7 June 2014 - The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition: a coup for corporate capital? by N. McKeon

Launched on eve of the G7 meeting of 4 June, the report critically analyses the history, concepts and actors of the New Alliance [read]

28 May 2014 - The US Feed the Future program: nutrition interventions, input-based agriculture and private investment facilitation

The 2014 ‘Feed the Future’ progress report highlights principles, objectives and achievements of this programme launched in 2009 by President Obama, soon after his election. [read]

24 May 2014 - USAID’s Frontiers in Development essay competition

Hungerexplained.org submits its essay to USAID’s Frontiers in Development essay competition. Its topic is: Research on sustainable and accessible agricultural technologies for combatting poverty and hunger. [read]

12 May 2014 - The Africa Progress Panel proposes more of the same old recipes to tackle hunger and poverty in Africa

To tap Africa’s huge natural resources and feed its population and beyond, the Africa Progress Panel proposes to intensify the promotion of the fertiliser-water-pesticide intensive agriculture that has shown its limits elsewhere. [read]

9 May 2014 - Green revolution in Africa: more improved seeds for the continent

Growing Africa’s Future (AGRA) has just published a report on the seed sector in Africa which concludes that the sector is now dominated by local start-ups. [read]

13 April 2014 - Growth in Africa: high, fragile and unequal

The UN Economic Commission for Africa recently published its yearly Economic Report for 2014. Its title is ‘‘Dynamic Industrial Policy in Africa’’. [read]

4 April 2014 - Bringing people out of poverty by connecting them to the global economy: USAID’s Global Development Lab

On 3 April, USAID launched its ‘‘Global Development Lab to Help End Extreme Poverty by 2030’’,  a multibillion dollar partnership between USAID, multinational corporations, CSO organisations and universities. It is not clear how the interests of the people who are supposed to be graduating out of poverty are being effectively considered in the goals of the partnerships initiated by the Lab. [read]

18 March 2014 - Hunger is a political issue: its eradication will require more democracy

Olivier De Schutter, Special Rapporteur of the UN on the right to food, submitted his terminal report to the UN Human Rights Council at the end of his six-year tenure. His diagnosis on the world food situation is uncompromising, and he formulates very relevant recommendations. [read]

13 March 2014 - Via Campesina: seven measures to support family farming

On the occasion of the International Year of Family farming, the European Coordination Via Campesina proposed to European governments and the European Commission seven measures to support family farming in Europe by respecting the rights of the rural population and implementing economic policies that do not exclude small family farms but rather protects them. [read]

8 March 2014 - The large corporations multinational  corporations in charge of our agri-food system...:  upstream corporations

In 2010, multinational corporations weighed more than 25% of world GDP. For agricultural inputs, a handful of companies control the market and promote products which often have an exorbitant environmental and health cost. [read]

26 February 2014 - Trends in food and agricultural policies: short term decisions likely to jeopardise transition to sustainable agriculture and hunger eradication

In a recent publication FAO presents the results of the work conducted through its Food and Agriculture Policy Decision Analysis (FAPDA) project since 2007. Trends in policy decisions taken in more than 70 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are analysed over the 2007-2012 period. [read]

22 February 2014 - An FAO report on 10 African countries shows that existing agricultural policies do not give an effective priority to the improvement of food security

Depressed producer prices, incentives to traders and processors, subsidies benefiting mostly to better-off producers, neglected agricultural research: a mix of measures that will certainly not help the poorest farmers to improve their living. [read]

11 February 2014 - Africa commits to eliminate hunger by 2025: will priority be given to a sustainable family agriculture?

Respected voices criticise land grabbing and support a sustainable technology accessible to smallholder producers. But many obstacles will have to be overcome to implement their recommendations. [read]

9 February - US Farm Bill: farm lobby interests preserved, food aid to poor US citizens cut; limited improvement in the US food aid policy abroad.

After a delay of more than two years because of a fight between Democrats and Republicans over cuts to the food stamp programme, President Obama signed the US Farm Bill on Friday 7 February. [read]

7 February 2014 - Negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements between EU and ACP countries : a breakthrough unfavourable to the poorest West African countries

After a virtual deadlock of 10 years, negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States (ACP) have made a breakthrough end January. [read]

2 February 2014 - The world of tomorrow: the worrying vision of the High-Level Panel of eminent persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda

A righteous ‘‘apolitical’’ world, made of individual producers and consumers left to the market, where development is dominated by major pension funds, mutual funds, sovereign wealth funds and large private corporations. Is it too late to prevent this from happening? [read]

31 January  2014 - Developing agriculture in Africa, eradicating hunger and poverty: What can we expect from the African Union Summit?

Ten years after having launched NEPAD, Africa continues to place its top priority on agriculture by chosing to make 2014 the Year of Agriculture and Food Security. But there is still some ambiguity on the type of agriculture Africa is really trying to develop. [read]

18 January 2014 - Meat Atlas: an uncompromising picture of meat in the world, with some reasons for hope

Friends of the Earth Europe and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung publish the "Meat Atlas - Facts and figures about the animal we eat" that presents information that allows to better understand the impact of our meat consumption and to orient our behaviour towards a more responsible consumption. [read]

15 January 2014 - In India, a first ‘‘environmental  referendum’’ saves the Dongria Kondh

The Indian authorities cancel a mining project that threatened the Dongria Kondh tribe in Odisha. [lire]

11 January 2014 - Africa, the future of France?

The voluminous report of the French Senate’s working group on ‘‘the presence of France in coveted Africa’’ made public shortly before the Africa-France summit of December 2013, advocates fundamental changes in the relations between France and Africa. [read]

6 January 2014 - Letting people die from hunger should be recognised as a crime against humanity

Hunger is the result of deliberate decisions taken by governments. Abandoning a population to hunger, neglecting to take the measures required to ensure adequate food to all, must be recognised as a crime against humanity, so that political leaders can be put in front of their responsibilities and forced to act to eliminate hunger. [read]

3 January 2014 - Brazil may approve the use of sterile GMO seeds using the so-called ‘‘terminator’’ technology in February 2014

The expected approval of the use of sterile GMO seeds by Brazil would break the global moratorium on ‘‘terminator’’ technology that dates back to 2000. [read]

Last update:    June 2014

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