Hunger // Current TV

Leading scientist says agroecology is the only way to feed the world

Hans Herren, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized scientist specializing in sustainable agriculture. He is president of the Millennium Institute, a non-profit development research and service organization dedicated to sustainable development. Dr. Herren co-chaired the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science & Technology (IAASTD), an initiative sponsored by the World Bank and United Nations in partnership with the World Health Organization that assessed global agriculture and recommended agroecological solutions to world hunger.

Dr. Herren has earned numerous awards that recognize his research achievements. These include the 2002 Brandenberger Preis for improving the living standards of Africa's rural population, the 2003 Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, and the 1995 World Food Prize for his work developing a successful biological control program that saved the African cassava crop, and averted Africa’s worst-ever food crisis.

Dr. Herren’s work in agroecology in Africa has been credited with saving millions of lives by enabling African people to produce the food they need. He developed the “push-pull” system that uses simple but powerful bio-control strategies to effectively manage corn pests, resulting in large increases in yields.

There is much discussion today about the need to “feed the world” because of the growing global population. What do you think needs to be done in order to ensure there is adequate food for everyone in the world?

HH: The issue is less on how to feed the world than how to nourish the poor and hungry. Today we produce 4600 calories per person per day, so there is enough food to feed twice the present population. The problem is that we produce mostly cheap commodities rather than quality food. These cheap products, in addition to being of low nutritional value, are based on a few crops that carry a large ecological, social, and economic footprint. What is needed is to support farmers in developing countries to grow their own healthy food by providing information, know-how, financial support for inputs, and support for them to access markets, among others.

Food security is achieved when availability, access, stability, and utilization are assured equally for all. There is also a need for new and participatory research into sustainable agricultural practices, based on the principles of agroecology and organic farming, which would free farmers from dependence on external inputs such as chemical pesticides and fertilizers.

Some agricultural “experts” are calling for another Green Revolution. What are your thoughts on this?

HH: What we need least is another Green Revolution. What is needed now is to move forward with the lessons learned from the Green Revolution, taking forward what has worked and leave behind most of it, since the Green Revolution has left agriculture dependent on external inputs that are non-sustainable and becoming more and more expensive since they are based on oil, a finite resource, and also synthetic fertilizers, also based on finite natural resources.

The way forward is to understand and work with the system in a holistic and integrated manner. Silver bullets, reductionism as often promoted by the agri-chemical industry are not solutions.

More at the linkHans Herren, Ph.D. is an internationally recognized scientist specializing in... more

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Monsanto's drought resistant BT corn is a FAILURE- no more effective than non GMO

Failed "Drought Tolerant" GMO Corn Won't Help Farmers! The US... more

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Voice in the Wilderness: US Governmen

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Rep. Jan Schakowsky: House Republicans stole your Christmas

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Richard Corrigan On Hunger

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I Got Mine, So F*ck You

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Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation sponsors Community Kitchen Drive for hungry

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Yoko Marks 'Imagine' Anniversary with Fight Against Hunger (VIDEO)

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Crop scientists now concerned about heat not just water

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Why the food movement should Occupy Wall Street

I went to the Occupy Wall Street march last week, as part of the NYC food justice delegation. We carried baskets of farmers’ market vegetables and signs reading “Stop Gambling on Hunger” and “Food Not Bonds.” Food justice advocates came out from around the city—urban farmers, gardeners, youth, professors, union members, and community organizers. The vegetables attracted a lot of attention. Food so often attracts a lot of attention—the New York Times is just one of the outlets to focus in recent days on the makeshift kitchen at Zuccotti Park. What was more surprising were all of the puzzled looks we got from the bloggers, photographers, and other marchers who wanted to talk to us. “What’s the connection here with food?” we were asked many times.

The connection of the protests with food, of course, runs from the local to the global, the specific to the ephemeral. Food justice advocates are connecting with Occupy sites all around the country to donate fresh, healthy, local food or to help find kitchen space. On a broader philosophical level, as Mark Bittman writes in the Times, “Whether we’re talking about food, politics, healthcare, housing, the environment, or banking, the big question remains the same: How do we bring about fundamental change?” But there are also clear and specific reasons that all of us working for a just and fair food system, as the food movement should make the connection between our work and Occupy Wall Street explicit and strong.

