UN envoy: World set for new food crisis in 2010

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Inaction to halt speculation on agricultural commodities and continued biofuels policies is paving the way for a re-run of the 2008 food price crisis in 2010 or 2011, argues Olivier De Schutter, UN special rapporteur on the right to food, in an interview with EurActiv. Olivier De Schutter is professor of law at the University of Louvain (UCL) and the College of Europe (Natolin). He was appointed UN special rapporteurexternal on the right to food by the Human Rights Council in March 2008. He was speaking to EurActiv’s Giacomo Fassina. To read a shortened version of this interview, please click here. Are you satisfied with the outcome of the summit on world food security? Most of the observers are very critical of the results. FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf was himself quite disappointed. The summit did not lead to any financial commitments despite his insistence that governments should have reserved some $44 billion per year to re-launch agriculture in developing countries....
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Dacian Ciolos (Romania): Agriculture – Barroso unveils new EU Commission line-up

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
European Commission President José Manuel Barroso unveiled the EU executive's new line-up on Friday (27 November), handing Finn Olli Rehn the key economic policy portfolio and giving Frenchman Michel Barnier a controversial role in overseeing regulation of the financial sector. Rehn takes over from Spaniard Joaquin Almunia, who will become competition commissioner in the 27-country bloc's executive. France's Michel Barnier was named internal market commissioner, with responsibility for financial services. The formation of the European Commission is the latest stage in the EU's efforts to maintain its influence on the world stage after the economic crisis. The 27-person teamexternal , which represents almost 500 million people, is likely to take office early next year. It will serve for five years, but first needs the European Parliament's approval. "In five years' time, I want this Commission to have been instrumental in leading Europe out of the economic crisis towards a competitive economy that provides sustainable growth," Barroso told a news conference. The nomination of the Commission,...
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Why aren’t super funds investing in ag?

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Australia has a trillion dollars worth of superannuation funds under management but less than 0.01 per cent is invested in Australian agriculture, according to Australian Agribusiness Group. It says international pension funds have recognised the local value proposition and invested more than $1.5 billion (about three times the local total) into Australian agriculture. And it says that if Australian superannuation funds had invested in Australian agri, their members would have been buffered from the super slaughter of the global financial crisis. AAG executive chairman, Marcus Elgin, said the GFC wiped out 27pc of Australian's superannuation contributions. "If some of the money managed by superannuation funds was invested in the top 25pc of agriculture, then those funds would not have suffered as much a loss of value," Mr Elgin said. "It is proof of the simplest idea of reducing risk through diversification." Most Australian superannuation funds have yet to acknowledge that the top 25pc of Australian agriculture is a viable investment option, despite it providing 11.2pc returns...
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Climate warming in line with worst case scenario

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Author: Adam Morton KEY climate change measures are tracking near or beyond worse-case scenarios predicted just two years ago, according to a science update drawing on more than 200 recently published studies. Co-authored by 26 climate scientists, The Copenhagen Diagnosis reports that melting of summer Arctic sea ice, loss of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and projections of the rise in sea levels have accelerated dramatically since 2007. It finds the statistical global warming trend has continued over the past decade, contradicting assessments by some scientists - including Copenhagen Climate Council chairman Tim Flannery - that there has been a recent cooling. The review cites NASA data that shows a trend of a 0.19-degree increase over the past decade despite short-term fluctuations due to El Nino, solar variability and volcanic eruptions. Matthew England, co-director of the University of NSW Climate Change Research Centre, said the world's three leading climate data series showed claims of temperatures cooling were "patently untrue". "These are the data set even...
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Tomorrow’s sheep industry will be a global affair

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
WORLD sheep and wool council director Ben Watts says the future of Australia’s wool industry can be enhanced by more international collaboration - especially in global wool marketing. Speaking at a national farm food safety conference in Launceston last week, Mr Watts entered the “wool future” debate by suggesting that although consumers were already seeking ethical products, the Australian wool industry was at risk of losing its opportunity to sell to them if it failed to act collaboratively. The British Retail Consortium last month signalled that ethical consumerism in the United Kingdom had grown by 15 per cent in recent years to reach 35.5 billion pounds in value, of which ethical clothing was the fastest growing category, with sales 71 per cent higher than that in the previous year. “Why is it that when most Australian wool growers are ethical producers their story is not being told?” Mr Watts asked. “For too long wool has been shackled in tradition - we have a product...
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Robotic farming – the way of the future?

