The United Nations has called for action to ensure long-term global food security as a new report shows that high food prices are likely to continue over the next decade. ‘The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2011’ report states that small, import-dependent countries, particularly in Africa, are especially vulnerable to poverty and food insecurity. “Even if the Millenium Development Goal were achieved by 2015, some 600 million people in developing countries would still be undernourished.... ...Read more »

The first global guidelines for bycatch management and reduction of fishing discards were released recently by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization. They now go to the Committee on Fisheries for endorsement when it meets in Rome at the end of the month. The guidelines were agreed by fisheries experts from 35 countries who met at FAO last month. The guidelines cover all types of bycatch including discards, that is, fish that are caught accidently and then thrown back into the sea either... ...Read more »

Australia is one of a few countries to shun the UN Protocol on Biosafety that most countries will adopt in Nagoya, Japan, next week. The protocol is a global quarantine and customs treaty to protect the environment and human health from genetically manipulated organisms (GMOs). The treaty tries to minimize risks of international transfer, handling and use of GMOs and is the first & only protocol negotiated by parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). “As a party to the CBD,... ...Read more »

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) is granting free and open access to its central data repository, FAOSTAT, the world’s largest and most comprehensive statistical database on food, agriculture, and hunger, the UN agency announced last week.Previously, it was possible to download without charge a limited amount of information from FAOSTAT – which contains over one million data points covering 210 countries and territories — but access to larger batches of statistics... ...Read more »

The maximum amount of melamine allowed in powdered infant formula is 1 mg/kg and the amount of the chemical allowed in other foods and animal feed is 2.5 mg/kg, according to new rulings from the United Nations’ food standards body, Codex Alimentarius Commission.Melamine is a chemical used in a variety of industrial processes – including the manufacture of plastics used for dishware and kitchenware, and can coatings – and traces of it unavoidably get into food by contact without... ...Read more »

Australia is one of five more nations to recently sign the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations)-brokered treaty that once it enters into force will deny access to fishing ports to ships involved in illegal fishing. The new signatories include: Australia (27/04/2010), Gabon (26/04/2010), Peru (3/03/2010), New Zealand (15/12/2009) and the Russian Federation (29/04/2010). This brings the number of countries that have signed the “Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent,... ...Read more »

World leaders convened at FAO Headquarters for the World Summit on Food Security overnight and unanimously adopted a declaration pledging renewed commitment to eradicate hunger from the face of the earth sustainably and at the earliest date. The Summit is due to tackle the issue of food security as food price fears continue to bubble and the number of hungry people continues to grow. Countries also agreed to work to reverse the decline in domestic and international funding for agriculture and promote... ...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 »

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 »