In the U.S. today, the richest one percent hold 40 percent of the wealth, while almost one in five Americans is on food stamps. Rampant Wall Street speculation on commodities is driving up food costs, small farmers are being driven off their land, and agribusiness holds monopoly control of our seeds and stores. In this climate, the struggle against massive wealth disparities, unregulated financial institutions, and excessive corporate power is our struggle as well. Two points in the Declaration of the Occupation of New York City address the food system. While barely scratching the surface of the potential connections, the protesters have provided an important opening for the food movement. Will we seize it?

Speculation Drives up Food Costs

At the most obvious level, as the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy recently wrote, “Wall Street deregulation has not only made the stock market extremely volatile, it has increased prices and price volatility in agricultural markets.” That is, the relationship between government and Wall Street firms has turned food into commodity like any other, subject to the whims of the market. For decades, only people directly involved in agriculture (e.g., farmers) could freely participate in trade of futures of agricultural commodities (e.g., corn, soy, wheat). Outside speculators were allowed into these markets but with strictly enforced limits to how much they could buy. Futures trading served a practical purpose, giving farmers a guaranteed price for future harvests, and prices stayed relatively stable and reasonable for both buyers and sellers.

But in 2000, a wave of industry-backed deregulation raised and then removed these limits on speculation, which opened commodity markets to a flood of new players—these later included funds controlled by some of the biggest Wall Street firms looking for new investment opportunities after the housing bubble burst. Flooded with new investments unconnected to any direct stake in crop prices, in 2008, the commodity markets exploded, driving up grain prices worldwide. The grain price spikes were catastrophic for millions of people worldwide. Farmers, who sometimes benefit from high grain prices, mostly were no better off, because similarly skyrocketing energy prices also drove up prices of agricultural inputs.

In 2008 and 2009, the UN estimated that an additional 130 million people were driven into hunger by the food price bubble. Spontaneous food riots broke out in dozens of countries where chronic hunger is a reality. Today’s Wall Street protests are not unconnected to those; the effects of food and energy speculation continue in 2011. A study in June by University of Massachusetts Amherst professor Robert Pollin estimates that U.S. gasoline prices are $0.83 higher per gallon due to Wall Street speculation. The CEO of ExxonMobil said he estimates prices are $1.20 to $1.40 higher per gallon. And food commodity prices are as high, or higher, than they were in 2008—while 46 million Americans are now living below the poverty line, struggling with basic expenses like food.

A New Colonialism

Wall Street firms aren’t just gambling on food prices, they have begun speculating on land as well. Alerted to the potential market in agriculture, investors are buying up huge parcels of farmland all over the world, displacing the occupants, and converting subsistence production to cash crops—or, worse, simply leaving the land fallow and waiting for its value to increase. According to international NGO GRAIN, which first reported on this trend in 2008, more than 50 million hectares of land has been transferred from farmers to corporations since 2009. “Land grabs” have affected tens of thousands of people around the world who have been driven off their land–often violently–with little or no compensation, given no say in the process, and left with no recourse. For most of them, land is their livelihood; without it, the future is bleak.

More at the linkI went to the Occupy Wall Street march last week, as part of the NYC food justice... more

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Worst Cambodian flood in a decade kills 167

Cambodia's worst floods in over a decade have killed 167 people, a disaster... more

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The Wheel Of Life: New report links food, climate and agricultural policies

Understanding of the ‘problem’ of agriculture took a giant step forward in 2007 with publication of the UN IAASTD report. This report, which was as important for agriculture as the IPCC reports have been for the climate, pinpointed a move to ecology-based agriculture as the key to meeting many other fundamental needs such as clean water, safe food and sustainability. What the IAASTD didn’t do, at least directly however, was to focus on politics, especially the obstacles to progress in improving agriculture.

A new report, The Wheel of Life: Food, Climate, Human Rights and the Economy (Sept. 2011), released by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Foundation, usefully complements this deficit. It does this in part by drawing attention explicitly to some common myths on which support for conventional production-oriented solutions for agriculture are based. Among these myths are that hugely enhanced food production will be required in the future, that biotech (GMO) seeds are needed to solve hunger and mitigate climate change, and that traditional agriculture is wasteful and inefficient.

The Wheel then examines how major current crises—hunger, climate change, and ecological degradation—are deeply interlinked. Despite the evident linkages, however, government and international institutions typically address these issues as if they were disconnected from one another. Thus the IPCC, for example, still has not adequately considered agriculture as a contributor to climate change. The consequence of this disconnect, The Wheel of Life points out, is that many policies do not tackle root causes and therefore negative global trends have tended to intensify.

