industryterm:food crisis

India Emerges as Leader in 21st Century « Scramble for Africa » | oaklandinstitute.org
http://media.oaklandinstitute.org/india-emerges-leader-21st-century-scramble-africa
Un exemple de la coopération Sud-Sud

The rising presence of China and India in Africa has important implications for the continent’s development. While the two Asian giants provide a much-needed alternative to the old – and until now sole – paradigm of dependence on the West, both countries are accused of being part of the global land-grabbing group. Many African governments are complicit in this wholesale plunder of their land, which the Food and Agriculture Organization of the U.N. has compared to the “Wild West.” India’s particular role in the land takeover underway in Africa raises serious questions about the direction of South-South relations.
Thirsty?

Just before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the Indian food and beverage giant Parle Agro ran an ad campaign to promote its new LMN lemon drink.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHVYYwtJAsA&feature=player_embedded

The G8 and Land Grabs in Africa

http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/land-ownership-and-hunger/52346-the-g8-and-land-grabs-in-africa.html?itemid=id#1292

The G8, several African governments and transnational corporations such as Cargill came together in 2012 to form the “New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition”. Cooperation framework, an agreement that forms part of the New Alliance, binds the African governments involved to reform land laws to facilitate foreign investment. As part of the agreement, foreign companies promise to invest heavily in agricultural expansion and development. At the beginning of this year, the government of Cote D’ivoire leased the grain trader Louis Dreyfus 100,000-200,000 hectares of land for rice production. These steps are the G8’s response to the global food crisis. However, these dealings force thousands of local communities and farmers off their land; undermine local food markets and lead to the destruction of livelihoods and the deepening of food insecurity. There are no policy obligations in the New Alliance to ensure the protection of peasants’ and farmers’ human rights or land rights. Instead, the group suggests voluntary guidelines for governments to monitor private investment. The UK presidency of the G8 meeting in June 2013 is citing food security as its top priority and will encourage transparency in foreign land deals. However, the guidelines will not be made compulsory and corporations will only be required to reveal basic information surrounding land acquisitions.

#faim #alimentation

Growing food in the desert: is this the solution to the world’s food crisis? | The Observer
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/nov/24/growing-food-in-the-desert-crisis

the work that Sundrop Farms, as they call themselves, are doing in South Australia, and just starting up in Qatar, is beyond the experimental stage. They appear to have pulled off the ultimate something-from-nothing agricultural feat – using the sun to desalinate seawater for irrigation and to heat and cool greenhouses as required, and thence cheaply grow high-quality, pesticide-free vegetables year-round in commercial quantities.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2012/11/23/1353687441504/Food-from-the-desert-toma-008.jpg

Seawater Greenhouse: A new approach to restorative agriculture | Global Water Forum
http://www.globalwaterforum.org/2012/05/28/seawater-greenhouse-a-new-approach-to-restorative-agriculture

There are now some 200,000 hectares of greenhouses around the Mediterranean, and over 1 million in China, where 30 years ago, there were almost none. This is because yields that are achieved in greenhouses can be 10 to 100 times greater than yields achieved outside. They also enable high value crops to be grown ‘out of season’.

The Seawater Greenhouse enables year-round crop production in some of the world’s hottest and driest regions. It does this using seawater and sunlight. The technology imitates natural processes, helping to restore the environment while significantly reducing the operating costs of greenhouse horticulture. In addition to not having to discharge concentrated brine, it also benefits from the fact that high salinity water has a powerful biocidal or sterilising effect on the air that passes through it. This reduces or eliminates airborne pests.

http://www.globalwaterforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Figure-4.png?9d7bd4

#agriculture #serres #désalinisation

Designing Food Systems to Protect Nature and Get Rid of Hunger

http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/hunger-and-the-globalized-system-of-trade-and-food-production-/51889-designing-food-systems-to-protect-nature-and-get-rid-of-hunger.h

By Vandana Shiva
Al Jazeera
September 9, 2012

Industrial production of food has created a severe ecological and social crisis, and in order to ensure the supply of healthy food, we must move towards agro-ecological and sustainable systems of food production. Vandana Shiva’s article points out that the agrarian crisis, the food crisis and the nutrition and health crisis are intimately connected and need to be addressed together. Industrial agriculture, sold as the “Green Revolution” to developing countries, is a chemical intensive, capital intensive, fossil fuel intensive system that destroys biodiversity. The most effective strategy to address hunger and malnutrition is through biodiverse organic farming that enriches the soil and provides more nutritious food.

Industrialisation of agriculture creates hunger and malnutrition, destroying the food web to which we all belong.

Hunger and malnutrition is manmade. It is in the design of the industrial chemical model of agriculture. And just as hunger has been created by design, producing healthy and nutritious food for all can be designed through food democracy.

#agriculture #faim #famine #alimentation #vandana-shiva #nutrition

Defending seed sovereignty - The Ecologist
http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/1547385/defending_seed_sovereignty.html

A new Global Campaign for Seed Freedom will be celebrating the fortnight from Ghandi’s birthday (October 2nd) to World Food Day (October 16th) as the first Seed Satyagraha during which all participants will declare No Patents On Seeds

The brainchild of Indian environmental activist Vandana Shiva and her Navdanya organisation, the new campaign is circulating a declaration (see details below) that you can sign to become a Seed Defender.

