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November 15, 2011
· Scientists chart path to global food security
· Analysis: Using science to feed the world
· Billionaire Cargill heir dies in Calif.
· Spuds to stay on school lunch menus
· United offers state fruit, veggie profiles
Scientists chart path to global food security
(EurekaAlert.org) COPENHAGEN — In the lead up to UN global climate talks in Durban, South Africa later this month, an independent global commission of eminent scientists today released a set of concrete recommendations to policy makers on how to achieve food security in the face of climate change. Based on a thorough review of existing research, the commissioners urged immediate, coordinated action toward transforming the food system to meet current and future threats to food security and environmental sustainability.
The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change's "Summary for Policy Makers" outlines crucial policy responses to the global challenge of feeding a world confronted by climate change, population growth, poverty, food price spikes and degraded ecosystems. The seven high-level recommendations include significantly raising the level of global investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems in the next decade; sustainably intensifying agricultural production on the existing land base while reducing greenhouse gas emissions; and reducing losses and waste in the food system.
Prof. Sir John Beddington, Chair of the Commission, summed up the challenge: "It's about reorienting the whole global food system – not just agricultural production, and not just in developing countries. We need a socially equitable, global approach to produce the funding, policy, management and regional initiatives that will deliver nutrition, income and climate benefits for all."
In making their recommendations, the Commissioners cited the interconnected relationship between agriculture and the environment. As populations grow to upwards of 9 billion people, so will demand for food, fuel and feed crops. This could put many agricultural systems under immense stress and result in further depletion of soil fertility, biodiversity and water resources and increase greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere, according to the Commission.
The release of the Commission's "Summary for Policy Makers" was timed to inform pivotal, upcoming meetings on climate change, including the UN climate conference in Durban, South Africa from November 28 to December 9 and the Rio+20 Earth Summit next year. "Efforts to alleviate the worst effects of climate change cannot succeed without simultaneously addressing the crises in global agriculture and the food system," said Dr Bruce Campbell, director of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security, which convened the independent commission in February 2011. "The commission's invaluable contribution is to provide scientists and policy makers with the most authoritative, evidence-based action steps to date to achieve global food security." The Commission's detailed final report will be issued in 2012.
The Commission brings together senior natural and social scientists working in agriculture, climate, food and nutrition, economics and natural resources from Australia, Brazil, Bangladesh, China, Ethiopia, France, Kenya, India, Mexico, South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vietnam.
Creating a safe operating space for people on this planet
"There is a strong risk we will live on a food-insecure planet in the future," said Commissioner Dr Marion Guillou, President of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA), "and we need to reshape food access and consumption patterns to ensure basic nutritional needs will be met." Today, a billion people are malnourished while millions suffer from chronic disease due to over-consumption. World population will grow to an estimated 9 billion by 2050 and diets are shifting towards higher consumption of calories, fats and animal products. Global demand is growing for food, fodder and bioenergy crops, and food prices are rising.
"Climate change is already causing more extreme weather events, such as high temperatures, droughts and floods, and will particularly harm those people who already live on the brink of hunger and malnutrition," said Commissioner Professor Tekalign Mamo, Advisor to the Ethiopian Minister of Agriculture. "Food insecurity produces widespread human suffering, even in the world's wealthiest countries, as well as political and economic instability, so it is clear the status quo is not an option."
Investment, innovation and empowerment
The Commission reviewed the scientific evidence base to develop a package of solutions that address how food is produced, distributed and consumed. Their recommendations support climate-resilient agricultural production, efficient resource use, low-waste supply chains, adequate nutrition and healthy eating choices that, together, will constitute a sustainable food system.
The "Summary for Policy Makers" presents concrete, urgent actions to be implemented simultaneously by a constellation of governments, international institutions, investors, agricultural producers, consumers, food companies and researchers. Recommended tactics range from shifting economic incentives and making 'fast start' funds available for agriculture to strengthening land rights and building transparency in food markets.