Confronting global hunger is one example identified in the report. Leaders on each end of the political spectrum uniformly assert that economic growth is needed to address hunger and poverty. Yet economic growth is typically conducted via industrial activities that contribute to climate change, which in turn, negatively impacts the ability to grow food.

Similarly, in addition to their effects on climate change, economic and trade policies can spur growth for a few while undermining the ability of small-scale farmers and rural communities to provide food for local populations. The Wheel of Life suggests these complex interactions help explain why, even though economic growth indicators have risen in many countries over the last decade, hunger rates have increased too, especially within the last several years.

To successfully remedy social injustices, climate change, and agriculture, The Wheel of Life argues that political action is needed that incorporates social and ecological needs. And it notes that while governments dither on climate change and agricultural reform, agribusiness is already positioning its products as the preferred solutions. The strategy proposed by The Wheel of Life is to incorporate civil society input into political and economic discussions. Some countries, such as Germany, already have productive dialogues with civil society, but in the US and Britain, for example, interactions are negligible. To encourage cooperation the report also provides a list of civil society organisations with compatible aims in the areas of climate change, agriculture, environment, human rights, women’s rights, and migration.

The Wheel concludes that lasting solutions to hunger and other major crises of our day must, above all, be guided by fundamentals of ecology.

“Policies and practices must begin with the ecological imperative in order to ensure authentic security and stability on all fronts-food, water, livelihoods and jobs, climate, energy, and economic,” writes report author Debbie Barker, international director at the Center for Food Safety. “In turn this engenders equity, social justice, and diverse cultures.”
---Understanding of the ‘problem’ of agriculture took a giant step forward in... more

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Pakistan: Millions affected by extreme rains and flooding

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- The United Nations appealed for $357 million for flood-ravaged southern Pakistan.

An estimated 5.4 million people have been affected by the floods stemming from heavy monsoon rains. Nearly 1 million homes have been destroyed and 72 percent of crops lost in the worst affected areas in Sindh and Balochistan.

In launching its Rapid Response Plan on Sunday, the United Nations says it aims to provide food, water, sanitation, health and emergency shelter to those worst hit for six months.

The United Nations and its humanitarian partners have distributed more than 20,000 shelters and 530,000 plastic sheets and more than 650,000 people have received medicine and medical care.

The United Nations says it aims to provide access to safe drinking water for 400,000 people in the coming days and it expects 500,000 people will receive food aid by the end of the month.

"More than 5 million people are struggling to survive massive flooding across southern Pakistan and the rains continue to fall," Valerie Amos, undersecretary-general for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said in a statement.

"They have lost their homes, their possessions and their livelihoods. The next few days will be crucial, as the U.N. and partners help the government to get food, safe water and shelter to the most vulnerable. One year after the largest floods in recent history, the people of Pakistan are in desperate need again. We cannot let them down."

Pakistan's floods last year directly affected about 20 million people with a death toll of nearly 2,000. In that disaster, about one-fifth of Pakistan's total land area -- more than 307,000 square miles -- was underwater.

The amount of rainfall hitting the otherwise arid region this monsoon season was close to what it normally gets in five years, said Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, climate affairs adviser and vice president of the World Meteorological Organization, Asia Region.

"If we look at the frequency and the trend of the extreme weather events happening in Pakistan during the last two decades, it is easy to find its connection with climate change," Chaudhry told Pakistan's The News International.

In Sindh the rainfall is 270 percent and 1,170 percent above average for monsoon rains, respectively, for August and September, he said.

Chaudhry said that due to climate change, Pakistan could expect an increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events and more erratic monsoon rains, causing more frequent flooding and droughts.ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- The United Nations appealed for $357 million... more

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Will genetic engineering divert us from essential food production science?

Climate change, increasing population, greater demand for animal products, and the un-sustainability of current food production: All will challenge our ability to produce enough food in coming decades. Already there is evidence that climate change has reduced crop yields.

But the good news is that we already have many of the tools that we need to respond.

Tom Philpott at Mother Jones highlights a peer-reviewed article showing that small Mexican maize farmers have an important piece of the answer to these challenges.

The article suggests that there is a lot of genetic diversity in corn grown on traditional small Mexican farms that will allow food production there to adapt to climate change. Genetic diversity provides the building blocks of crop adaptability—the inherited differences between plants that is evolution’s way of allowing survival in changing environments.

The value of crop genetic diversity goes way beyond Mexican maize fields. Other scientists have documented large amounts of untapped genetic diversity in the world’s major crops wherever they have looked, such as in wheat and cassava. Breeders can use this, along with diversity found in wild species related to crops, to adapt our crops to climate change and to increase productivity.

