World Grain Production Down in 2010, But Recovering

by: NourishingthePlanet

Thu Dec 01, 2011 at 11:22:37 AM PST

World grain production fell in 2010, exacerbating a global food situation already plagued by rising prices, according to new research published by the Worldwatch Institute for its Vital Signs Online publication. Despite record rice and maize yields around the world, global wheat production dropped substantially enough to bring total grain output to just below 2008 levels.

Maize, wheat, and rice provide nearly two-thirds of the global human diet and serve as critical inputs for both animal feed and industrial products. The significance of these crops guarantees that a decline in production will produce ripple effects throughout the global economy, particularly as increased food prices continue to take a toll on the world's neediest populations. Overall, rice and wheat production have tripled since the 1960s, and maize production has quadrupled, despite global acreage of these crops increasing by only 35 percent.

Production increased worldwide, but there was greater reliance on irrigation, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides-all of which take resources, can be costly, and may cause substantial environmental degradation. As farmers have begun to witness these impacts, many have been forced to abandon their fields because of infertile soil.

Nevertheless, preliminary data for 2011 indicate that grain production is recovering from the 2010 slump. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently forecast that cereal output in 2011-12 will be 3 percent higher than in 2010-11.

Grain remains the foundation of the world's diet, and the failure of harvests in recent years to keep pace with growth in meat consumption and population is worrisome. It's important that we identify and implement more inventive and sustainable strategies in grain production. Reducing the proportion of grain harvests lost to weather disasters and waste or diverted for corn ethanol production and animal feed is among such strategies. It's also important that we prioritize grain availability for those who need it most.

Recent growth in agricultural production has been uneven. In many regions, climate change has brought irregular weather patterns such as rising temperatures, violent storms, and flash flooding. In Russia, where severe drought has plagued large farming regions, overall wheat yields plunged 40 percent in 2010, compared to a decline of only 5 percent worldwide. Subsequently, Russia-the fourth largest wheat exporter in 2009-banned all wheat exports, severely disrupting world grain markets. Poor weather took its toll elsewhere as well: El Niño in the west Pacific, for example, brought rice production down significantly in the Philippines, already the world's largest food importer.

Wheat harvesting in drought-plagued Russia. (Photo credit: MercoPress)

Rising demand for ethanol fuel, which in the United States is produced almost exclusively from corn feedstock, is having an impact on grain prices as well. According to the U.S. Congressional Budget Office (CBO), about 20 percent of the increase in maize prices between 2007 and 2008 was due to domestic ethanol demand. Demand for grains is also rising in countries such as China and India, where growing middle classes are adopting more diverse diets.

Farming has always been an uncertain business that depends in large part on the weather, and it could be entering an even more difficult phase. As the global climate changes, the warmer, less stable atmospheric conditions could be detrimental for food production. In an already fragile economy, continued volatile prices and unpredictable weather-induced shortages are sure to negatively affect both producers and consumers in developing countries.

Further highlights from the research:

• Between 1960 and 2010, annual global grain production increased from 643 million tons to 2.2 billion tons.
• U.S. maize (corn) production was down 5 percent in 2010 due to drought in the east and excessive rain in the west. The United States is the world's largest exporter of maize, accounting for 56 percent of global exports from 2006 to 2010.
• According to the FAO's Cereal Price Index (CPI), which uses 2002-04 prices for wheat, rice and maize as its baseline (100), food prices increased to an index level of 185 in August 2010 and set a record at 265 in April 2011.
• Forty percent of the global increase in maize prices in 2000-07 was due to worldwide demand for ethanol, according to the International Food Policy Research Institute. Additional reasons for the jump in food prices include the weakening of the U.S. dollar, speculation on grain prices, and possible climate change impacts.
• Stanford University researchers who created a model to determine how changing weather patterns affect crop yields found a 2.9 percent increase in global rice production as a result of greater precipitation, but losses of 3.8 percent for wheat and 2.5 percent for maize.

Reducing Food Waste During the Holiday Season

by: NourishingthePlanet

Mon Nov 21, 2011 at 07:55:58 AM PST

The holiday season is a time for gifts, decorations, and lots and lots of food. As a result, it's also a time of spectacular amounts of waste. In the United States, we generate an extra 5 million tons of household waste each year between Thanksgiving and New Year's, including three times as much food waste as at other times of the year. When our total food waste adds up to 34 million tons each year, that equals a lot of food. With the holidays now upon us, the Worldwatch Institute offers 10 simple steps we all can take to help make this season less wasteful and more plentiful.