"There is no one-size-fits-all solution," said Commission Vice-Chair Dr Mohammed Asaduzzaman, Research Director at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, "but we know that success depends on a combination of investment, innovation and deliberate effort to empower the world's most vulnerable populations." The Commissioners called for significantly raising the level of global investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems in the next decade.
Efficiency throughout food supply chains
"Our global system wastes food, reducing efficiency in agricultural productivity," according to the Australian Commissioner Dr Megan Clark, Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). For example, roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted across the global food system. In addition, land clearing and inefficient use of fertilizers and organic residues make agriculture the single largest contributor to greenhouse gas pollution on the planet. "Investments to increase efficiencies in agriculture and supply chains while also mitigating greenhouse gas emissions are critical for economic and environmental health and will realise important benefits to the global food system," she said.
"An estimated 12 million hectares of agricultural land
– and their potential for producing 20 million tonnes of grain – are lost each
year to land degradation," explained Commissioner Professor Lin Erda,
Director of the Research Centre of Agriculture and Climate Change at the
The Commission notes the importance of sustainably intensifying agricultural production on existing land – including improving supporting infrastructure and restoring degraded ecosystems – while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. "Sustainable intensification is essential," said South African Commissioner Professor Bob Scholes of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), "and will be most successful at reducing greenhouse gas emissions if we improve land tenure and have strong land-use planning in place to protect forests, wetlands and other critical remaining natural ecosystems."
Supporting the most vulnerable
A large section of the human population is highly vulnerable to extreme weather events and food price volatility. Severe food insecurity can lead to humanitarian crises such as the current situation in the Horn of Africa. Specific recommendations to assist vulnerable populations include insurance against climate shocks, strategies to moderate food price fluctuations and safety net programs. Education, health and nutrition programs provide much needed pathways out of food insecurity.
"Building resilience to climate change must be deeply
rooted in social systems beyond agriculture," said the Commissioner Dr
Rita Sharma, Secretary of India's National Advisory Council. In
"Global donors can help promote better climate change risk management through a more coordinated, multi-benefit approach," said Mexican Commissioner Dr Adrian Fernández Bremauntz, Senior Consultant at the ClimateWorks Foundation. The Commission calls for national and international agricultural development policies to prioritise boosting productive assets and infrastructure.
Better information for integrated decision-making
"We are already in the business of managing significant risk and navigating trade-offs," said U.S. Commissioner Professor Molly Jahn of the University of Madison-Wisconsin. "Agricultural greenhouse emissions are undeniably a significant issue. We need to innovate approaches to deal with this, but not at the expense of food production by poor farmers today." The Commission highlights the importance of improved monitoring and modelling to support integrated decision-making for economic growth, agricultural productivity, poverty reduction and long-term environmental sustainability.
"If we are armed with real-time, spatially explicit information about land uses, markets and human populations, we can do a much better job of meeting our needs and taking care of the planet," said Commissioner Dr Carlos Nobre of the Brazilian Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. "This means better capacity to forecast crises as well as testing specific interventions and scaling up the ones that work."
Policy kick-start
At the same time, global and national policies need to
increase the focus on sustainable agriculture and continue the momentum that
has built on food security in order to kick-start a transformation of the whole
food system. "Agriculture and food security tend to fall between the
cracks of global policy making," explained the Kenyan Commissioner
Professor Judi Wakhungu, Executive Director of the
Commissioners stress the need for multiyear commitments of financial and technical assistance to help agricultural producers build resilience to climate variability and improve their livelihoods, while contributing to climate change mitigation. Commissioner Dr Nguyen Van Bo, President of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Science said, "Policies and finance streams must engage and empower poor rural farmers to improve yields and incomes on existing land bases without new environmental impacts."
The Commission's final report, upon which the
recommendations are based, will be released early in 2012. The Commission will
share its recommendations at the upcoming Agriculture and Rural Development Day
in
The full list of commissioners, the summary document, and additional background, facts, images, and other materials can be found at http://ccafs.cgiar.org/commission
The Commission on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change is identifying what policy changes and actions are needed now to help the world achieve sustainable agriculture that contributes to food security and poverty reduction, and helps respond to climate change adaptation and mitigation goals. The Commission is an initiative of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (www.ccafs.cgiar.org), with additional support from the Global Donor Platform for Rural Development.
