A rapidly changing climate, increasingly expensive oil, and declining land and river health threaten to undo Victoria’s impressive food productivity and prosperity, according to the Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF). A new report released on Monday by the ACF - Paddock to Plate: Food, Farming & Victoria’s Progress to Sustainability - suggests a re-think on not just the way we produce food, but also the way it is hauled, stored, processed and consumed, if we are to avoid a serious... ...Read more »
The agricultural sector in China’s Sichuan province has suffered enormous damage estimated at around $6 billion caused by last month’s devastating earthquake, the FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organisation) said overnight.According to an FAO assessment mission that recently visited Sichuan province, over 30 million people in rural communities have been severely hit, losing most of their assets. Thousands of hectares of farmland were destroyed, millions of farm animals died, houses and... ...Read more »
ICM, Inc., a US leader in the ethanol industry, has announced that ethanol biorefineries will be capable of commercially producing both food and fuel in 2010. “We are talking about the ‘ethanol biorefinery of the future’…and very near future at that,” proclaimed Dave Vander Griend, founder, president and CEO of ICM. “Fifty years ago, the U.S. fed the world. We will be able to do that again with a food supply brought about by the evolution of ethanol production.” The... ...Read more »
An unprecedented partnership among key players in agricultural development aims to significantly boost food production in Africa’s “breadbasket regions,” link local food production to food needs, and work across Africa’s major agricultural growing areas-or agro-ecological zones-to create opportunities for smallholder farmers. The agreement marks a significant transformation in the way major global agencies work with smallholder farmers to assist them in solving Africa’s... ...Read more »
FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf yesterday appealed to world leaders for US$30 billion a year to re-launch agriculture and avert future threats of conflicts over food. In an impassioned speech at the opening of the Rome Summit, called to de-fuse the current world food crisis, Dr Diouf noted that in 2006 the world spent US$1,200 billion 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... ...Read more »
Agricultural commodity prices should ease from recent record peaks but over the next 10 years they are expected to average well above their mean levels of the past decade, according to the latest Agricultural Outlook from OECD and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). OECD Secretary-General, Angel Gurría, is pleading for the breaking down of trade barriers with restrictive trade practices likely to cause greater distress. “The way to address rising food prices is not through protectionism... ...Read more »
International prices of most agricultural commodities have started to decline, but they are unlikely to return to the low price levels of previous years, according to Food Outlook - a production by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. “Food is no longer the cheap commodity that it once was. Rising food prices are bound to worsen the already unacceptable level of food deprivation suffered by 854 million people,” said FAO Assistant Director-General Hafez Ghanem. Despite a favourable... ...Read more »
Just twelve crops and fourteen animal species now provide most of the world’s food; and a lack of diversity means fewer opportunities for the growth and innovation needed to boost agriculture at a time of soaring food prices. This is the growing concern of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). “Our planet abounds with biological richness and this great diversity is key to face the worst food crisis in modern history,” UN FAO Assistant Director, General Alexander Müller,... ...Read more »
After years of trying to rein in persistent overproduction by European farmers, the European Commission is now seeking to free farmers to respond to the skyrocketing global food prices and low stocks. The Communication document produced by the EU analyses structural and cyclical factors and proposes a three-pronged policy response, including short-term measures in the context of agricultural policy and in the monitoring of the retail sector; initiatives to enhance agricultural supply and ensure food... ...Read more »
Hidden environmental costs make food production more vulnerable than previously thought and food industry professionals should prepare for continuing rising food prices, a new report has shown. The report, Secure and Sustainable Food Systems for Victoria, produced by the Victorian Eco-Innovation Laboratory (VEIL), investigated the relationship between food, resources, health and the environment. The ability for Victoria to feed itself in the decades ahead has been questioned and follows similar... ...Read more »