Governments and multilateral agencies have failed to acknowledge
the imminence and scale of the global oil supply crunch. There is an urgent
need for international recognition of the threat oil dependency poses to global peace
and the environment, warns a report by Global Witness.
The current intellectual property regime – dominated by Northern
biotechnology firms – is threatening the livelihoods of poor farmers and pushing
up food prices in developing countries, says a report from the UN Special
Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter.
Over many decades, Nobel laureate Elinor Ostrom has
documented communities around the world that share common resources equitably
and sustainably over the long term – debunking the myth that privatising natural
resources is the only route to halting environmental degradation.
Recurrent famine in Ethiopia illustrates
the failure of international food aid policies for the past 25 years. Rather
than prioritising emergency response; governments should encourage production in developing countries, invest in local infrastructure, and empower small-scale
farmers, says a report by Oxfam
International.
Food reserves could play an important role in a longer-term strategy to
achieve universal food security if implemented as part of a new international
framework for trade and agriculture, finds a study released today by Share The
World's Resources.
Despite a historic financial collapse, politicians are adopting a ‘business-as-usual' approach to managing the economy. What is urgently needed instead is a radical, step by step transition to a green economy that delivers healthy and equitable lives, outlines a report by the New Economics Foundation.
In the run-up to World Food Day 2009, a number of reports
reveal a global food system in urgent need of reform and call for the ‘right to
food’ to guide the future governance of international agriculture.
Agribusiness companies are aggressively lobbying to make a range of farming
activities eligible for funding at the upcoming climate talks. If
successful, billions of dollars will be invested into the very approach to food
production that is exacerbating the climate crisis, warns GRAIN.
While
policymakers struggle with what a structural overhaul of the current economic
system might look like, a number of citizen-led projects around the world already
point the way toward more just, ‘non-market’ alternatives, says a report by
Other Worlds.
In conventional economic thought, any increase in GDP is
good for the economy – even if it is created by encouraging needless
over-consumption. The result is a society in which people are literally
consuming themselves sick, writes Jonathan Rowe.
