World Economy // Current TV

The United Nations Wants To Crash The World Economy In Order To Save The Environment

The United Nations says that the earth is in great danger and that the way you and I... more

Revelation1217
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9 days ago
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Steve Keen: Economic Progress one Funeral at a Time? (Parts 1 and 2)

Many modern economists missed the financial crisis and the economic problems... more

KB723
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3 months ago
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6 comments

Turmoil at the Tea Party!

There is turmoil in the Tea Party today. Rumors are swirling that the Republicans and... more

ParkyBill
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7 months ago
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4 comments

Warning of Ivory Coast humanitarian crisis

While the rest of the world looks away.

JanforGore
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11 months ago
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Egypt turmoil triggers oil price hike

The ongoing political turbulence in Egypt has already shown its effect on the global... more

Alstom
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1 year ago
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Egyptian protesters plan march to Mubarak's doorstep

In the fight to save his embattled regime from a popular revolt, U.S.-allied president... more

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1 year ago
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The Saudi Arabian Prince of Evil is our Best Friend

Almost named, "The Wahhabi Conspiracy," this post will blow you away.... more

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1 year ago
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Denver Federal Reserve Branch Refuses to comment on charge of money printing "under the table"

Worldwide economic dislocation could result

richrblake
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1 year ago
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China Overtakes Japan as No.2 Economy

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=11285566 With the help of a rapidly... more

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1 year ago
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Lobbies trying to force GMOs on Europe

It is necessary today to evalutate the technological choices resulting from research,... more

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1 year ago
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Millions face starvation as Niger prays in vain for rain

To the north of Niger, the creeping Sahara; to the south, oil rich and agriculturally... more

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1 year ago
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Right to Food: “Agroecology outperforms large-scale industrial farming for global food security,” says UN expert

“Governments and international agencies urgently need to boost ecological farming techniques to increase food production and save the climate,” said UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter, while presenting the findings at an international meeting on agroecology held in Brussels on 21 and 22 June.

Along with 25 of the world’s most renowned experts on agroecology, the UN expert urged the international community to re-think current agricultural policies and build on the potential of agroecology.

“One year ago, Heads of States at the G20 gathering in Italy committed to mobilizing $22 billion over a period of three years to improve global food security. This was welcome news, but the most pressing issue regarding reinvestment in agriculture is not how much, but how,” Olivier De Schutter said .

“Today, most efforts are made towards large-scale investments in land – including many instances of land grabbing – and towards a ‘Green Revolution’ model to boost food production: improved seeds, chemical fertilisers and machines,” the Special Rapporteur remarked. “But scant attention has been paid to agroecological methods that have been shown to improve food production and farmers’ incomes, while at the same time protecting the soil, water, and climate.”

The widest study ever conducted on agroecological approaches (Jules Pretty, Essex University, UK) covered 286 projects in 57 developing countries, representing a total surface of 37 million hectares: the average crop yield gain was 79%. Concrete examples of ‘agroecological success stories’ abound in Africa.

In Tanzania, the Western provinces of Shinyanga and Tabora used to be known as the ‘Desert of Tanzania’. However, the use of agroforestry techniques and participatory processes allowed some 350,000 hectares of land to be rehabilitated in two decades. Profits per household rose by as much as USD 500 a year. Similar techniques are used in Malawi, where some 100,000 smallholders in 2005 benefited to some degree from the use of fertilizer trees.
“With more than a billion hungry people on the planet, and the climate disruptions ahead of us, we must rapidly scale up these sustainable techniques,” De Schutter said. “Even if it makes the task more complex, we have to find a way of addressing global hunger, climate change, and the depletion of natural resources, all at the same time. Anything short of this would be an exercise in futility.”

The experts gathering in Brussels identified the policies that could develop agroecological approaches to the scale needed to feed the world in 2050. They based their work on the experiences of countries that have pro-agroecology policies – such as Cuba or Brazil – as well as on the successful experiences from international research centres such as the World Agroforestry Center in Nairobi, and on the programmes of La Via Campesina, the transnational peasant movement, which runs agroecology training programmes.

cont.“Governments and international agencies urgently need to boost ecological... more

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Monsanto's GMO stealth attack faces rising opposition in South Africa

Nombulelo Siqwana-Ndulo (PhD) FoodFirst, April 15 2010... more

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1 year ago
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Raul Castro Admits Massive Inefficiency

Today, the shocking statistics admitted by the Cuban government revealed that there are over 1 million workers in Cuba that are employed by the state that are unproductive. This out of a workforce of 4.9 million people in a country of just 11 million.

This helps explain the disastrous state of the Cuban economy which suffers from excessive centralization and inefficiency of the state controlled economy. According to various economists in the island, the situation has become so bleak that the Cuban government is currently importing over 60% of its food (in fact closer to 80%).

Currently the vast majority of formal workers are employed by the state, accounting for approximately 95% of the formal workforce, although wages are so low, around $20 a month, that many have to resort to side jobs in the illegal black market.

"This is why under-empolyment and low salaries are such a big problem in Cuba" said Archibald Ritter, professor of the University of Carleton in Ottawa, who specializes in the Cuban economy.

"It is not only that, but when the government closed down over 70 Sugar mills across the country in 2002, it continued to pay 100,000 of its unemployed workers while they looked for other jobs", said Jesús Marzo Fernández, Cuban economist now residing in Miami.

Jorge Sanguinetty, ex president of the Association for the Study of the Cuban Economy, offers a different reason for the high inefficiency of the Cuban state controlled economy:

"[Fidel] Castro has always wanted to have the people working so that he can have them under control" said Sanguinetty. "He does not want the people in the streets, so they sacrifice economic efficiency for political efficiency."

But now this tactic has come back to haunt the Cuban government which is being faced with a collapsing inefficient economy, massive debt, and an enormous trade imbalance.

Raul Castro himself admitted, "To continue spending what we do not have is to destroy our future and to put in danger the revolution we have tried to create these last 50 years."

The question is: Will they risk losing control of the situation by making the necessary cuts in spending which may result in massive unemployment? Either way the Cuban government is in a bind.

Although we may already know the answer in that the government already said that: "All will remain in their posts, but those that can be moved, will be moved to more efficient sectors of the economy and put to work there" according to official newspaper Trabajadores (Workers). It also added that, "Cuba will never resort to the easy and inhumane formulas of capitalism and neoliberalism, based on massive layoffs to increase efficiency."

I think we have our answer right there.Today, the shocking statistics admitted by the Cuban government revealed that there... more