Globalization

The Road to Rio +20

Colleen Borgendale — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 19:30:37 +0000

IATP author(s):

IATP

File:

Factsheet compiled by IATP, the Alliance for Democracy, Council of Canadians, Earth Law Center, Food & Water Watch and the International Indian Treaty Council.

Radio Sustain: December 6, 2011

Patrick Tsai — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 18:03:32 +0000

File (mp3):

11_12_06.mp3

IATP author(s):

Jim Harkness

Julia Olmstead

Karen Hansen-Kuhn

Feature

Image:

Summary:

Julia Olmstead discusses "feeding the world", Jim Harkness on the Occupy movement and Karen Hansen-Kuhn speaks about IATP's aspirations at the Durban climate talks.

In this December 6, 2011 episode, Julia Olmstead discusses U.S. exports and why they are not "feeding the world," Jim Harkness speaks on the Occupy movement and Karen Hansen-Kuhn speaks about IATP's aspirations at the Durban climate talks.

Feeding the world, or not

Julia Olmstead — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 17:00:02 +0000

In 1999, IATP released a ground-breaking report called Feeding the World that debunked the oft-claimed argument that increased U.S. grain exports decrease global hunger. In reality, the report revealed, grain exports went overwhelmingly to wealthy countries, and almost not at all to the nations struggling most with malnourishment.

Today we've released an update of that report that takes a fresh look at the myths and facts around the notion of feeding the world. We wanted to know how things have changed in the twelve years since the original Feeding the World was published, and specifically, if the increase in U.S. grain exports we've seen over the last decade have made a dent in alleviating global hunger.

IATP author(s):

Julia Olmstead

Feature

Headline:

Feeding the world, or not

Summary:

U.S. grain exports are up, so too is hunger.

Image:

Flickr/CC credit:

dsearls

Image caption:

Improving food security around the world is much more complicated than simply increasing grain production.

The water, energy and food nexus

Shiney Varghese — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:05:11 +0000

As I flew back from Bonn last week, on my way back from the Bonn 2011 Nexus Conference (16–18 November), one thing was clear to me. Corporate environmentalism is entrenching itself firmly in the corridors of global governance, and challenging its advance will require new strategies. The "in-your-face" approach of yesterday is being replaced with a softer, albeit more dangerous "corporate responsibility" garb. This softer path also seeks to ensure that civil society stakeholders are seen as party to the decisions.

The Bonn Nexus conference is symptomatic of the way that corporate environmentalism is developing. "The water, energy and food security nexus, Solutions for the Green Economy," as it is called, is an initiative of the federal government of Germany to develop specific contributions to the Rio+20 Conference. It is an important event because this is the first of several nexus conferences being planned to gain political support for advancing the green economy at Rio+20. The next follow-up conference is being organized by World Economic Forum and will be held in January 2012.

In its recognition of a "nexus," these conferences could be seen as a step forward. Two years ago, when we published a report on the need for integrated solutions for the water, climate and food crises, the idea of connections between these three sectors was simply not on any official agenda.

IATP author(s):

Shiney Varghese

Stepping up: Will the G-20 allow the CFS to function? Will other countries allow the G-20 to stop them?

Colleen Borgendale — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 15:53:22 +0000

Language:

English

IATP author(s):

Sophia Murphy

File:

2011_11_02_CFS37_SM.pdf

Rome, October 2011 – Multilateralism is in crisis. It is perhaps most evident in the painful and truly frightening failure of governments to come to grips with the implications of climate change. But it was also evident on a much less well-publicized stage in mid-October in Rome, where governments were gathered at the U.N. Committee on Food Security (CFS) to discuss food price volatility.

The newly reformed and reconstituted CFS completed its week-long 37th session on October 22. The CFS is a reinvention of a long-standing U.N. committee. In its new incarnation, the CFS unites the three Rome agencies (FAO, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agriculture and Development) and creates a new space for civil society to engage actively in intergovernmental negotiations. The new CFS is a response to the 2007-2008 food price crisis, much as its predecessor was an outcome of the 1974 World Food Summit, held at another time of crisis for food prices. The October meeting was the second of the CFS since governments agreed to its reform in 2009. The meeting was hopeful in many ways: the CFS was more organized and clearer about its purpose than last year, suggesting it is growing into its role. The debate, too, was markedly freer and more honest, at least as presented to governments from the various panels that were organized. Sadly, however, governments did not rise to the level set by the CFS. Especially not on food price volatility.

Images and video

Image:

Flickr/CC credit:

ryarwood

Image caption:

Governments met in Rome in mid-October at the U.N. Committee on Food Security (CFS) to discuss food price volatility.

Food Price Volatility: Recommendations from Civil Society

Dale Wiehoff — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:31:49 +0000

Language:

English

Author(s) (external):

Civil Society for the Committee on World Food Security

File:

Recommendations from Civil Society to the Committee on World Food Security October 2011

CFS 37

October 2011

Food Price Volatility

Recommendations from Civil Society

CSOs request the CFS:

AGRICULTURAL AND PRICE POLICIES To support the development of comprehensive short and long-term national and regional food security strategies to address high food prices and volatility. These strategies should include a wide range of agricultural and price policies and instruments, adapted to specific national and regional contexts and the transition to agro-ecological practices. They should be developed, reviewed and monitored by inter-sectoral and inclusive national and regional committees on food security. The CFS should request that the CFS bureau establish a mechanism to monitor the implementation of these policies at the annual CFS sessions.

