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Top African Policymakers Address Agricultural Policies Needed to End Hunger, Achie...
Meeting Convened by AGRA Focuses on Policies for an African Green Revolution.
As the world grapples with the food crisis, senior policy makers in Africa are developing appropriate policies to achieve a Green Revolution that will rapidly raise agricultural productivity for small-scale farmers in Africa. More than 90 senior policy makers and leaders from the private sector, academia, civil society and farmers organizations convened early this week to identify priority policies and institutions needed to achieve a uniquely African Green Revolution. Representatives from 15 African countries, as well as others from Europe, the United States and Asia, participated in the two-day meeting convened by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a partnership-based organization dedicated to improving the lives and livelihoods of Africa's small-scale farmers... Bill Gates and Kofi Annan involved...
Meeting Convened by AGRA Focuses on Policies for an African Green Revolution. ... more -
Food prices create $6bn deficit every year
The head of the World Bank says poor countries will need some $6 billion in food aid every year because of rising food prices.
Robert Zoellick says he expects food prices to stay above 2004 levels at least through 2012. He says energy prices also will remain high and volatile.
Zoellick says the World Food Program, which feeds the world's hungry, requires $6 billion. But this year an additional $3.5 billion is needed for short-term safety net projects in 50 countries. The head of the World Bank says poor countries will need some $6 billion in food aid every year because of rising food prices. ... more -
The Price of Hunger | American News Project
Hunger is a growing crisis in America. With a stagnant economy and rising fuel prices the cost of food is soaring. Congress is reacting, but will their efforts be enough? ANP spends a week with Brian Duss who agrees to take the Food Stamp Challenge and live off a dollar per meal for 7 days. Hunger is a growing crisis in America. With a stagnant economy and rising fuel prices the cost of food is soaring. Congress is reactin... more
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Family fight will that leaves $50m to children of Panama
It was a gift of historic kindness to the poor children of Panama left by an eccentric American millionaire not previously known for his tenderness towards the young. Nor was Wilson Lucom famous for naivety. So perhaps he should have guessed that the sequel to his death would be a probate battle for the ages.
In theory, the will and testament of Mr Lucom, a former American diplomat who became thoroughly rich through successive marriages, contained the biggest charitable donation ever seen in the country of Panama. He had directed that tens of millions of dollars be spent combating child malnutrition.
But two years after his passing at the age of 88, not a dime of the money has yet gone to the youngsters. Instead, the entire fortune has become locked in a legal tug-of-war that has reached courts in Panama as well as in the United States and the islands of St Kitts and Nevis.
Mr Lucom's mistake may have been to have acted so out of character. Or at least that is how it seemed. While he might have been expected to have left the bulk of his money to his third wife, Hilda, and her grown-up children, he did not. With them he was entirely stingy.
It should be said that Hilda is the matriarch of a clan not short of comforts or cash. She is an Arias, a family which over time has given the country not one but two presidents and is symbolic of Panama's white elite. These are powerful folk who do not take perceived insults lightly.
What seems incontrovertible is that in his last years of life, Mr Lucom, who had no children of his own, re-crafted his will in secret to make sure it was less the Arias family who benefited and more the youngsters of Panama. Hunger remains a serious challenge, particularly in rural areas. At stake is at least $50m (£25m) or more and the old man's idea was for the money to go towards the purchase of seeds to grow food in the poorest regions.
He did for a while consider another option: leaving all his fortune as a bounty for the capture of Osama bin Laden. He often told friends that catching Bin Laden had always only been a question of cash.
But Hilda, who is frail at 88, her children and their lawyers did not just gape when they heard the will, they acted fast, targeting in particular a Florida-based tax lawyer, Richard Lehman, who was hired by Mr Lucom as his executor. They have argued that Mr Lehman took control of the fortune too quickly, even before Mr Lucom's death, and that he has used his position to benefit himself.
So far, two lower courts in Panama have ruled against the Arias position. Late last year, however, the case was propelled up to the country's Supreme Court where it may languish for months if not years. And Mr Lehman as well as the charities waiting for the Lucom funds, fear that its ruling, whenever it may come, will be tainted by political pressures. It was a gift of historic kindness to the poor children of Panama left by an eccentric American millionaire not previously known for h... more -
US and EU urged to cut biofuels
World Bank President Robert Zoellick has called for reform of biofuel policies in rich countries, urging them to grow more food to feed the hungry.
Speaking on the sidelines of the G8 summit on Hokkaido island, Mr Zoellick said biofuels - transport fuels made from crops - had made a contribution to food price rises.