The Commission's Action points
(Full details elaborated in "Summary for Policy Makers" document at http://www.ccafs.cgiar.org/commission
1.Integrate food security and sustainable agriculture into global and national policies
2.Significantly raise the level of global investment in sustainable agriculture and food systems in the next decade
3.Sustainably intensify agricultural production while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other negative environmental impacts of agriculture
4.Target populations and sectors that are most vulnerable to climate change and food insecurity
5.Reshape food access and consumption patterns to ensure basic nutritional needs are met and to foster healthy and sustainable eating habits worldwide
6.Reduce loss and waste in food systems, particularly from infrastructure, farming practices, processing, distribution and household habits
7.Create comprehensive, shared, integrated information systems that encompass human and ecological dimensions
Analysis: Using science to feed the world
Chennai (The Jakarta Post/ANN) - Around the world right now there is a war taking place, quite literally, over world food production and supply.
Scientists and corporations believe that in order to feed
the growing number of mouths in
Activists and NGOs, on the other hand, argue that there is
enough food in the world to feed everyone and biotech approaches to food
production will not enhance food security in
Issues regarding climate change have been making the war worse. Scientists and corporations argue that genetically modified (GM) crops can provide a "piece of the puzzle" needed to help farmers better adapt to climate change.
The volatility of crop prices, population growth, land and water scarcities, labor shifts due to urbanization, finite fossil fuels and changes in climatic patterns have been frequently pointed out as the determining factor behind the severe shortage of staple foods that have pushed millions into life-threatening malnutrition or even starvation.
CropLife Asia, a regional unit of CropLife International, a global federation of the plant science industry, has it own views on the importance of GM technology.
"Fundamentally, agriculture will require input to be put in at an appropriate level in order to enable the plant to achieve its full genetic or yield potential, no matter its normal seeds, hybrid seeds or biotechnology, every farmer that grows that product needs to give it sufficient nutrients to grow to its full potential," executive director of CropLife Asia Tan Siang Hee told The Jakarta Post recently.
"So, no matter where you are,
Siang Hee said there is no question of accepting or not accepting the technology, but the main question is how to use good technology to come out with better yields. "That's the investment the farmer needs to put in, no matter at what level of agriculture."
Siang Hee said if biotech traits had not been available in 2006, to produce the same amount of crops farmers would have had to plant an additional 4.6 million hectares of soybeans, 2 million hectares of corn and 1.8 million hectares of cotton.
In recent years, some amazing social struggles and initiatives have emerged to counteract what is considered the "corporate hijacking" of food safety policy-making and praxis. Small farmers, farmer associations, organic food suppliers and food-educated people are fighting against the coalition of multinational food companies.
But no matter what the campaign of the opponents of GM crops, the adoption of GM crops has increasingly found its way to many countries.
With the worldwide campaign and the practice of growing GM crops, activists and NGOs accused scientists and corporations of trying to concentrate power in their hands at the expense of local communities.
But, the company has their own response.
"The thought that the food chain is going to be dominated
or owned by multinationals is ungrounded simply because there is lots of
competition and there is government investment, there is nongovernmental
organizational investment," Syngenta's regional director for
"There are lots of companies, both multinational and local companies, that are involved in this technology. It's not just private companies, there are governments around the world - the Chinese government is one example - that are making significant investments in this technology."
Guthrie played down activists' claims that GM crop domination is affecting traditional organic agriculture and local production systems.
He said organic farming currently has a very small percentage of agriculture compared to conventional agriculture. If consumers want to choose organic produce, that's their choice.
"We need to recognize that the yields of organic crops per hectare are significantly less than conventional farming. And the challenge that we face is that there is no more agricultural land so we actually have to increase the yields per hectare.
"In 1960, 1 hectare of land fed two people, by 2030 1 hectare of land has to feed more than five people. So the concern that we have is that organic farming does not have the yields per hectare that will enable us to make the food requirement of the future. And organic farming tends to become more popular with rich people and we need to also recognize that almost 1 billion people that are hungry today are not rich."
