Food Justice
RSS FeedSouthern Africa: Food price pressures weigh heavily on the region
2012-01-09, Issue 565
A tight grain supply outlook after several bumper harvests is set to fan food price pressures in southern Africa, fuelling salary demands and threatening to knock the region's fragile economies out of kilter. Erratic rains have delayed the planting o...
South Africa: Western Cape farm workers and dwellers speak out
2012-01-16, Issue 565
The Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU), the Mawubuye Land Rights Forum, the Trust for Community Outreach and Education, and the Democratic Left Front (DLF) launched the Speak-Out Campaign on the 27th of November 2...
Kenya: Cash transfers and coping with poverty
2012-01-16, Issue 565
This report from the Hunger Safety Net Programme Secretariat (HNSP) defines the behavior of HNSP beneficiaries receiving cash transfers in coping with and overcoming the challenges of extreme poverty magnified by shocks of environmental extremities ...
Africa: Carbon markets will be a disaster for Africa
2011-12-08, Issue 562
South African president Jacob Zuma has declared his intention to have a decision on Agriculture at the UN COP17 climate negotiations in Durban last week; while the World Bank is promoting so-called 'Climate Smart Agriculture' and carbon offsets as th...
Africa: Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) launches at COP17
2011-12-12, Issue 562
African farmer and civil society groups in Africa are celebrating the launch of a 'network of African networks', called the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA). They have released a report emphasising that Food Sovereignty can cool the pla...
Kenya: Food security concern as farmers switch from maize to coffee
2011-11-24, Issue 559
The switch by many farmers in Kenya's Rift Valley province from staple cereals to more profitable coffee is likely to increase the country's dependence on grain imports and possibly affect food security, agricultural experts have warned. 'It is unsaf...
Horn of Africa: Understanding the politics of the famine
2011-11-27, Issue 559
While it is known the famine is in the five countries of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan in the Horn of Africa, the epicenter is Southern Somalia. The story of Somalia is not a simple one and cannot be told in the framework of famine a...
Global: The WTO and the food crisis agenda
2011-11-21, Issue 558
This briefing note offers a preliminary assessment of the compatibility between the WTO and efforts to protect the human right to adequate food as part of the post-crisis food security agenda. Existing WTO rules do include certain flexibilities for S...
Global: Clooney coffee ad gets spoofed
2011-11-08, Issue 557
George Clooney gets clobbered in an activist takedown of his advertisements for Nescafe’s Nespresso brand, reports www.afronline.org 'The advertisement – featuring a Clooney lookalike – is aimed at getting Nescafe ...
Malawi: Agriculture running on the smell of an oil rag
2011-10-25, Issue 554
Malawi's fertiliser subsidy scheme, credited for transforming famine-prone Malawi into an exporter of maize, is in danger. The executive director of the Malawi Economic Justice Network, Dalitso Kubalasa, explained the government's woes in précis.'Fue...
Africa: Rumpus over GM food aid
2011-10-18, Issue 553
Genetically modified (GM) food aid bound for Africa has long been a bone of contention among governments, scientists, activists, consumers and aid workers. On 18 August a drought-affected Kenyan government fired the head of its National Biosafety Aut...
Global: 450 economists call on G20 finance ministers to stop speculation fuelling hunger
2011-10-19, Issue 553
More than 450 economists from over 40 countries have called on the G20 finance ministers, who met in Paris recently, to take urgent action to stop financial speculation in commodity markets driving up food prices and fuelling hunger. 'Excessive finan...
Africa: African civil society statement on World Food Day
2011-10-23, Issue 553
'The current food crisis in East Africa is an extreme example of the broken food system. In a world with enough food for everyone, over 13 million people are fighting for their lives. It’s the world’s worst food crisis in many years. Droughts may be ...
Global: Blog action day 2011
2011-10-12, Issue 552
Since 2007, Blog Action Day has focused bloggers around the world to blog about one important global topic on the same day. Past topics have included water, climate change and poverty. This year, Blog Action Day will be held on 16 October, which coin...
Global: Biofuels and speculation driving up food prices
2011-10-12, Issue 552
A new report on global hunger pinpoints factors at the heart of spikes in food prices it says are exacerbating the unfolding food crisis in the Horn of Africa. The Global Hunger Index (GHI) points to climate change, growing demand for biofuels, and i...
