally, let’s all mutually agree that it’s now on record that the world is cage trapped with the current onset of the global food crisis. The urban wealthy may have cause to argue that this effect hasn’t been felt by each household, but the prices of food crops mainly cereals and grains all over the world have sky rocketed and surged drastically, triggered by the ever growing global demand side overtaking the supply side constraints in the major food production countries.
If you used the book, Where there is no Doctor, you may want to have a look at this new Hesperian manual
Review by Roland Bunch, author of "Two Ears of Corn."
Some writers would have us believe that poor communities and poor nations inevitably must pollute the environment and destroy forests if they are to achieve economic development efficiently. This myth tends to pit those who are worried about the environment against those who are worried about development. A new book from Hesperian Foundation, A Community Guide to Environmental Health, by Jeff Conant and Pam Fadem, dispels this myth.
Monsanto's Vultures are Closing In on the Food Crisis
by Annie Shattuck
The vultures of corporate America are closing in on the carcass of cheap food. With corn selling at $5.86 a bushel (up from just $2.00 in 2005, and $4.28 just six months ago), the food price crisis has been somewhat of a windfall for farmers. But the briefly glimmering hope for rural communities is about to go out.
Last week Monsanto announced it would increase the price of its corn seed by $100 a bag, or about 35%. $100 a bag! So if you are a farmer with 1,000 acres in corn, Monsanto will be demanding an extra forty grand this year.