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, roughly one-third of all food produced for human consumption-approximately 1.3 billion tons-is lost or wasted each year. Consumers in developed countries such as the United States are responsible for 222 million tons of this waste, or nearly the same quantity of food as is produced in all of sub-Saharan Africa.  

Engineering Food for Whom?

by: Marcia Ishii-Eiteman

Fri Aug 26, 2011 at 12:20:58 PM PDT

Warning! Nina Federoff - former "Science and Technology Advisor" to the U.S. State Department and well-known genetic engineering apologist - is back on her soapbox. In an Op Ed published in the New York Times last week, Federoff strings together one blazing falsehood after another, extolling the virtues of a technology that much of the rest of the world has rightly rejected. What is behind her evangelical commitment to this particular technology? Let's take a look.

"Land Grabs" in Agriculture: Fairer Deals Needed to Ensure Opportunity for Locals

by: NourishingthePlanet

Tue Jul 26, 2011 at 08:43:31 AM PDT

World Population Day: Agriculture Offers Huge Opportunities for a Planet of 7 Billion

by: NourishingthePlanet

Wed Jul 06, 2011 at 09:02:13 AM PDT

As the global population increases, so does the number of mouths to feed. The good news is that in addition to providing food, innovations in sustainable agriculture can provide a solution to many of the challenges that a growing population presents. Agriculture is emerging as a solution to mitigating climate change, reducing public health problems and costs, making cities more livable, and creating jobs in a stagnant global economy.

This year, the world's population will hit 7 billion, according to the United Nations. Reaching this unprecedented level of population density has prompted the U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) to launch a "7 Billion Actions" campaign to promote individuals and organizations that are using successful new techniques for tackling global development challenges. By sharing these innovations in an open forum, the campaign aims to foster communication and collaboration as our world becomes more populated and increasingly interdependent.

Not even demographers can actually forecast how many people will be added to world population over the coming century, noted Robert Engelman, a population expert and Worldwatch Executive Director. As more women and their partners gain access to reproductive health services and manage their own childbearing, average family size has fallen significantly in recent decades and could continue to do so, assuming expanded support for reproductive health and improvements in women's autonomy and status. The likelihood of continued population growth for some time, however, remains high. And that will add to the need to harness the ingenuity of human beings to sustain both people and the planet.

"We'll have to learn how to moderate our consumption of materials and energy and to jumpstart new technologies that conserve them," Engelman said. Innovations in farming will be among the most important: with planning, agriculture can operate not only as a less-consumptive industry, but also one that works in harmony with the environment.

Nourishing the Planet's research in Africa has unveiled innovative and cost-effective approaches to agriculture where farmers are treating land as a resource rather than solely as a means for food production. Many of these solutions are scalable and can be adapted to farming systems around the world.

Nourishing the Planet recommends four ways that agriculture is helping to address the challenges that a growing global population will bring.

• Urban agriculture for nutritious food and a cooler climate. The U.N. predicts that 65 percent of the global population will live in cities by 2050. Urban      agriculture provides an increasing number of city residents with fruits and vegetables, leading to improved nutrition and food security. Urban farms are already gaining popularity around the world, from the Victory Programs' ReVision Urban Farm in Boston, to Lufa Farms in Montreal, to the slums of Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya.

• Farming for employment and education. Opportunities in agriculture can reduce poverty and empower a growing population. In Los Angeles county, the organization Farmscape Gardens has helped tackle a 16 percent unemployment rate by hiring workers to establish and maintain edible gardens. To teach the local community about food and agriculture, L.A.'s Fremont High School established a school garden of 1.5 acres that is open to students and the greater community. And in Uganda, project DISC (Developing Innovations in School Cultivation) partnered with Slow Food International to develop 17 school gardens that are used to educate students about growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious local foods.