He laid particular blame on fuels made from corn and rapeseed produced in the United States and the EU.
"The US and Europe also need to take action to reduce mandates, subsidies and tariffs benefiting grain and oil seed biofuels that take food off the table for millions," he said.
Protesters have been holding marches in Sapporo, the city closest to the G8 venue, to demand action on global warming, poverty and rising food prices.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick has called for reform of biofuel policies in rich countries, urging them to grow more food to fee... more -
Family sells $1.8 million mansion to give to charity
An Atlanta family is selling their $1.8 million mansion to give half the proceeds to The Hunger Project, a charity that aims to end world hunger. They plan on moving into a much smaller and cheaper house.
I think its an awesome story and definitely a great way for the family to get on the Oprah show! An Atlanta family is selling their $1.8 million mansion to give half the proceeds to The Hunger Project, a charity that aims to end wo... more -
Call on G8 leaders to stand up for Darfur
As G8 leaders prepare for their annual Summit in Japan in two weeks time, we need to tell them that silence about Darfur at the Summit is not an option.
Join activists around the world in urging the G-8 leaders to take a strong stand—including a promise to act—for peace in Darfur at this year's Summit.
As G8 leaders prepare for their annual Summit in Japan in two weeks time, we need to tell them that silence about Darfur at the Summit... more -
California food banks hurting as children go hungry
Turning dozens of hungry children away from a free meals program wasn't how Vince Harper wanted to start the summer.
Harper oversees a program in Santa Rosa, California, that provides food to kids during schools' summer recess. More than 90 lined up at a community center on June 9, the first day of the service. Only 50 meals were available.
``It's a terrible feeling,'' said Harper, 41, director of youth and neighborhood services for the Community Action Partnership of Sonoma County. ``You have to tell them to come back tomorrow, and hopefully they will.''
As California schools let out this month, food banks in the state face record demand for free meals from families pressed by food price inflation and economic hardship.
Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo counties has requested extra donations, saying 115,000 children may go hungry in the region. The San Francisco Food Bank has been forced to find new sources to distribute enough food for 66,000 meals a day, a 16 percent increase from last year.
``There are some kids this summer that might not have enough food because they're not getting meals at school,'' said Marguerite Nowak, spokeswoman for the San Francisco Food Bank.
In California, a state with 36.5 million residents, food banks serve about 5 million people per month, said Jessica Bartholow of the California Association of Food Banks.
Some food banks say they are having trouble meeting demand because of a 59 percent drop in goods provided by the federal government, forcing them to buy more food while prices are rising. Manufacturing efficiencies also have decreased the amount of surplus and defective products typically donated by companies, food bank employees say.
Graduation Ceremony
In Kettleman City, California, about halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles, kindergarteners took a break from their June 6 graduation ceremony to go to a food bank.
``They walked across the street in their Sunday best to get food from us so they could eat that weekend,'' said Dana Wilkie, president of Community Food Bank in Fresno.
Californians are being squeezed by the nation's highest gas prices, averaging $4.609 a gallon for regular unleaded, some of the country's most expensive housing markets and an unemployment rate of 6.8 percent, fifth highest in the country.
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I used to work in the school system in my town, and spoke to some children who claimed the free lunch they got (which believe me was substandard by any standard) was the only meal they had. I actually brought in lunch for a couple of students who you could tell didn't have much. It is bad enough to see adults going hungry, but knowing children in this country are is something that should never be ignored. Children shouldn't have to go hungry because the money is going in gas tanks! This is the heartbreaking reality we face in this country. The Congress can approve bills to budget and approve billions for "war" and yet our children cannot even get a basic meal or a decent education. This is not only an American tragedy but an American disgrace.
Turning dozens of hungry children away from a free meals program wasn't how Vince Harper wanted to start the summer. ... more -
UN warns 5m Zimbabweans will face hunger by next year
The United Nations warned yesterday that more than 5 million Zimbabweans are facing hunger as the country staggers towards next week's presidential elections under the burden of increasing violence and economic collapse.
At the same time, the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, expressed "profound alarm" at the level of violence and intimidation, and the arrest of opposition leaders. "Should these conditions continue to prevail, the legitimacy of the election outcomes would be in question," Ban told an informal session of the UN general assembly.
Two UN relief agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program, issued a joint report saying 2 million Zimbabweans would face hunger before September, and projected the figure would rise to 3.8 million by the end of the year, and 5.1 million by next March.
