Next question please

It's been a long time coming but I do recall posting earlier on the planning stages of this now published study. Using a horizon-scanning approach, leading experts and representatives of major agricultural organizations worldwide have prioritised what they feel are the 100 most important questions for global agriculture. The aim is to use sound scientific evidence to inform decision making and guide policy makers in the future direction of agricultural research priorities and policy support. Much food for thought here.

Progress? Whose good news counts?

Habitat and species loss continues, as reported in an article in the current issue of Science, Despite Progress, Biodiversity Declines. Of course this is a matter of grave importance and should serve as a clarion call to conservationists everywhere, especially in the lead up to the forthcoming CBD meeting in Japan, and god knows we do need examples and cases of progress. But Science might want to take time and ask a few of the expelled Chagos Islanders whether the fact that "in May, the United Kingdom designated the Chagos Archipelago as the largest marine reserve in the world, setting aside 544,000 square kilometers" is actually the good news it purports to be. I am sure a few will beg to differ on the fact they now have the world's largest marine reserve to go with the world's largest military base.

The Malthus Monsters

I am continually irked when I visit the Times online with its constant prompts for subscription on every news item clicked. This is nothing compared to the feelings I had about the grossly crass and unsavoury musings of Matthew Parris on rural dwellers in his article "If you want to save the planet stop breeding" in Saturday's edition of the Times. Unfortunately I can't link to the story itself because of the pay wall hassles but Robin Smith has taken him to task on his blog, Real Reform.

Bringing agriculture and health back together

Here we go, the solution to our agriculture, health and nutrition problems. Bringing agriculture and health back together! When exactly were they together to begin with? But a solution is on hand and coming to a corner shop near you soon, courtesy of the LCIRAH and the CGIAR. Somehow I don't think so. The shortcomings of "fragmented development landscapes, language barriers and silos" have been with us so long now. Other sectors have tried to address the same issues without little success. These disconnects are really ingrained and systemic and I have no idea how we might extricate ourselves from such ways of thinking and working. That's not to say there are individuals and organisations working not working actively in these areas. There is much great work going on in terms of organisational learning but sadly much of it is marginalised and far from mainstream when considering these types of problems and issues. Maybe others know what the solution might be. If you have any ideas maybe you can visit the SciDev website and this article and make your views known. Others already have and hurray to Tom Hennessy for his plug on local and indigenous foods.

Where would you like to see more agricultural funding directed

Nourishing the Planet blog has an interesting discussion going on the above topic. Some of you may have come across the discussion already, it has been linked to by our friends over at the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog putting forward the case for a significant role for ABD.

Robbing hoods

Richard Curtis and Bill Nighy have teamed up in a new film urging the Tobin tax on bankers. About time, Bill Nighy could sell me a rubber hammer and glass nails any day of the week, even a long wait. Go on spread the link.

Good COP, bad COP?

With 30,000 people applying for accreditation, and an estimated 5,000 media, global meetings finally reached 'stadium rock' proportions and most likely took on the carbon footprint of a U2 tour. However, given the miserable outcomes there will be few calls for an encore, although the long and winding road will go on for sometime to come.

It certainly didn't go well for agriculture and the small farmers of this world. Of course, there was the Agriculture and Rural Development Day at the COP15 and the joint statement Beyond Copenhagen: Agriculture and Forestry Are Part of the Solution calling for among other things climate negotiators to agree on the early establishment of an agricultural work program under the SBSTA. No idea where or how that ended up. I expect it got abandoned in the hair-splitting and horse trading, the sport of politicians. Here is what the folks over at Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog had to say, including Cary Fowler of the Global Crop Diversity Trust.

While hundreds of activists demonstrated to ‘change the food system, not the climate’, the Ecologist suggests that Copenhagen could lead to increase in intensive farming. The Ecologist goes on to discuss the implications of missing out on agriculture as part of the deal and why small-scale farmers should be part of this. The LEISA's Farm blog did a nice job of navigating through the 'megabytes of text' to highlight the relevant issues and organisations campaigning for agriculture at COP15. There was also useful coverage of agriculture and climate change over at the Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research. While not commenting specifically on outcomes of agriculture and COP15, USC Canada also did a nice job of consolidating some useful resources on food, farming and climate change. While the CGIAR's Rural Climate Exchange provided an up-to-date thread of issues and debates.

Personally I was disappointed that someone like Paul Collier was able to get up at an IIED funded event (Development and Climate Day) and call for GMOs as a solution for climate change impacts to agriculture in Africa while Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made one of the best statements of the week, "If the climate was a bank, a capitalist bank, [the West] would have saved it by now."

While all the bickering was going on it as been business as usual for thousands of communities the world over on the frontline of climate change on a daily basis, because they certainly can't wait for the international circus to come to their aid.

A commentary on international agriculture

Uma Lele reviews John Shaw's recent book Global Food and Agricultural Institutions and among her conclusions has this to say,

The institutions Shaw reviews includes multi-lateral organisations such as the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Bank, the World Food
Programme, the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. His book does not include bi-lateral organisations such as USAID, US Foundations and Land Grant Universities. Despite a largely common membership there is a lack of coordination among the organisations he reviews.

Can true and effective global cooperation in food and agriculture materialise? Uma Lele argues that the challenges are great and the topic is complex and mired in the larger issues of the aid architecture. This reality has three dimensions, only one of which is mentioned in the book:

1. Vast changes in the international aid architecture in the Post World War II period, particularly in the last 15 years, combined with a decline in long term assistance to food and agriculture, imbalanced allocation withinand across sectors, misallocation, and decline of capacity of bilateral aid agencies concomitant with increased bilateralisation of multilateral aid.