Malawi: Farm subsidy programme shrinks
2011-10-13, Issue 552
More than 200,000 Malawian farmers who depend on government subsidies to grow enough food to feed their families will have to go it alone when the agricultural subsidy programme is pruned. During the 2010/11 farming season 1.6 million farmers receive...
Global: Food prices to be even more volatile, UN says
2011-10-10, Issue 551
Food prices are likely to become more volatile in coming years, increasing the risk that more poor people in import-dependent countries will go hungry, the United Nations said in an annual report on food insecurity published on Monday. Global food pr...
Africa: Small farmers in vanguard of agricultural development
2011-09-20, Issue 549
Agriculture, predominantly small scale, accounts for about 30% of sub-Saharan Africa's GDP and at least 40% of export value. Having fallen out of favour in the development debate in the last decade, agriculture these days gets its own G20 summits and...
Africa: Challenges & opportunities for strengthening farmers organisations
Lessons from Ethiopia, Kenya and Malawi
2011-09-21, Issue 549
Farmers’ organisations (FOs) are increasingly being asked to play a central role in driving agricultural transformation processes in Sub-Saharan Africa, despite their mixed record of success. As governments, donors and NGOs rush to promote the scalin...
Global: Climate conversations - micro-irrigation
A new way to beat hunger
2011-09-13, Issue 547
Fearing a repeat of hunger riots around the world in 2007-2008, international policymakers are putting agriculture high on the agenda. The G20 agriculture meeting in Paris in June issued an action plan aimed at increasing global agricultural producti...
Africa: How rising global food prices could affect Africa
2011-09-13, Issue 547
Africa Monitor reports (includes video) that higher global food prices are likely to spell trouble for aid organisations working to relieve famine in the Horn of Africa. Food prices are on the rise again, according to a new report issued last week by...
Africa: Famine in Africa
Can reforestation improve food security?
2011-09-14, Issue 547
Deforestation worsens famine in Africa, but drylands restoration could help. Millions of people across the Horn of Africa are suffering under a crippling regional drought and tens of thousands have died during the accompanying famine. The best hope i...
Africa: Helping Africa to feed itself
2011-09-15, Issue 547
Understandable concern exists over the state of hunger in Africa: almost one third of the population are estimated to be hungry, while more than a quarter of infants are underweight in the countries to the south of the Sahara. Moreover, parts of Afri...
Africa: Seed policies will boost food security in West Africa
2011-08-29, Issue 546
Institutions such as United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and pan-African rice research organisation AfricaRice are promoting the adoption of national seed policies that will support sustainable growth and development of the seed s...
Africa: IFAD president says Africa needs tools to feed its population
2011-08-30, Issue 546
Africa will conquer hunger when its governments give the citizens tools and resources they need to feed themselves, Kanayo F. Nwanze, president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said on the eve of an international confere...
Mozambique: Food security outlook
2011-09-01, Issue 546
Although the 2010/11 agriculture season was affected by a number of shocks including localized floods during the first half of the season and midseason long dry spells, national staple food availability is estimated to have increased, as indicated by...
Kenya: The role of the U.S. in Kenya's embrace of GM crops
2011-09-05, Issue 546
Kenya has finally joined a growing number of countries in the world which have allowed the importation, growing and commercialisation of genetically modified organisms. The National Biosafety Authority (NBA) gazetted the final regulations that allow ...
Global: World Bank sounds alert on food prices
2011-08-17, Issue 545
The price of maize in the Horn of Africa has doubled over the last year, the World Bank has said. In Kenya, it has increased by 89 per cent, according to the bank’s Food Price Watch report. This is the fourth highest increase in the price of maize in...
Africa: Food security in East Africa gets research boost
2011-08-18, Issue 545
A consortium of East African institutes is researching new seed varieties better suited to dry areas to combat the effects of climate change in the region. The partnership, comprising seven universities and institutes in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, a...
Africa: How would an investor export maize or rice from a famine-hit country?
2011-08-10, Issue 544
The drought and famine in East Africa is already throwing up some uncomfortable questions for the model of large scale agro-investment in a poor country for export, says this article on www.farmlandgrab.org 'How...
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