The report blamed a combination of plummeting food production and the world's highest rate of inflation. The United Nations warned yesterday that more than 5 million Zimbabweans are facing hunger as the country staggers towards next week's... more -
Can we end world hunger?
Nearly one billion people on earth go hungry every day, and solving this hunger now proves even more difficult as the long era of cheap food appears to be over.They simply cannot find food, or afford to buy it when they do find it. There is no greater condemnation of the present international system than the shocking disparity between the groaning tables of the rich and the heroic struggle of the world’s poor to feed their children a few scraps of food, even once a day.Can the problem be solved? Evidently, not any time soon.The present crisis - which has sparked food riots from Haiti to Egypt to Bangladesh, and caused several countries to ration food and ban food exports - is the result of two opposing trends: Farm productivity has slowed down while, at the same time, demand for food has risen sharply, driving prices skywards.Not only are there more mouths to feed in the world, but in countries like China a new middle class is no longer content with the simple diet of the past. It wants to consume more proteins, such as meat and milk. It wants to eat like the Americans.A third reason is that vast agricultural regions - principally in the United States and Brazil - have been converted from producing food to producing raw material for biofuels. This year, the US biofuel industry is estimated to have devoured one-third of the US corn crop. Brazil uses vast amounts of sugarcane to produce ethanol, thus becoming the world’s second producer of biofuels after the US. Whatever the complex reasons for the crisis, world leaders have suddenly awakened to the fact that the era of abundant and cheap food of the past 30 or 40 years is now definitely over. Increasingly, investors - including Arab investors from the Gulf - are turning their attention towards Africa, where the possibility exists to create mega-farms on tens of thousands of hectares of arable land. High food commodity prices are creating tempting opportunities for corporations and sovereign wealth funds.In the world in which we live, apparently, financial greed may, in the end, be the way to put food on the poor man’s table.
Source: Patrick Seale, a leading British writer on the Middle East. Nearly one billion people on earth go hungry every day, and solving this hunger now proves even more difficult as the long era of chea... more -
Ethiopia appeals for urgent aid
Ethiopia has launched an urgent appeal to international donors for more than $300m (£154m) of emergency aid.
A total of 4.6 million people are now thought to need food aid, because of the drought which struck most of the country in the early part of this year.
In some parts of the country, health centres and feeding clinics are already being overwhelmed with large numbers of severely malnourished children. Ethiopia has launched an urgent appeal to international donors for more than $300m (£154m) of emergency aid. ... more -
World Bank approves $1.2 bn funding for food crisis
"World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Thursday announced $1.2 billion in loans and grant financing to expand its assistance to poor countries struggling with the effects of soaring fuel and food costs. The funding will be fast-tracked to governments needing budget support, or seeking help with cash and food programs for the poor, while also boosting food production through supplies of seeds and fertilizers for farmers.
The announcement comes ahead of a world food summit in Rome on June 3-5 and meetings of finance and political leaders from the Group of Eight industrial nations. Zoellick called on leaders to move to action, as food inflation and higher food costs cut into already stretched government budgets and raises fears of further food protests.
"As we go into the Rome meeting next week, it is crucial that we focus on specific action," Zoellick told reporters on a conference call. "Along with our partners, these initiatives will help address the immediate danger of hunger and malnutrition for the two billion people struggling to survive in the face of rising food prices, and contribute to a longer-term solution that must involve many countries and institutions," he added.
Zoellick said Haiti, Djibouti and Liberia would benefit right away in grant funding of between $5 million to $10 million each under the new rapid response facility. Financing for Tajikistan, Togo and Yemen would be considered by the World Bank board in June, while requests for help by another seven countries is under review, he added. Meanwhile, assessments on the needs of countries were being conducted in more than 25 countries in cooperation with other international agencies, he added.
In addition, he said the World Bank would create a trust fund where donors could contribute funding for seed and fertilizer supplies for small-scale farmers ahead of the next planting season.
"This is not an issue like HIV/AIDS where you need some research breakthrough. People know what to do," he said, "We just have to make sure we get the resources and coordinate the operations around the world," Zoellick said.
Zoellick was one of the first international leaders to warn in January about the rising cost of food and called attention to the danger of increasing malnutrition and hunger. He also launched talks with African governments on a new bank strategy for agriculture, acknowledging the sector had been neglected. Food prices have noticeably soared since last year amid droughts, increasing biofuels production and changing diets in emerging economies, affecting prices of key staples maize, rice and wheat. At the same time, oil has risen to record highs."
