Food security

A Risky Proposition. Crop Insurance in the Face of Climate Change

Recent Farm Bill Bill proposals to expand crop insurance for U.S. farmers have failed to acknowledge threats to agriculture from climate change. Not including climate adaption for agriculture at the same time could threaten food security and farmers livelihoods and increase costs for taxpayers.

Need versus greed at Rio+20

Over the last month, U.N. agencies, Member States and civil society groups have been busy: they made well over 600 contributions toward Rio+20, the next United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (U.N. CSD), to be held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012.

Will the G-20 learn to listen?

Since the first food crisis erupted in 2008, there have been a number of debates at the multilateral level about why our food system is failing and what needs to change. One important outcome is that a broader range of groups are weighing in on the issue, and finding the right forums to do so.

Raise more voices for effective farm policy—now!

The projected course of action regarding the Farm Bill changed dramatically over the past two weeks. The general expectation was a spring 2012 Farm Bill, with the possibility that Presidential election politics would push things back to potentially 2013.

A hell of a way to write a Farm Bill

If you want to see what political dysfunction looks like, take a look at how Congress is bungling the nation’s most important food and farm policy—the Farm Bill. The sprawling Farm Bill sets policy for the next five years and is directly relevant to our 2 million farmers, the 43 million people on food assistance and the more than 900 million acres in farmland.

The 2050 challenge to our global food system

Feeding 9 billion people by 2050 will be an enormous challenge. In many circles when people talk about feeding the world in 2050, the focus is almost exclusively on increasing food production. How can we do what we’re already doing better?

What does the occupation of Wall Street have to do with agriculture?

Now two weeks in, the occupation of Wall Street originated from a July call to action by Adbusters to draw a line in the sand on the growing corporate control of our democracy and government—and in particular, Wall Street’s influence.  

Women and the right to food

In mid-September, I had the pleasure to attend a two-day consultation run by the Center for Women's Global Leadership (CWGL), housed at Rutgers University (which, by the way, I was told boasts a freshman year this year that includes no less than 46 percent first generation university students. Kudos!).

The G-20's opportunity on food reserves

This post was originally featured on the Triple Crisis blog.

WEBINAR: What's Causing Higher and More Volatile Food Prices Around the World?

Over the last five years, global food prices have risen dramatically, and become much more volatile. After decades of low prices, disruptions in global agriculture markets are having serious effects on food security, farmers and the environment.