When coupled with ecological farming principles that increase resilience in the face of drought, flood and rising temperatures, breeding can go a long way toward providing enough food sustainably by mid-century. For example, organic and similar practices build soil organic matter–this allows soil to hold more water which can help during drought. And breeding is already having success in developing drought tolerant rice, corn, and other crops, flood tolerant rice, many types of pest resistance, improved nutrient content, and much more.

Engineered Omissions

Given all the evidence, it is perplexing that some scientists still want to put too many of our eggs in the genetic engineering (GE) basket. Currently, that basket looks pretty empty, with only a few crops resistant to herbicides and a few types of pests.

For example, Nina Federoff seems unaware of the potential of breeding, and the advances already being achieved through these scientifically sophisticated methods. In an op-ed in the New York Times, “Engineering Food for All” the former Bush-appointed Science Adviser to the Secretary of State lauds the wonders of crop genetic engineering, while tagging breeding as an “older” method that is “less capable”.

In a more blunt assessment during a public forum that I participated in at Dartmouth College several months ago, Federoff declared that crop breeding had run its course, and implied that GE was now our last best hope. She could not have been more wrong. The only way one can come to such conclusions is by omitting or overlooking loads of important science.

Most of the benefits from GE extolled in the op-ed are modest at best. They only seem impressive if you don’t compare them to the successes and potential of agroecology, agronomy, or breeding—which continue to achieve far more than GE. When looked at side-by-side, GE often pales by comparison to breeding.

more at the link.Climate change, increasing population, greater demand for animal products, and the... more

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With no end to drought in sight, "every farmer will feel the effects of climate change"

The driest 10-month period on record for Texas has devastated the state and its crops. The National Weather Service warned Monday:

THERE IS LITTLE TO SUGGEST ANY END TO THE DROUGHT

Every state — along with much of Asia — has been hit by record temperatures this summer. And thanks in large part to extreme weather around the globe, food prices are stuck at record levels, causing hardship for tens of millions:

Dr. Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas A&M University, emailed TP Green, that while Gov. Perry may deny climate science:

There are dozens of credible atmospheric scientists in Texas at institutions like Rice, UT, and Texas A&M, and I can confidently say that none agree with Gov. Perry’s views on the science of climate change. This is a particularly unfortunate situation given the hellish drought that Texas is now experiencing, and which climate change is almost certainly making worse.

Global warming is certainly making the drought hotter, which creates a vicious cycle, since the higher temps dry out the earth, but the drier it gets, the hotter its gets, as the NWS explains below.

Yet, the dots aren’t being connected for the public by and large. “In Coverage of Extreme Weather, Media Downplay Climate Change” as a Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting analysis recently concluded.

Indeed, I just saw NBC Evening News tonight, which explained that we are seeing record food prices and that extreme weather is a major contributor, but had no mention whatsoever of climate change.

The dividing line between good climate reporting and bad climate reporting is almost always whether the reporter talked to real climate scientists. Typically, the more a reporter talks to, the better the story.

That’s a key reason why ABC News has been one of the few major media outlets to explain the connection between extreme weather and global warming (see links below). And they did so last night. Indeed, they went beyond the connection between global warming and extreme weather to the key climate impact on crops and food prices:

Great quote by climatologist Heidi Cullen, “When you crank up the heat, when you globally warm the planet, you’re going to see more extreme events.”

Governor Rick Perry, who failed to stop the drought with his prayer proclamation, yesterday dismissed any worries about the impact of the drought on Texas, saying “we’ll be fine. As my dad says, it’ll rain. It always does.“ He is not only unaware of the recent climate studies warning of permanent drought in the region (see literature here), but also the stunning warning from National Weather Service that there is no end in sight to the drought:

More at the link.The driest 10-month period on record for Texas has devastated the state and its crops.... more

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Why is George Soros selling gold and buying farmland?

Food prices are skyrocketing all across the globe, and there's no end in sight. The United Nations says food inflation is currently at 30% a year, and the fast-eroding value of the dollar is causing food prices to appear even higher (in contrast to a weakening currency). As the dollar drops in value due to runaway money printing at the Federal Reserve, the cost to import foods from other nations looks to double in just the next two years -- and possibly every two years thereafter.

That's probably why investors around the globe are flocking to farmland as the new growth industry. "Investors are pouring into farmland in the U.S. and parts of Europe, Latin America and Africa as global food prices soar," reports Bloomberg magazine (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...). "A fund controlled by George Soros, the billionaire hedge-fund manager, owns 23.4 percent of South American farmland venture Adecoagro SA."