Agroecology and Advocacy: Innovations in Asia

Colleen Borgendale — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 22:19:46 +0000

Language:

English

IATP author(s):

Karen Hansen-Kuhn

Author(s) (external):

Yang Saing Koma, (CEDAC/FNN); Tony Santos, PAKISAMA; Ika Krshnayanti, API

File:

2011_10_14_Agroecology_Advocacy.pdf

Executive Summary

Rising food prices, increasing climate instability and food riots have sparked profound political changes around the world and put agriculture high on the international agenda. What kind of agriculture is best suited to respond to those challenges, however, is the subject of profound disagreement. Too much of the current policy debate on food security, climate change and agriculture assumes that industrial agriculture and related biotechnology are the only options for feeding a growing global population. Agribusiness and agrochemical companies have created and supported this image through aggressive advertising, lobbying and support for research institutions.

Alternatives do exist. The three case studies presented in this report represent successful approaches, both in terms of the techniques they have applied, and because of the active involvement of farmers’ organizations in changing the policies needed to ensure their success. Agroecological systems, which start from the interplay between the natural environment and agriculture, and build on local priorities and knowledge about site-specific conditions, are at the center of proposals advanced by farmers’, environment and human rights movements and advocates around the world. The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) (Available at www.agassessment.org), among other studies, provide sound scientific grounding to this approach.

Images and video

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Image caption:

In the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), plants are carefully planted well-spaced from their neighbors, and minimal water is used.

Feature

Headline:

Agroecology lessons from Asia

Summary:

Three case studies show viability of agroecological approaches to food production.

African Awakenings: the courage to invent the future

Dale Wiehoff — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 21:19:05 +0000

Language:

English

Author(s) (external):

Firoze Manji

File:

African Awakenings.pdf

Excerpt/exec summary:

African Awakenings: the courage to invent the future

Firoze Manji

We are living today in what is probably one of the most inspiring times in our recent history, reminiscent of the period of the rise of the anti--‐colonial revolutions that followed the Second World War. Our continent is pregnant with hope, but equally it carries hope’s twin, despair. This duality, which has remained a characteristic of ourpost--‐colonial inheritance, was perhaps best illustrated in the events of 1994: on the one hand we witnessed the rise of the popular movement that broughtabout the downfall of the apartheid regime in South Africa; and on the other, we saw the massacre of nearly a million people in Rwanda in a period of a few months. Both hope and despair coexist in all our countries. But because of the depth of the current crisis of capitalism, that duality will become ever more polarised in the coming period.

African awakenings

The uprisings of 2011 have not been confined to the Arab--‐speaking world. There have also been protests, strikes and other actions in Western Sahara, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Gabon, Sudan, Mauritania, Morocco, Madagascar, Mozambique, Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Djibouti, Cote d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso, Botswana, Namibia, Uganda, Kenya, Swaziland, South Africa, and Uganda. Many of these uprisings have been brutally suppressed.

Spotlight G-20: Agriculture Ministers should strengthen government role in volatile markets

Ben Lilliston — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:58:23 +0000

Tomorrow the first ever summit of G-20 Agriculture Ministers will take place in Paris. The French government is to be commended for the initiative. Concerned by the evident disarray in government responses to the food price crisis of 2007-08, the French government moved quickly and deliberately to consider how best to respond. One of their investments, one that might be overlooked in the drama of a G-20 summit, has been in research to understand what kinds of tools governments have used to respond to price spikes and volatility, and how effective those tools have been, particularly in developing countries, and particularly with an eye on reducing poverty and vulnerability to hunger. The results of that investment is informing the debate at many levels, and is a welcome addition to a literature that is otherwise rather too orthodox.

IATP author(s):

Ben Lilliston

Issue page Globalization

admin — Tue, 17 May 2011 16:58:42 +0000

IATP's position:

In a historical moment characterized by volatility—financial markets, food prices, extreme weather, war, forced migrations—the need for international norms that promote peace, stability and well-being couldn’t be more pressing.

Image:

Flickr/CC credit:

churkinms

Multi-lateralizing G-20 commitments on the commodity derivatives market: Two very modest proposals

Dale Wiehoff — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 20:00:43 +0000

Language:

English

IATP author(s):

Dr. Steve Suppan

File:

Multi-lateralizing G-20 commitments042011.pdf

Images and video

Image:

Flickr/CC credit:

gandalfcunn

Making U.S. Trade Policy Serve Global Food Security Goals

admin — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 05:00:00 +0000

Language:

English

IATP author(s):

Karen Hansen-Kuhn

File:

451_2_107901.pdf

Introduction

“To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world’s resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.” (Excerpt from President Obama’s inaugural address.)

