Thursday, July 10, 2008

G8 Leaders Dine in Oppulence While Expressing Concern Over World Food Crisis

The Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations met in Japan this week where the leaders of the world's wealthiest countries released a Statement on Global Food Security output; outlined plan to form a global food and . In it they: expressed deep concern for rising food prices; reiterated earlier commitments to food aid, nutrition intervention and efforts to increase agriculturalagriculture partnership; and expressed commitment to reforming the FAO to ensure greater effectiveness. With other promises related to climate change and development for Africa, critics call G8 commitments vague and suggest they fail to address root problems.

Meanwhile, G8 leaders dined in opulence on the following menu prompting Tim Hayward to wonder what is more depressing: "the leader's hypocrisy or the incompetent PR."


On the menu for G8 leaders social dinner:

Corn-stuffed caviar
Smoked salmon and sea urching "pain surprise" style
Winter lily bulb and summer savoury
Kelp-flavoured cold kyoto beef shabu-shabu, asparagus dressed with sesame cream
Diced fatty fles of tuna fish, avocado and jellied soy sauce and Japanese herb "shiso"
Boiled clam, tomato, Japanese herb "shiso" in jellied clear soup of clam
Water shield and pickled conger dressed with vinegar soy sauce
Boiled prawn with jellied tosazu-vinegar
Grilled eel rolled around burdock strip
Sweet potato
Fried and seasoned Goby with soy sauce and sugar
Hairy Crab "Kegani" bisque soup
Salt-grilled bighand thornyhead with vinegary water pepper sauce
Milk fed lamb from "shiranuka" flavoured with aromatic herbs and mustard
Roasted lamb and cepes and black truffle with emulsion sauce of lamb's stock and pine seed oil
Special cheese selection, lavender honey and caramelised nuts
G8 fantasy dessert

... And it would be deeply wrong in any assessment to forget the selection of wines on offer ...

Wine list

Le Reve grand cru champagne
Japanese saki
Corton Charlemagne 2005
Chateau Latour burgundy
Ridge California Monte Bello 1997
Tokaji Essencia 1999 from Hungary

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Brazil's March to Zero Hunger


Recently Brazil's minister of social development and the fight against hunger, Patrus Ananais visited Toronto. While meeting with activists and academics, the former Belo Horizonte mayor spoke of the poverty facing Brazil and the myriad of creative programs that exist to address it. As part of its Zero Hunger by 2015 commitment, the government by law is required to provide all people with food that is "environmentally, culturally, economically and socially sustainable." Many of the food programs have personal responsibility at the core, a phenomena Wayne Roberts terms a "hand up rather than hand out." Close, respectful partnerships between government, community groups and the people could foster the social solidarity necessary to create long lasting, effective change. Please click here to access the article.


 

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Sunday, June 29, 2008

Harvest of Injustice



Adrianna Paz informs us in this article about an important issue that largely flies under the radar screen - the plight of seasonal agricultural workers brought to Canada from Southern countries to harvest crops. Since the mid-1990s, a federal government program has been in place to import workers for time limited periods. Despite living and working in Canada, these workers have been stripped of most of their rights. Justice/Justicia for Migrant Workers is a Canadian non-governmental organization that is working to bring this shameful situation to light and to effect long-lasting effective change. For this to occur, the root causes of this phenomena needs to be understood and the racism inherent in this system confronted. Please click here to read the article.
 

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Monday, June 23, 2008

Leading the Charge, Leading the Change



In a recent address to the Northwest Harvest Food Bank Annual Meeting in Seattle, Mark Winne presents a challenge to the "reformers" in the food bank world. A growing number of leaders are ready to confront the inequity of the current food system, which sees a staggering 38 million Americans wondering where their next meal will come from. Winne answers a question that one food bank employee posed to him: "what can a single food bank do now, in concrete terms, to better serve its constituents as well as change the culture of the anti-hunger movement?" To read Mark Winne's answer, please click here.

Mark Winne is the author of Closing the Food Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of Plenty.

 

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Tuesday, June 17, 2008

The Food Crisis Bites Back



When a crisis arises, opportunity knocks, says food analyst Sam Urquhart. In fact, the food system has been suffering from chronic hunger pangs for decades, the result of globalization, genetically modified seeds and the green revolution. The crisis has taken a different form and function depending on how it positioned and by whom. Version one focuses on the role of supply and demand, serving the interests of agribusinesses like Monsanto, Cargill, BP, and the like. The second version, represented by NGOs such as Food First, Via Campensina and GRAIN, counsels a reform in the system that supports small farmers, hence, food sovereignty, fair trade and sustainable agriculture. At the emergency summit in Rome, the author contends that the FAO has demonstrated selective hearing - excluding "alternative" responses to agricultural development and the voices of civil society. The acknowledged version of the food crisis will reflect the types of policies formulated to address the issue - hiccup! To access the article, please click here.
 

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Food Crisis and Water



Biofuel, price speculators and free trade often grab the headlines when people struggle to explain the rapid rise in food prices and why so many people go hungry. Fred Pearce in this article reminds us of the factor of production that is perhaps the most scarce and largely mismanaged - water. From India and China to the United States, major rivers are being mined to support industrial and small scale agriculture. Water tables are dropping and salinization is having a devastating impact on the productivity of the land. Pearce prescribes three actions necessary to ensure that water shortages will not too drastically effect food production: a rethinking of biofuels, more food exports from countries enjoying a water surplus and last but not least, using this scarce resource more efficiently. To access the full article, please click here.
 

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Thursday, June 5, 2008

Greener and Leaner


A recent article in The Guardian 'Greener and Leaner - how the west could stave off disaster' attributes the current food crisis largely to underinvestment in agriculture research over the past decades. This blame is assigned to both developing and donor countries and stems from what the article's author Julian Borger calls short-sighted planning.
The article then considers what the Food Summit in Rome will tackle and offers short, medium and long-term strategies to the policy-makers. In the short term, commitment to food aid, the provision of seeds and fertilizers to farmers in developing so they can plant their next crop, and the lifting of exports bans on cash crops are all essential. In the medium term, the article suggests that the convergence of biofuels and food security needs to be assessed. There is also the call for the removal of tariffs to allow developing countries unfettered access to international markets. Finally in the long term, Borger advocates for more investment in agricultureal research and development. With cautions against reliance on GM solutions, there is a clear need for sustainable solutions that would require "rethinking western lifestyles and expectations".
The question that doesn't get asked is who is going to step into the void and meet the need for R&D. If multinational corporations fill the void the solutions may be profitable, but not ultimately sustainable. Is this the time to return to more public intervention to protect the public good and move in a truly sustainable direction that considers long term social justice, food security and environmental challenges? Please click here to access the article.
 

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