By Lesley Wroughton, Reuters "World Bank President Robert Zoellick on Thursday announced $1.2 billion in loans and grant financing to expand its assistance to poor... more -
Hunger Aid Groups Pull Back In Zimbabwe Due To Political Strife
Aid agency Save the Children is pulling staff out of rural areas of Zimbabwe after Robert Mugabe's government froze all aid agency field operations.
Other aid groups are also believed to be withdrawing personnel. The ban on their work helping Zimbabwe's poor has provoked international outrage.
The opposition has urged a strong foreign observer presence to combat intimidation during polls this month.
Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai is not being allowed to campaign openly.
His rallies were banned on Friday and another MP from his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party was arrested on Saturday.
President Mugabe is being accused of trying to steal the presidential run-off election even before it has begun, the BBC's Caroline Hawley reports from neighbouring South Africa.
Less then three weeks before the planned presidential run-off, the opposition says violence is escalating.
There are reports of increasing numbers of roadblocks cutting off parts of the countryside where, according to human rights workers, most of the abuses occur.
'Two million at risk'
Aid groups believe the government does not want them out in the rural areas witnessing what is happening or feeding the hungry when the government can use food to buy votes, our correspondent reports.
The government has accused aid agencies of campaigning for the opposition. One aid worker told the BBC she had met opposition supporters who had had their ID cards taken away and their hands injured so they could not vote. Aid agency Save the Children is pulling staff out of rural areas of Zimbabwe after Robert Mugabe's government froze all aid agency fie... more -
Peruvians protest food prices
LIMA, Peru (Reuters) — More than 1,000 women protested outside Peru’s Congress [in May], banging empty pots and pans to demand that the government do more to counter rising food prices, which are squeezing the poor worldwide.
The women, some toting small children on their hips, run food kitchens, known as eating halls, for the poor.
The meals the eating halls serve are subsidized by the government, but the women say they are struggling to provide enough food and want the government to increase financial aid so they can cover their costs.
Hundreds of thousands of people rely on the eating halls each day in Peru, where about 12 million people, or 42 percent of the population, live in poverty.
The rising cost for basic foods sank President Alan García’s approval rating to 26 percent this month, the lowest level since he took office in 2006. This month, weeks after cutting taxes on food imports, Mr. García started sending the army to hand out free bags of food in the poorest neighborhoods here in the capital.
“Food prices keep on rising, and the government doesn’t pay attention to the eating halls,” said María Bozeta, director of one of three associations that represent eating halls in Lima.
“The pot is empty, García!” the women chanted as they wound their way toward Congress in downtown Lima.
By REUTERS
Published: May 1, 2008 LIMA, Peru (Reuters) — More than 1,000 women protested outside Peru’s Congress [in May], banging empty pots and pans to demand that th... more -
Just 3% of global arms bill could wipe out food crisis
More than 850 million hungry people around the globe can enjoy a better life if the world sets aside less than three per cent of what it spends on the purchase of arms every year, for the development of agriculture.
Pointing out the stark realities of the wasteful spending, United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation director general Jacques Diouf on Tuesday appealed to world leaders for US$ 30 billion a year to re-launch agriculture and avert future threats of conflicts over food.
In his opening speech at the FAO's Rome Summit, called to defuse the current world food crisis, Diouf noted that in 2006 the world spent US$ 1.2 trillion on arms while food wasted in a single country could cost US$ 100 billion and excess consumption by the world's obese amounted to US$ 20 billion.
"Against that backdrop, how can we explain to people of good sense and good faith that it was not possible to find US$ 30 billion a year to enable 862 million hungry people to enjoy the most fundamental of human rights: the right to food and thus the right to life?" Diouf asked.
"It is resources of this order of magnitude that would make it possible definitely to lay to rest the spectre of conflicts over food that are looming on the horizon," he added.
"The structural solution to the problem of food security in the world lies in increasing production and productivity in the low-income, food-deficit countries," he declared.
This called for innovative and imaginative solutions, including "partnership agreements... between countries that have financial resources, management capabilities and technologies and countries that have land, water and human resources", he added.
The current world food crisis had already had tragic political and social consequences in different countries and could further endanger world peace and security, Diouf said.
But the crisis was in essence a 'chronicle of disaster foretold,' he noted. Despite the World Food Summit's solemn pledge in 1996 to halve world food hunger by 2015, resources to finance agricultural programmes in developing countries had not only failed to rise but decreased significantly since then.