• Agroecology for a healthier environment. Agroecology, which offers numerous benefits to the environment while also feeding  people, includes organic agriculture, agroforestry, conservation agriculture, and evergreen agriculture. In Niger, farmers promote the re-greening of dried farmland by allowing spontaneous regeneration of woody species. The restored growth has provided farmers with wind breaks, decreased evaporation, sequestered carbon, and provided non-timber forest products. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency has partnered with representatives from metropolitan Washington, D.C. to create the Chesapeake Bay Program watershed partnership. Through collaboration, the group has developed policies, laws, incentives and best practices for farmers whose production zone lies within the local watershed. These      agroecological practices, including cover crops, planting riparian forest  butters, and practicing conservation tillage, have helped preserve the Bay.

• Innovations in food waste to make the most of what we have. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, industrialized countries waste 222 million tons of food      annually, or almost as much as sub-Saharan Africa's 230 million tons of net food production per year. Decreasing food waste makes it possible to feed people across the planet without increasing agricultural production. In Washington, D.C., the D.C. Central Kitchen Project partners with area restaurants and food suppliers to pick up food that would otherwise go to waste. Volunteers prepare the food and redistribute it as meals to the city's poor. In central and eastern Africa, a partnership between Bayer Crop Science and the International Potato Center hopes to develop a sweet potato that is resistant to pests and diseases, which are responsible for 50 to 100 percent of crop losses among poor farmers in the region.

Do You have Grand Aspirations?

by: GrandAspirations

Sun May 08, 2011 at 23:22:46 PM PDT

The Summer of Solutions is a grassroots, volunteer-based, people-powered program, and we rely on people just like you for just about everything - from the project expertise, to the local partnerships, to the financial support for the young people dedicating their summer to building solutions.

The Hartford team has chosen to focus on food justice, as we are passionate about the importance of food insecurity and sustainable production issues, see the injustices that have left Hartford hungry, and want to learn more about solutions from the many people and organizations working for change.

From June to mid-August, we will garden, organize community workshops, teach classes, run discussions, volunteer on local farms, work on campaigns, develop entrepreneurial plans, fundraise, and train to become much stronger and more effective leaders. Each of our participants will choose how much of their time they will give to various projects. If some of those goals seem vague, it's because we're leaving room for our participants and community residents to design the details. (Maybe "teach classes" will turn into a cooking cooperative and weekly potluck, run and organized as a partnership between interested community members and participants, where people take turns teaching others their favorite healthy recipes). Our options are limitless, so we're looking to YOU for the inspiration, passion, and commitment to make the most of this summer!

Our Wish List:

Participants and Volunteers:

- We're looking for 10-15 full-time participants and many more volunteers. There are need-based stipends available for participants.

Food and Housing:

- We want to provide food and housing for our full-time team. If you know someone in Hartford who could host a student for the summer or a landlord who would give us reduced rent, please let us know!

- We'll be working hard all day, and want to come home to share bountiful healthy meals together. The less money we spend on food, the more we can use to support low-income participants and provide for the longevity of these projects.

Wisdom and Experience:

- You have it! As part of the leadership training component of our program, we want to host workshops throughout the summer. Know something about the history of Hartford? Compost? Gender and the environment? Urban gardening? Let us know and we'll see how we can best use your wisdom to support our participants.

Money:

- We don't have much of it. Money allows us to pay stipends, equalizing access to our program. It also allows us to eat, which we love!

Resources:

- All things garden related; seeds, tools, compost, wood, gloves, etc. We will find a loving home for anything you give that we don't need this summer.

If you want to be a part of SoS Hartford, you can apply online until April 24th at www.grandaspirations.org/apply2sos, but feel free to call or email us before then with any questions.

If you don't live in Connecticut, and are now wishing you could get involved in Summer of Solutions, don't fear! Here are the other cities we're working in this summer: Ashland, Chicago, Cleveland, Corvallis, Detroit, Eugene, Fayetteville, Iowa City, Oakland, Pioneer Valley, Oakland, Portland, Raleigh, Twin Cities, and a city or more in West Virginia!

For more information on our program, visit grandaspirations.org/hartford.

For more information on the initiative, visit grandaspirations.org/summer-of-solutions/about.

For more info, questions, concerns:

Jennifer Roach
(860) 539-7231
jennifer_roach14@pitzer.edu

"Charity often about imposed solutions, solidarity a partnership of equals"

by: NourishingthePlanet

Thu Dec 30, 2010 at 08:42:15 AM PST

"Miami Rice": The Business of Disaster in Haiti

by: Andrea Germanos

Thu Dec 09, 2010 at 14:10:57 PM PST

Beverly Bell and Tory Field detail how profitable disaster can be in Haiti.  

