Pambazuka News is produced by a pan-African community of some 2,600 citizens and organisations - academics, policy makers, social activists, women's organisations, civil society organisations, writers, artists, poets, bloggers, and commentators who together produce insightful, sharp and thoughtful analyses and make it one of the largest and most innovative and influential web forums for social justice in Africa. 
food
Patent grab threatens biodiversity and food sovereignty in Africa
Hope Shand
2010-11-11, Issue 504
cc Peter Blanchard‘Under the guise of developing "climate-ready" crops, the world’s largest seed and agrochemical corporations are pressuring governments to allow what could become the broadest and most dangerous patent claims in intellectual property history.’ Hope Shand unpacks the findings of ETC Group’s new report into patent claims on ‘genes, plants and technologies that will supposedly allow biotech crops to tolerate drought and other environmental stresses'.
The new biomassters and their assault on livelihoods
Jim Thomas
2010-10-07, Issue 499
© S 1Watch out for the new biomass economy driven by large biotech, chemical, forestry and agribusiness companies, says Jim Thomas. The new biomassters are on a global looting spree of the world’s natural resources to feed the consumption and capital accumulation of the industrialised North.
Land grabs: Another scramble for Africa
Ama Biney
2009-09-17, Issue 448
cc JamsAma Biney writes for Pambazuka News on the rush to acquire land in Africa by foreign governments and private investors, fuelled by fears for global food security in the face of climate change and volatile food prices on the international market. Warning that the ‘political and economic risks of these land purchases are colossal and outweigh any gains,’ Biney argues that ‘African governments must make food security and sufficiency for their own people paramount.’
Food sovereignty: A new model for a human right
Vía Campesina and Friends of the Earth International
2009-05-14, Issue 432
cc OxfamFollowing UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Olivier De Schutter's comments at the 17th session of the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD), Vía Campesina and Friends of the Earth International give their response to the special rapporteur's comments. While highlighting the recommendations and broad understanding that they share with De Schutter, the authors' statement emphasises the centrality of 'food sovereignty', namely, the right of different communities and peoples to control their own territories. This the authors contend is a process that goes beyond producers' mere 'participation' in high-level decision-making; it is one which actively positions farmers and peasants at the centre of agricultural production and control.
Food shortages: stories of strife across the globe
Azad Essa
2008-08-05, Issue 392
The current food crisis has been heralded as the worst since the 1970s. Ordinary people, from South Africa to Egypt, India to Turkey, have been forced to make severe adjustments to their lives to deal with food hikes that continue to rise exponential...
Somalia: Time to pay attention
Frankie Martin
2008-08-05, Issue 392
While the world looks elsewhere, Somalia is in flames. The nation just topped a list of the world’s most unstable countries by Foreign Policy magazine, and the United Nations has declared the humanitarian situation there “worse than Darfur.”...
The principles of food sovereignty
Yash Tandon
2008-06-18, Issue 383
A proper analysis of the food crisis is a matter that cannot be left with trade negotiators, investment experts, or agricultural engineers, writes Yash Tandon. It is essentially a matter of political economy. A crisis for some is an opportunity for others. Any analysis of the present food crisis carries with it its own prescription, and these prescriptions have the potential to bring benefits for some and losses for others.
FAO’s Food Crisis Summit versus the People’s State of Emergency
Eric Holt-Gimenez
2008-06-18, Issue 383
Eric Holt-Gimenez looks at the FAO Food Security Summit in contrast to the parallel “Terra Preta” meeting organized by social movements, Indigenous Peoples’ organizations and civil society organizations to discuss issues of food sovereignty.
The food crisis and the failure of capitalism
Ian Angus
2008-05-15, Issue 371
Ian Angus looks at the various forces behind the food crisis in Haiti. During previous waves of food price inflation the poor often had at least some access to food they grew themselves, or to food that was grown locally and available at locally set prices. Today, in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, that is just not possible. Global markets now determine local prices, and often the only food available must be imported from far away. Food is not just another commodity, he argues. It is absolutely essential for human survival. The very least that humanity should expect from any government or social system is that it tries to prevent starvation, and above all that it does not promote policies that deny food to hungry people.
AGRA, bio-piracy and food as social justice
Mariam Mayet speaks to Pambazuka News
Mariam Mayet
2008-04-10, Issue 361
In this wide ranging Pambazuka News interview, Mariam Mayet, the director of the African Center Biosafety speaks about biopiracy, which she calls "the last frontier", the Alliance for a Green Revolution and its impact on Africa, and food and agriculture as social justice justice.
AGRA and African knowledge systems
Regassa Feyissa speaks to Pambazuka News
Regassa Feyissa
2008-04-10, Issue 361
Regassa Feyissa in this interview talks about AGRA, the fallacy of food aid, knowledge systems in relation to traditional versus scientific and the need to create alternatives to AGRA
How healthy is AGRA for Africa?
Carol Thompson
2008-04-10, Issue 361
Carol B. Thompson argues that the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa will undermine nutrition, destroy indigenous seed varieties and knowledge systems and create dependency on patented seeds. She calls for a debate so that all the stakeholders can be involved in the future of food production in Africa