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
PRECISION Agriculture is about to take the next step and see robots planting, spraying and harvesting crops… or is it? This is one of the questions Gilgandra, NSW, grain grower James Hassall was keen to answer, as part of a Nuffield Australia Farming Scholarship sponsored by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC). Over the past 12 months James has spent a significant amount of time in Europe and America, discovering what is actually possible with current computer technology and how it might be adapted to Australian conditions. “So much of Precision Agriculture is driven by global positioning systems, or GPS, that understanding developments in that area was a key part of the trip,” James said. “A great deal of effort is going into increasing the accuracy of GPS and to set up independent testing for the accuracy of auto-steer vehicles. In the not-too-distant future, the location of vehicles could be available in real time over the internet.” This leads to the question of what...
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Why ‘eco-friendly foods’ can be worse for the environment

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
SO-CALLED "environmentally responsible" food purchases need to be based on sound science rather than merely perception as work out of Washington State University has shown that those foods consumers tend to think are "intuitively correct" may indeed be the least environmentally friendly option. Dr Jude Capper, assistant professor of dairy sciences at Washington State University, believes the food industry should use a whole-system approach and assess environmental impact per gallon of milk, pound of beef or dozen eggs, not per farm or per acre. She calls it a "lifecycle assessment" approach, which evaluates all inputs and outputs within the food production system and allows for correct comparisons of different production systems. "Consumer demand for milk, meat and eggs is going to increase as the population continues to grow," Capper said. "Therefore, the vital role of improved productivity and efficiency in reducing environmental impact must be conveyed to government, food retailers and consumers." Intuitively, today's modern production practices often seem to have a higher environmental...
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Can GM rice fill the world’s shortfall?

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
Genetically modified (GM) crops are not the only answer to Asia’s looming food deficit, but multinational crop technology company Syngenta argues that they must be part of the mix. Syngenta made the case for GM technology to journalists in Bangkok two weeks ago, as part of a broader effort to open Asian government doors that have so far remained closed to genetically modified food crops. Among the Asian nations, only India and China and The Philippines have embraced the technology, with India planting around 7.6 million hectares of cotton in 2009. The Philippines is the only Asian country to date to introduce a GM grain crop, planting about 400,000ha of maize in 2008. Syngenta believes it is time for the barriers against GM to come down, so that biotechnology companies can confidently invest in GM research ahead of the looming food crisis. “Given the projected increase in population and with less land and water available, we will need all available agricultural technologies, including biotechnology,...
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GM crops not just for rich farmers

By dana.bucur Comment Closed
ONE of the most common criticisms of GM technology is that it's major incarnation in the form of herbicide resistant traits is only of benefit to relatively well-off first-world farmers and is of little benefit to poor growers in the third-world - a misconception, according to Monsanto’s director of research Harvey Glick. Dr Glick said GM technology would play a large role in assisting the billions of subsistence and low-income farmers worldwide who eke out a living from less than five acres (2.1ha), and by doing so, assist international food security. Dr Glick said both first generation traits, such as herbicide resistance, and traits close to being rolled out, such as drought tolerance and nitrogen efficiency, would aid poor farmers. "We see biotechnology as a means to increase yields and a way to reduce crop inputs," he said. "Farmers will be able to replace chemical use with GM traits, while the benefits of drought tolerance and nitrogen efficiency are self-explanatory." Dr Glick said he had...
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