Jim Rogers is also quoted in the same story, saying, "I have frequently told people that one of the best investments in the world will be farmland."

That's because demand for food is accelerating even as radical climate changes, a loss of fossil water supplies, and the failure of genetically engineered crops is actually reducing food yields around the globe. Ceres Partners, which invests in farmland, has produced astonishing 16 percent annual returns since its launch in 2008. And this is during a depressed economy when most other industries are showing losses.

Why growing and storing your own food can be a goldmine
All this means we can count on three things happening in the years ahead:

Prediction #1) Food supplies will become more scarce.

Prediction #2) Food prices will double over the next 2-3 years, and then probably double again in another 2-3 years.

Prediction #3) When food prices are 400% of today's levels, backyard farming or gardening pays off big in terms of real dollar savings.

In other words, as food prices skyrocket, it becomes increasingly more financially viable to grow your own food (or store it now while prices are low). I'm listing some resources below where you can learn more about growing your own food or storing high-density superfoods right now, but in the mean time, I'd like you to start considering the idea of starting your own garden in the spring.

You can't grow gold. You can't print your own currency (unless you're the Fed). But you CAN grow something more valuable than gold and money: Food!

Learn more:
http://www.naturalnews.com/033319_food_prices_farmland.html#ixzz1VJJLuwL0Food prices are skyrocketing all across the globe, and there's no end in sight.... more

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Somali refugees fight cholera and measles as hunger spreads

Outbreaks of measles and cholera are striking down Somali children already weakened by hunger, resulting in dozens of new fatalities. News of the fast-spreading diseases has caused alarm among aid workers, who are struggling to deal with the humanitarian crisis brought on by the severe drought and conflict in Somalia.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled into overflowing refugee camps in recent months in search of food and sanctuary, but many more remain in rebel-held famine zones where aid agencies have only limited access.

The World Health Organisation said on Friday that Somalia was experiencing a cholera epidemic. Linked to dirty water, poor sanitation and crowded settlements, the intestinal infection causes dehydration and is often fatal.

In just one hospital in Mogadishu, there have been 4,272 recorded cases of acute watery diarrhoea, a key indicator of the risk of cholera, causing 181 deaths. Most of those who have died were aged under five. Laboratory tests conducted on a sample of the cases this week suggested 60% of the infections were cholera.

While Somalia has experienced seasonal cholera outbreaks in recent years, this one is much worse. "The number of cases is two or even three times what was there last year," Dr Michel Yao, WHO's public health adviser, said in Geneva on Friday. "So we can say that we have an epidemic of cholera going on."

Yao said that the risk of the disease spreading was high since people were still moving around in search of food aid. At least 100,000 Somalis have fled to Mogadishu from the countryside in the last two months. An even greater number have travelled to sprawling drought-affected refugee camps in Kenya and Ethiopia. In Kenya's Dadaab settlement, about 1,400 Somalis arrive every day, pushing the number of recorded refugees past 400,000. A further 38,000 people still await registration.
snip
Famine conditions exist in two large regions of Somalia, as well as three smaller areas, including parts of Mogadishu where there are large concentrations of displaced people. Other regions of southern Somalia are expected to be declared famine zones in the next month or two.

The aid effort in Mogadishu was eased slightly last week when most of the al-Shabab militias withdrew following an offensive by African Union troops and pro-government forces. The Islamists claimed that the move was strategic, and said their fighters would adopt guerrilla tactics from now on rather than trying to hold ground in Mogadishu against the better-equipped AU peacekeepers.

But the rebels have been rocked by divisions due to their handling of the food crisis. Some of the hardline leaders, who come from the north of Somalia, have denied there is a famine in the south and refused to lift a ban on organisations such as the World Food Programme, the agency best equipped to manage a hunger emergency. This has angered local al-Shabab leaders, who want the people to receive help, even if it comes from the west. Interviews with refugees suggest that the rebels' restrictions on aid, as well as their policy of taking food and animals as "taxes", has eroded whatever support they may once have enjoyed.

Despite the withdrawal from Mogadishu, the Islamists still control much of southern Somalia, including the main famine zones.Outbreaks of measles and cholera are striking down Somali children already weakened by... more

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Expert: GMOs to blame for problems in plants and animals

One of the experts set to testify at Wednesday’s long-awaited meeting about the... more

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WWH News Briefs

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