Some US$ 24 billion would have been needed to fund an anti-hunger programme prepared for the second World Food Summit held in 2002, Diouf recalled.
"In cooperation with the FAO, the developing countries did in fact prepare policies, strategies and programmes that, if they had received appropriate funding, would have assured world food security," he added.
But, he said, "Today the facts speak for themselves: from 1980 to 2005 aid to agriculture fell from US$ 8 billion (2004 basis) in 1984 to US$ 3.4 billion in 2004, representing a reduction in real terms of 58 per cent".
Agriculture's share of Official Development Assistance fell from 17 per cent in 1980 to 3 per cent in 2006, he also noted.
The Director-General said he had alerted public opinion as far back as last September to the risks of social and political unrest due to hunger and that in December he had appealed for US$1.7 billion to help overcome the crisis by facilitating farmers' access to seeds, fertilizer, animal feed and other inputs.
"It is important to realise that the time for talking is long past," he stressed. "Now is the time for action".
More than 850 million hungry people around the globe can enjoy a better life if the world sets aside less than three per cent of what ... more -
WORLD HUNGER CRISIS - UN food agency holds meeting in Rome with World Leaders
One Hundred Million people starve from Africa to China while global food companies and their subsidiaries corner markets to make record profits.
The United Nations Food Agency along with several world leaders met in Rome recently to discuss the multiple facets that are causing a world hunger crisis. Zimbabwe seems to have it worse than most. Strange considering it use to be know as a regional "breadbasket".
The USA and it's allies are blaming Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, of starving his own people for political gain.
Mugabe stated: "The United Kingdom has mobilized their friends and allies in Europe, north America, Australia and New Zealand to impose illegal economic sanctions against Zimbabwe." and "All this has been done to cripple Zimbabwe's economy and thereby effect illegal regime change in our country."
Only in a world this cold would so many be left to starve in order for others to gain control of an economically depressed state. One Hundred Million people starve from Africa to China while global food companies and their subsidiaries corner markets to make recor... more -
Food summit blames trade barriers, queries biofuel
A United Nations summit on the global food crisis called on Tuesday for trade barriers to be reduced and food export bans scrapped to help stop the spread of hunger that threatens nearly one billion people.
"Nothing is more degrading than hunger, especially when man-made," U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon told the Rome summit, where the United States and Brazil defended biofuel production from charges that it pushes up world food prices.
The head of the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), hosting the summit, said wealthy nations spent billions of dollars on farm subsidies, excess food consumption and arms.
Humanitarian agencies estimate soaring food prices could push as many as 100 million more people into hunger. About 850 million are already going hungry.
A United Nations summit on the global food crisis called on Tuesday for trade barriers to be reduced and food export bans scrapped to ... more -
The African Executive | Hemp : Africa’s Solution to Hunger and Poverty
Investing adequately in agriculture can lead to permanent structural transformation and hunger alleviation in Africa. Not only is the food system a major employer of the poor, but it also generates the capital and demand for expansion in non-agricultural sectors.
Consider the large scale growing of Hemp. The US Hemp food sales are experiencing an annual growth rate of 50% according to the US industry research group SPINS. China whose trade GDP quadrupled in 20 years exports Hemp that is grown on its 800,000 acres. Think of how much more Africa could grow. Investing adequately in agriculture can lead to permanent structural transformation and hunger alleviation in Africa. Not only is the... more -
This Shit is Bananas, B-a-n-a-n-a-s
"The banana we eat today is not the one your grandparents ate. That one - known as the Gros Michel - was, by all accounts, bigger, tastier, and hardier than the variety we know and love, which is called the Cavendish. The unavailability of the Gros Michel is easily explained: it is virtually extinct."
The disease that killed of the Gros Michel is at it again, this time stronger and faster. "The banana we eat today is not the one your grandparents ate. That one - known as the Gros Michel - was, by all accounts, bigger, tas... more -
In Postwar Liberia, Secound Sushi Bar to Cater Aid Workers Taste
"As this impoverished country climbs its way back from 13 years of civil war with the tiniest of steps, a boom is underway in the industries that cater to the rarified tastes of thousands of mostly European and U.S. expatriates who have come to help since peace arrived in 2003. The increasingly visible splendors available to this relatively wealthy group have left some Liberians wondering whether the foreigners are here to serve the nation or themselves."
"importing tuna and salmon to serve to aid workers, when the rest of the population can barely get enough rice (let alone fish), seems a little absurd." "As this impoverished country climbs its way back from 13 years of civil war with the tiniest of steps, a boom is underway in the indu... more
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