2. Growth in the number of international organisations and programmes, mission creep in the mandates, and changing legitimacy of traditional international organisations with overlaps, gaps, competition as well as cooperation in the ever growing galaxy of aid agencies and programmes, and,

3. The dynamics between and among developed and developing countries influencing global policy and strategy.

Realistically speaking developing countries cannot wait for the international organisations to get their act together, or to be led by them, she concludes.

Read more here.

This land is my land

The people over at GRAIN have posted two new presentations worth a look.

Land Grabbing and the global food crisis and Small farmers can cool the planet

And this is what James Hansen has to say about COP15 Copenhagen. I rather liked what he had to say about cap and trade.

"This is analagous to the indulgences that the Catholic church sold in the middle ages. The bishops collected lots of money and the sinners got redemption. Both parties liked that arrangement despite its absurdity. That is exactly what's happening,"

Brains to burn

Foreign Policy has just published it's list of Top 100 Global Thinkers. I can count the number I would agree with on one hand, well maybe two hands if I'm pushed. I suggest those on the the list who hold dear the neoliberal consensus which has contributed to many of our current global problems, including the recent food crisis and riots and a situation where probably close to half the human race suffer either perpetual hunger and malnourishment or some form of food insecurity, be replaced with the likes of Jules Pretty, Miguel Altieri, Robert Chambers, M.S. Swaminathan, Peter Rosset, Eric Holt-Gimenez, Nils Roling, Gary Nabhan, Pat Mooney to name a few. What's the chances of that?

Over-consumers, and unfortunately over here!

Over-consumption. Two sides of the same coin. We ought to treat them like royalty.

Later...and that man who wishes to charge one euro everytime we goo to the loo in mid-air is milking the CAP subsidy scheme.

Everything's vine

The Irish government has commended Nigeria-based International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, for the success of its new yam propagation technique that uses vine cuttings instead of the traditional tuber seeds. The Irish government, through its Irish Aid programme, provides support to research funding to IITA to help advance the institutes work on providing solutions to hunger and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa.This funding is part of a larger commitment to the work of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, which is a central component of Irish Aids response to the growing global food crisis. Read more.

Supermarkets, food and the poor

A new Center for Global Development working paper, by non-resident fellow Peter Timmer places the supermarket debate in the broader evolution of food policy analysis, which is a framework for integrating household, market, macro, and trade issues as they affect hunger and poverty. Increasingly, supermarkets provide the institutional linkages across these issues. Timmer draws from many perspectives to assess the effect the supermarket revolution may have on poverty alleviation. Read more here.

Women play a key role in feeding the world

As I will be away from computers over the weekend, I wanted to post this in time for International Womens' Day, 8th March. The posting is on behalf of the International Alliance Against Hunger.


Please pause for a moment on International Womens’ Day – Sunday 8th March – to think whether you can do something simple that can have a positive impact on your life and on the lives of others, and is environmentally sound. Read this, and, if you agree, please forward it to your friends, women and men. Together, you can make life better for many women around the world!

Facts
1. Women farmers produce 60-80% of the food in poor countries but only own 1% of the land, and are often excluded from farmers’ associations, services and technical know-how.2
2. Rural women alone produce half of the world’s food but receive less than 10 percent of credit provided to farmers.
3. More women farmers must be give the right to own and use farm land so as to have more secure sources of food and livelihood.
4. Women’s rights must be respected: for example, enabling girls to get education has been identified as the single most powerful contribution to reducing malnutrition over a 35-year period.
5. Women are much more likely than men to spend additional income from the sale of crops on their children, who are better nourished because their mothers provide a diverse diet.
6. In Kenya for instance, women do most of the work of growing nutritious vegetables, but play a smaller role than men in decision-making in the home.


Act Now!
Share this message with your family, colleagues, and friends to make them think, and act to change this situation.

Consider the fact that, in spite of government commitments to reduce hunger, over 950 million of our fellow humans suffer from hunger on a daily basis in a world in which enough food is produced to allow everyone to eat well.

3. Learn more about how to end hunger and malnutrition and improve your nutrition habits (click on http://www.iaahp.net/ for links).

4. Share our sense of OUTRAGE: Raise your voice to encourage your government to do everything that is humanly possible to eradicate hunger and malnutrition: it can be done, and everyone wins.

Mapping agricultural research

For those of you interested in agricultural research within the 15 CGIAR centres or want an overview of the research that they are doing in eastern and southern Africa check out the first 'CGIAR research map'. Simply clicking on the country will give you a dialogue box with relevant projects and further information on each. No doubt more countries and information will be added.

News from the Vault

further information on Ireland's contribution to Svalbard.

Shocks and stocks

Interesting wrap up of international meetings and discussions surrounding the recent 'Food Security for All' meeting in Madrid. Video commentaries from, among others, Steve Wiggins and Lawrence Haddad

Laughing all the way to the bank

At last a decent news article on how readily rich countries are to rescue the international banking system in the current financial crisis with contributions in the hundreds of billions of dollars yet continue to renege on their commitments to the much smaller required amounts of GDP for overseas aid or the UN Comprehensive Framework for Action to deal with the global food crisis. And all the while international agribusiness and seed companies are laughing all the way to bank (the ones that were rescued!). You can read John Vidal's article, 'West rescues banks but fails the world's hungry', in the October 24th edition of the Guardian Weekly.

Ireland plans to take leading role in alleviating world hunger

There's no getting away from Bono and Mr Blueprint himself. I'll believe it when I see it. More.

Food sovereignty and agrobiodiversity

Produced by the Community Media Trust, a group of peasant women filmmakers, this DVD and publication highlights the different ways the community has worked towards sustaining their own food systems, dynamically conserved their biodiversity and regenerated livelihoods in a semi arid region.