More than any U.S. president in history, Barack Obama has focused public attention on global hunger and the need to bolster food production by small-scale farmers in developing countries. He championed this cause at the 2009 G-8 meeting in L’Aquila, Italy, where he called on world leaders to commit $20 billion to address food security, promising $3.5 billion from the United States. After a series of consultations among various government agencies and civil society organizations, the Obama administration launched the Feed the Future initiative in May 2010. That program emphasizes the importance of small-scale farmers, especially women, in country-led programs and a multiagency “whole of government” approach to global food security.

Feature

Summary:

While the U.S. development agenda emphasizes increasing local food production in developing countries, the trade agenda pushes in the other direction, aiming to double U.S. exports—including those of agricultural goods—in the next five years. Just as developing countries work to rebuild local agricultural systems weakened by decades of cuts in agricultural extension services, credit and other public services, they are facing increasing pressure to open their markets to U.S. goods, which could result in floods of cheap imports that undermine local food production.

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Original RefID:

107901

Original account:

451

Timothy A. Wise on Dumping of Agricultural Products into Mexico

admin — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 05:00:00 +0000

Video URL:

Summary:

Timothy A. Wise, Director, Research and Policy Program at the Global Development and Environment Institute (GDAE) Tufts University on dumping of agricultural products into Mexico.

Author(s) (external):

Timothy A. Wise

The Greater Milan Initiative's Sustainable Energy Utility: Reducing the Rural Energy Burden

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 04:00:00 +0000

Language:

English

IATP author(s):

Shalini Gupta

File:

258_2_107688.pdf

The homes and buildings in many rural communities use a significant amount of energy, resulting in a high energy burden for rural residents and businesses. One area of increasing economic concern for Milan has been rising energy costs and their strain on community resources. Winter heat bills are especially hard on low-income residents, a problem compounded by Milan’s old housing stock (most of Milan’s 173 residential units were built before 1940 and do not incorporate modern technology for energy efficiency). For many households, appliances are neither new nor energy efficient. Lack of both awareness and financial resources limit the ability of low-, and even moderate-income families to take advantage of opportunities for household energy efficiency and on-site renewable energy—both of which involve multiple contractors and have a high up-front cost.

Background on Milan Milan, Minnesota (population 300) is located in northwestern Chippewa County, approximately 140 miles west of Minneapolis. The town is surrounded by farm fields and state wildlife management areas. Greater Milan, as defined by those who consider themselves “from Milan,” has a geographic area of approximately 400 square miles and an estimated population of 1,000. Milan has been a farm town since its founding in 1879. Agriculture and meat processing still employ a significant portion of the area’s working population. Town businesses include a locally owned grocery, café, gift shop, bank, beauty shop, farmers’ elevator, two repair shops, a gas station and a handful of part-time home businesses. Milan’s children attend elementary school in Appleton (eight miles north) and junior and senior high school at a consolidated school for five communities located nine miles west of town.

Feature

Summary:

Milan, Minnesota has established the first rural Sustainable Energy Utility (SEU). This innovative initiative aims to reduce the town's energy costs while supporting larger community goals of job creation and population retention. The Milan SEU can be a model for other rural communities facing similar challenges.

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Original RefID:

107688

Original account:

258

Colonialism is not dead

admin — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:00:00 +0000

Language:

English

IATP author(s):

Dennis Keeney

Sophia Murphy

File:

500_2_107295.pdf

Minneapolis, march 22, 2010* — Bill Gates and the biotech juggernauts are doing their best to keep Africa dependent on imported technology, just like in the bad old days of colonialism.

In the latest iteration of “the rich world knows best,” it is Bill Gates in the company of the few, huge private biotech firms that have joined the long (sorry) list of those that think they know best how Africa should grow its food. If the history of colonialism and subsequent development practice has taught us anything, it is that all interventions must strengthen resilience, encourage diversity and be locally appropriate. The biotech seed proposal for Africa fails on all three counts.

A February 17 Des Moines Register article implies that the U.S. model of crop production will be exported to African nations by giving biotech seed to African farmers. Exporting a model developed specifically for the U.S. to the 47 countries of sub-Saharan Africa is bad enough; worse, this model is focused largely on high inputs for monoculture corn and has caused enormous problems in the United States. Why would we want to export it?

Biotech corn is designed for monoculture production on large acreages like we have in the United States: African agriculture is overwhelmingly small-scale (on farms of less than one acre) and diverse, allowing for a more diverse diet as well as greater overall output given the dependence on rain-fed agriculture and very limited access to external expensive inputs such as fertilizer. It’s often claimed that biotech seeds will yield larger crops: In fact, there is no evidence that crops from biotechnology seeds produce higher yields than do crops from conventionally bred seeds.

Feature

Summary:

The Gates Foundation—along with giants of biotech—is planning to export biotech seeds to Africa. If the history of colonialism and subsequent development practice has taught us anything, it is that all interventions must strengthen resilience, encourage diversity and be locally appropriate. The biotech seed proposal for Africa fails on all three counts.

Portal manager

Description:

Original RefID:

107295

Original account:

500