Bees have it rough. It’s not enough that they have to deal with bloodsucking varroa mites, a host of diseases and pathogens, disappearing habitat and a variety of agricultural chemicals designed to kill insects. They have also become pawns in the ag wars, the subject of dueling bee-death narratives.
Author: WHES
August Hunger Notes: Candidates say little about poverty and hunger, Growing organic agriculture, Can farmers accept the prairie? and more
August 15, 2016
See Binyamin Appelbaum’s The millions of Americans Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton barely mention: the poor in the New York Times.
Two good stories on agriculture.
A big debate is whether organic agriculture can produce enough to feed the world. (The alternative is standard commercial agriculture which has its own problems, including using a lot of chemical fertilizers and pesticides with damaging effects on the environment.) Can we feed 10 billion people on organic farming alone? by John Reganold in The Guardian addresses this issue with a (somewhat) qualified yes: organic farming systems produce yields that average 10-20% less than conventional agriculture, but they are more profitable and environmentally friendly.
Weeds and any other plant except the crop grown are anathema to farmers using standard commercial practices. But, according to Iowa State University researchers, the wild thicket protects soil from erosion and serves as habitat for hundreds of species, including the threatened Monarch butterfly. Thus, a very interesting article by Daryl Fears in the Washington Post: Iowa farmers ripped out prairie; now some hope it can save them. Is there a way for them to coexist? Can the farmer and the prairie be friends?
Two articles look at specific disadvantages of trade.
Our charity can have harmful effects. We give our used clothing to charity. Much of it is not used in the United States, but bundled and sold abroad (with the proceeds for the charity used in the United States). These used clothes are sold at such a low price that they undercut domestic production in a number of developing countries, especially in Africa, leading to unemployment and lower income in textiles and associated industries, especially cotton production, and thus in the countries themselves. (Textiles are viewed as a key industry in poorer countries, creating jobs, being relatively easy to establish, and with strong linkages to agriculture.) After suffering from this problem for many years, East African countries established a ban and are preparing for it. Read this article from the Kenyan website Coastweek: Tanzania empowers youth with tailoring skills as East Africa ban on used clothes, shoes nears.
Finally, a good article on how international trade has spread many diseases worldwide. Ships bring your coffee, snack and TV set, but also pests and diseases by Baher Kamal of Inter Press Service. Though there is much talk about the gains from trade and calculation of the benefits (as in the current debate over the Trans-Pacific Partnership), these huge costs are not factored into the assessments made, nor are those who gain from trade assessed damages to pay for the costs.
Lane Vanderslice is the editor of Hunger Notes
Monitoring food security in countries with conflict situations
August 15, 2016
Conflict is a leading cause of hunger and this short document (42 pages) describes hunger resulting from conflict in 17 countries, countries where conflict and hunger have been substantial . It is a joint study by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program and available as a free download from FAO.
Reviewed by Lane Vanderslice, Editor of Hunger Notes
After 1996 welfare law, a weaker safety net and more children in deep poverty
Towards a transformed and more resilient agriculture sector in Africa
This article looks at the challenges that make it difficult to increase food productivity, create decent employment, and end inequalities in our food systems, and what it will take to transform agriculture in Africa.
Congress passed the Global Food Security Act. Here’s why that’s historic.
Cocoa and deforestation, it’s time to shift the paradigm
Cocoa is in crisis. The world’s cocoa plantations are well beyond their most productive years, and those who produce it are even older. Income from cocoa is so low that young people do not want to become cocoa farmers. And there is climate change.
Nourishing millions: Stories of change in nutrition
July 15, 2016
This important new book, available as a free download on the IFPRI website, is a wonderful introduction to the issues involved in improving nutrition for poorly nourished people throughout the world.
The first chapter gives an overview of nutrition progress, both in programs and results, over the last 50 years.
The first section of the book discusses in separate chapters four key areas: community nutrition programming, the importance of infant and young child feeding (the first 1000 days from conception to a child’s second birthday), improving access to micronutrients, and undertaking community solutions to severe malnutrition.
The second section looks also covers four topics: How agriculture can contribute to nutrition (they have typically proceeded on different tracks); the role of family income programs, which have been rather widely adopted, in reducing malnutrition and promoting other favorable outcomes such as greater school attendance; the role of clean water and good sanitation in improving nutrition, and finally, obesity and its challenges.
The third section looks at eight country programs where progress has been made (Thailand, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nepal, Peru, Vietnam, Ethiopia and Odisha, India) detailing their different approaches.
The final two chapters look at the future of nutrition action and what it might hold.
The book does an excellent job of describing the efforts to improve nutrition over the last 50 years and gives a good overview of the direction which these efforts have taken. It can be read by people at various levels of knowledge from nutrition professionals to students. The book is available for download at http://ebrary.ifpri.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15738coll2/id/130395.
There are also classroom discussion questions (and Powerpoint slides) which can be accessed here.
Lane Vanderslice is the Editor of Hunger Notes
The First 1000 Days: A crucial time for mothers and children—and the world
In his new book, The First 1,000 Days: A Crucial Time for Mothers and Children – and the World, journalist Roger Thurow chronicles the obstacles that women face around the globe. He takes us to the western highlands region of Guatemala, where women can’t afford to eat the locally grown fruits and vegetables, and they struggle against parasites and a lack of clean water. We also meet young women in rural Uganda, where the infant mortality rate is disturbingly high. Basic essentials are hard to come by and mosquito nets are used to fend off malaria.
The Reproach of Hunger: Food, Justice, and Money in the Twenty-First Century
In a groundbreaking book, based on six years of on the ground reporting, expert David Rieff offers a masterly review about whether ending extreme poverty and widespread hunger is within our reach as increasingly promised.
Can we provide enough food for 9 billion (2 billion more than today) in 2050, especially the bottom poorest in the Global South? Some of the most brilliant scientists, world politicians, and aid and development persons forecast an end to the crisis of massive malnutrition in the next decades.
However, food rights campaigners (many associated with green parties in both the rich and poor world) and traditional farming advocates reject the intervention of technology, biotech solutions, and agribusiness. Many economists predict that with the right policies, poverty in Africa can end in twenty years. “Philanthrocapitalists” Bill Gates and Warren Buffett spend billions on technology to “solve” the problem, relying on technology.