STWR - Share The World's Resources

26th February 08 - Julian Borger, The Guardian (UK)

The United Nations warned yesterday that it no longer has enough money to keep global malnutrition at bay this year in the face of a dramatic upward surge in world commodity prices, which have created a "new face of hunger".

25th February 2008 - IRIN News

The lack of political will to invest in agriculture has affected the chances of halving poverty and hunger in Africa by 2015, according to a senior United Nations official. Investment in agriculture, more than other sectors, provides four times the returns,” said Kanayo Nwanze, vice-president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, a UN agency working to end rural poverty. 

5th February 2008 - Stephen Leahy, Inter Press Service

Biofuels have quickly turned from environmental saviour to just another mega-scale get-rich quick scheme. Countries and regions without their own oil reserves to tap now see their farms, peatlands and forests as potential "oil fields" -- shallow but renewable lakes of green oil. However, renewable does not mean sustainable, and in most cases the only green part of biofuel is the wealth they generate.

4th February 2008 - Stephen Leahy, Inter Press Service

Climate change will cause major disruptions in the global food system, and adaptation to those changes needs to begin immediately, experts say. Otherwise one-fifth of the world's population could starve and millions of others become climate refugees, forced by heat and drought to abandon their lands and hunt for food elsewhere in the coming decades.

29th January 2008 - George Monbiot, The Guardian (UK)

I cannot avoid the subject any longer. Almost every day I receive a clutch of emails about it, asking the same question. A frightening new report has just pushed it up the political agenda: for the first time the World Food Programme is struggling to find the supplies it needs for emergency famine relief. So why, like most environmentalists, won't I mention the p-word? According to its most vociferous proponents (Paul and Anne Ehrlich), population is "our number one environmental problem". But most greens will not discuss it. Is this sensitivity or is it cowardice? Perhaps a bit of both. Population growth has always been politically charged, and always the fault of someone else.

28th January 2008 - Stephen Browne & Alexander Kasterine, Open Democracy

A rising concern with personal and environmental health in the world's richer countries is influencing lifestyles and public debate alike. One significant trend is the increase in the consumption of organically grown produce - a significant proportion of which is imported. International trade in organic food and beverages currently has a value of more than £15 billion ($30 billion) per year; the United States, Britain and Germany account for two-thirds of imports.

Imagine a planet where nuclear-powered desalination plants ring the world's oceans; corporate nanotechnology cleans up sewage water so private utilities can sell it back to consumers in plastic bottles at huge profit; and the poor who lack access to clean water die in increased numbers.  This may sound like science fiction dystopia, but according to Maude Barlow, author of the recently released book "Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water", this future is not too far away.