At the first ever G-8 Farm Summit in Treviso, Italy, agriculture ministers pledged earlier this week to work toward alleviating poverty and hunger and to encourage sustainable food production.
This weekend, the G-8 agriculture ministers are meeting in Treviso, Italy, to discuss the global food crisis. In a pre-meeting commentary, IATP's Anne Laure Constantin outlines the good, the bad and the ugly on the G-8's agenda.
When genetically engineered (GE) crops were first marketed in the U.S. in the mid-1990s, the central promise biotech companies made to farmers was greater yields. The promise to everyone else was that GE crops would help feed the world.
This weekend, agriculture ministers from the G-8 will gather in a beautiful castle above the city of Treviso, in central Italy, to discuss the global food crisis. Missing among the scheduled gala dinners, aperitifs and wine tastings are those most affected by the food crisis, as well as a clear understanding of what has gone wrong.
When the Group of 20 heads of state meet later this week in London to discuss responses to the global financial crisis, one item directly affecting global food and energy security will be missing from the agenda: the regulation of commodity exchanges.
On Sunday, the New York Times Alexei Barrioneuvo wrote about the disastrous water wars in Chile. The article highlighted the dangers of privatizing something that should remain in the public commons, but also described the direct link between water policy and agriculture.
This report outlines the connections between the water, agriculture and climate crises and the role industrial agriculture has played in contributing to the problem. Because these three areas are so inter-connected they can no longer be handled in isolation from each other and a comprehensive approach is now needed.
Last year, the United Nations organized a special Commission of Experts on Reforms of the International Monetary and Financial System, headed by Nobel Prize winner Dr.
