Author: WHES

House legislation supporting USAID Feed the Future program introduced by Rep. Chris Smith

March 30, 2015) On March 24, Rep. Chris Smith introduced the Global Food Security Act of 2015 (H.R 1567), legislation supporting the U.S. government global hunger and food security initiative, Feed the Future (FtF).

The bill’s purpose is “To authorize a comprehensive, strategic approach for United States foreign assistance to developing countries to reduce global poverty and hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, promote inclusive, sustainable agricultural-led economic growth, improve nutritional outcomes, especially for women and children, build resilience among vulnerable populations, and for other purposes.”

The bill currently has 12 cosponsors. Its legislative progress can be followed by going to the Congressional legislative database Thomas and typing in the bill number H.R.1567 into the search box there (making sure the bill number button is selected).

In another FtF development, Oxfam America released a report Promise and Potential: Delivering inclusive, sustainable development for small-scale food producers through the Feed the Future Initiative (44 page PDF).

Oxfam America examined FtF activities in six countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Senegal, and Tanzania. Among the report’s findings:

The case studies point to substantial, real, and important improvements in the way the US government, especially the US Agency for International Development (USAID), delivers assistance. FtF has made significant efforts to incorporate and adhere to principles of aid effectiveness.
The initiative is also making real efforts to integrate key issues such as women’s empowerment and natural resource management across FtF activities.
The bulk of bilateral assistance provided through FtF is allocated to programs that emphasize increased production and productivity of crops and engagement of small-scale producers in formal value chains. This approach has important implications; small-scale producers are in the best position to take advantage of the resources and support offered through these projects. However, the case studies revealed that FtF projects tend to most benefit producers who already have the resources, capacity, and relationships to take advantage of new market opportunities.

UNICEF warns lack of toilets in Pakistan tied to stunting

ISLAMABAD (AP) — More than 40 million people in Pakistan do not have access to a toilet, forcing them to defecate in the open, which in turn is a major contributor to stunting in the country, a top UNICEF official said.”There are 41 million people who do not have access to a toilet in Pakistan and as a result they are defecating in the open. And open defecation has significant health and nutritional consequences,” said Geeta Rao Gupta, deputy executive director at UNICEF. She recently spoke to The Associated Press during a trip to Pakistan to draw attention to the problem.

After the story is published, a minimum wage worker loses her job for talking to the Washington Post

Shanna Tippen was another hourly worker at the bottom of the nation’s economy, looking forward to a 25-cent bump in the Arkansas minimum wage that would make it easier for her to buy diapers for her grandson. When I wrote about her in The Post last month, she said the minimum wage hike would bring her a bit of financial relief, but it wouldn’t lift her above the poverty line.

The great land giveaway in Mozambique

Introduced myself to Luis Sitoe, economic adviser to Mozambique’s minister of agriculture, and explained that I’d spent the last two weeks in his country researching the ProSAVANA project, decried as the largest land grab in Africa. This ambitious Brazil-Japan-Mozambique development project was slated to turn 35 million hectares (over 85 million acres) of Mozambique’s supposedly unoccupied savannah lands into industrial-scale soybean farms modeled on—and with capital from—Brazil’s savannah lands in its own southern Cerrado region.

W.H.O report links ingredient in Roundup, the world’s most popular weedkiller, to cancer

The organization’s cancer arm, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, said glyphosate, the active ingredient in the Monsanto herbicide Roundup, was “classified as probably carcinogenic to humans.” It also said there was “limited evidence” that glyphosate was carcinogenic in humans for non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Five organic fruits and vegetables that are worth the higher cost, due to high levels of pesticide in non-organic choices

Buying organic fruits and vegetables costs more, and for many shoppers, the advantage hardly seems worth the expense. But for certain produce items, “buying organic is a must,” according to a new release from Consumer Reports, the nonprofit long known for its product reviews.