Food Movement Needed! Corporate Agribusiness Fights GIPSA

by: Brad Wilson

Sun Nov 21, 2010 at 21:43:45 PM PST

(For more on the American Meat Institute, see my diary here:  "Do you support the 'Farm Coalition Group.'" They've long been a cheap corn group.  Click on my name.)

This is a huge issue where we need the food movement do quickly mobilize 100,000 supporters.  

Food Democracy on the ground in New Orleans

by: Marcia Ishii-Eiteman

Thu Oct 28, 2010 at 11:29:16 AM PDT

I'm writing from warm, sunny New Orleans, where 900 food justice activists attending the Community Food Security Coalition conference have just wrapped up five days of workshops, conversations and field trips to the region's innovative and indomitable farmers, fisherfolk, urban gardeners, food workers and local organizers. These brave souls are-against all odds-reinventing healthy and sustainable food systems in their communities.

Meanwhile, 1,000 miles away in Des Moines, Iowa, Rajiv Shah-the head of USAID-was also talking about food and agriculture, but with a very different message.  

What plant is a "supermarket on a trunk"?

by: NourishingthePlanet

Mon Oct 11, 2010 at 14:48:33 PM PDT

Referred to as a "supermarket on a trunk," moringa is potentially one of the planet's most valuable plants. Serving not only as a reliable source of diverse foods, moringa also provides lamp oil, wood, paper, liquid fuel, skin treatments, and the means to help purify water. But despite its multiple uses, and well-earned nickname, the tree is relatively unknown to most people in the United States.

Referred to as a "supermarket on a trunk," moringa is potentially one of the planet's most valuable plants.

When eating locally becomes a necessity

by: locavore365

Thu Sep 30, 2010 at 13:47:43 PM PDT

Christchurch, New Zealand recently suffered a magnitude 7.1 earthquake (slightly larger than Haiti quake which was 7). Incredibly no one was killed, New Zealand has strong building regulations and most people were safe at home when the quake struck at 4am.

I live in Christchurch, and experienced first hand the problems that occur when complex modern food chains break down....
 

Native African Vegetables Could Help Solve Food Crises

by: NourishingthePlanet

Tue Jul 20, 2010 at 12:29:29 PM PDT

Ever heard of the Bambara Bean? How about Nyimo or Vignea Subterranea or the African Groundnut? No matter what you call it, this little bean, which is indigenous to tropical Africa, is highly overlooked by scientists, development agencies, and humanitarian programs, even though it packs a lot of nutrition. The bean may have originated in Mali, but it's also popular in Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and Cameroon. It is now widely distributed and grown in Asia, parts of Northern Australia, and South and Central America and is often found for sale on street corners in Johannesburg.

Haiti's lost pigs and the folly of modern is always better

by: mental_masala

Sun Jul 04, 2010 at 15:44:17 PM PDT

As magazines from advocacy groups go, World Ark from Heifer International is pretty spunky.  It covers controversial topics - climate change, colony collapse disorder, and so on, always with some angle that favors Heifer's work, of course -- that other magazines might not touch for fear of riling up donors.  In a recent issue they looked at one of the myriad tragedies to hit Haiti: the loss of their Creole pig, an animal that had been on the island since the time the Spanish arrived. The animal was well adapted to the climate and conditions, helping peasants feed themselves or make a living.

But an outbreak of African swine fever in the early 1980s and the incredibly corrupt Duvalier government put an end to the breed.

The Gardens are Greener Over There...in Cuba

by: foodgirl

Mon May 17, 2010 at 17:18:17 PM PDT

Cubans have been doing what Americans and Canadians only dream about -- eating locally, organically and sustainably -- for over 15 years. Here's what we can learn from them.

Jorge Carmenate edges his stocky, mid-40s frame under the canopy of a neem tree and our small, pink-cheeked group follows suit. Even in the mid-morning, the heat in central Cuba is searing. Carmenate welcomes us to El Rabanito, a three-hectare market garden in a mixed commercial and residential neighbourhood in the city of Ciego de ávila. He's thrilled that yet another group of Canadians and Americans have come to see what is one of the nation's top-producing organopónicos, the urban organic farm co-operatives that are the cornerstone of how Cuba manages to feed its 11.4 million citizens, using as little as five per cent of the energy that it takes us North Americans.