#semences #résistance #agriculture #alimentation

The sticky challenge facing Africa | Global development | guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2011/dec/20/therapeutic-food-famine-relief-africa

As the food crisis in the Horn of Africa continues, so do the campaigns asking for support and donations. Some of the money raised goes on the purchase of ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTFs), small packets of a sticky, peanut butter-like paste, fortified with minerals and vitamins, that can reverse severe malnutrition within six weeks. Products such as Plumpy’nut.

The vast majority of RUTFs are produced in the US or Europe, bought by aid agencies such as Unicef, and transported great distances to reach those in need. But a small group of social enterprises is questioning this business model, redesigning it with a more local footprint in mind.

#malnutrition

The New Green Revolution: How Twenty-First-Century Science Can Feed the World
http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/217-hunger/50666-the-new-green-revolution-how-twenty-first-century-science-can-fe

In this article, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter analyzes the current food crisis and concludes that agroecology-the application of ecological science to the study, design, and management of sustainable agriculture –holds great promise to meet the challenges of global food insecurity. Strategies to combat hunger must recognize the impact of climate change, scarcity of natural resources, and the unsustainable nature of current methods of food production. Advocates of agroecology include the World Bank, FAO, UNEP, IASSTD, and the largest transnational peasant movement, La Via Campensina.

#agriculture #alimentation

Speculating with lives: How global investors make money out of hunger
http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/19180

But how did the situation arise that hedge funds and investment banks can now influence the costs of bread in Tunisia, corn meal in Kenya and corn in Mexico? What happened to allow large pension funds and small investors to gamble with the world’s food supply? And how did the markets in Chicago, New York and London come to play such a decisive role in determining how many people must go without food?

#spéculation #alimentation

GM Corn Being Developed For Fuel Instead of Food
http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/hunger-and-the-globalized-system-of-trade-and-food-production-/50597-gm-corn-being-developed-for-fuel-instead-of-food.html

US farmers have begun growing Enogen-branded genetically modified (GM) corn plants to produce ethanol for commercial purposes. Critics of Enogen believe farmers will be drawn to the new “efficient ethanol form of corn” and consequently produce less food for human consumption. Studies show a well-established relationship between expanding biofuels production and rising global food prices. There is also much worldwide resistance to the introduction of this new GM corn. The EU, South Korea, and South Africa have not approved the import of the new GM corn and food industry groups in the US also oppose the new Enogen corn, citing cross-pollination fears.

#agrocarburants

Comment Goldman Sachs a provoqué la crise alimentaire | Slate (trad. Foreign Policy)
►http://www.slate.fr/story/39483/goldman-sachs-provoque-crise-alimentaire

Goldman Sachs a créé un indice boursier sur les matières premières qui a déstabilisé le système. Et après la crise de 2008, les investisseurs se sont tournés vers ce secteur, contribuant ainsi à la formation d’une « bulle alimentaire ».

#alimentation

Barclays faces protests over role in global food crisis | Business | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/apr/25/barclays-faces-commodity-protests

Barclays will be targeted during its annual meeting on Wednesday by anti-poverty campaigners accusing it of playing a leading role in driving up food prices on global commodities markets.

Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm of the high street bank, is the UK’s biggest player in food commodity trading, and one of the top three banking players globally, according to a new analysis for the World Development Movement.

Along with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, BarCap has pioneered new kinds of financial products that have enabled pension funds and other investors traditionally barred from commodities exchanges to bet on food prices.

#sécurité_alimentaire #commodities

Article indispensable sur les achats de terre en #Afrique pour le développement des #agrocarburants.

Land : The New International Strategic Asset. How Africa is losing big time. - ModernGhana.com
http://www.modernghana.com/news/310058/1/land-the-new-international-strategic-asset-how-afr.html

The international craze for a reduction of carbon dioxide emission from fossil fuel guzzling cars and industries has led to an intense focus on biofuels as the solution to the pollution and associated global warming. But the production of biofuels is not taking place in the open sky; it is taking place on land and is leading to a new social cancer that is slowly beginning to emerge. The focus on biofuels as alternative to oil, gas and coal has put new and unrealistic demand on land, and it is on record to make land the most strategic commodity in the 21st Century. Driven largely by a global cartel of land speculators, many energy and agro-multinational corporations are strategically acquiring agricultural lands in poor countries of the global south at a rate never anticipated by land economists before. The 2007 and 2008 food crisis and its associated price hikes has forced rich but food insecure countries in the Middle East and the Gulf Region to scrounge for lands in Africa further complicating matters. Meanwhile the belief in some countries in Africa like Sudan and Ethiopia that heavy injections of foreign capital will enhance agricultural technology, boost local employment, revitalize sagging agricultural sectors, and ultimately improve agricultural yields has given the corporations a field day with serious social, economic, political and environmental consequences.