Activists believe that mal-distribution of existing food supplies has made the adequate levels of food we currently produce unaffordable to many, and scientists are skeptical about the fair distribution of food around the world.
"Every ecology, every region has its own supply chain.
How can I expect food from Berastagi [in North Sumatra] to feed
"Only 7 percent of the global rice is traded, so if your self-sufficiency level is low then you are in food crisis."
"We need to encourage local people to come up to a certain self sufficiency level by adopting technology that would give them productivity, because certain products can be traded, certain cannot be traded."
Siang Hee said farmers cannot afford solutions, therefore one of the main objectives of the companies is to develop economically viable solutions and in turn it will help the farmers with the product.
"Embracing all technology is an imperative, not just because it's new technology, but making good choices about which technologies are going to assist growers to improve their yields. Biotechnology is one of these. This should progress at a sensible rate. It is important to establish the right regulatory regimes and to establish a good modus operandi," said Guthrie.
Guthrie said government needed to create an environment that was attractive to private companies to invest.
"There has to be a good business environment to operate, because we can bring a lot of new technologies that give a good return for the growers, but similarly as private companies we need to have a return on an investment as well."
"What is important is to recognize that unless we can harness the partnership and collaboration between the NGOs, government and industry, then we reduce our success or reduce our probability of being able to meet the challenges into the future."
Billionaire Cargill heir dies in Calif.
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP)
— Cargill MacMillan Jr., the multibillionaire heir to the Cargill Inc.
agribusiness fortune, has died in
MacMillan died of complications of Parkinson's disease Monday at his home in Indian Wells, his family said in a statement issued through a company spokeswoman.
MacMillan was worth an estimated $2.6 billion based on his share in the family company, according to Forbes magazine, which placed him and other relatives on its list of the 400 richest Americans.
The family, which has a reputation for secrecy, holds 88 percent of Cargill. The Minnesota-based conglomerate, founded in 1865, has international interests that range from cocoa plantations to livestock and steel mills to commodities trading.
It is the largest private company in the world, with nearly $119.5 billion in revenue and 138,000 employees in 63 countries.
Cargill made headlines earlier this year when it recalled 36 million pounds of ground turkey following back-to-back salmonella incidents that were linked to one death and 129 illnesses across the country. The company also reported its fiscal first-quarter earnings fell 66 percent amid a volatile global grain market.
While MacMillan was a board member for more than 30 years and once chaired its finance committee, he had no day-to-day role in the company.
Born in
MacMillan and his wife, Donna, moved from
He is survived by his wife and four children.
Spuds to stay on school lunch menus
(AP
via Fox News)
The final version of a spending bill would unravel school lunch standards the Agriculture Department proposed earlier this year, which included limiting the use of potatoes on the lunch line and delaying limits on sodium and delaying a requirement to boost whole grains.
The bill also would allow tomato paste on pizzas to be counted as a vegetable, as it is now. USDA had wanted to prevent that.
Food companies that produce frozen pizzas for schools, the salt industry and potato growers requested the changes, and some conservatives in Congress say the federal government shouldn't be telling children what to eat.
Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee said the changes would "prevent overly burdensome and costly regulations and to provide greater flexibility for local school districts to improve the nutritional quality of meals."
School districts had said some of the USDA requirements went too far and cost too much when budgets are extremely tight. Schools have long taken broad instructions from the government on what they can serve in federally subsidized meals that are served free or at reduced price to low-income children. But some schools have balked at government attempts to tell them exactly what foods they can't serve.
Reacting to that criticism, House Republicans had urged USDA to completely rewrite the standards in their version of the bill passed in June. The Senate last month voted to block the potato limits in their version. Neither version included the language on tomato paste, sodium or whole grains, which was added by House-Senate negotiators on the bill.
The school lunch proposal was based on 2009 recommendations
by the
Nutrition advocate Margo Wootan of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said Congress's proposed changes will keep schools from serving a wider array of vegetables. Children already get enough pizza and potatoes, she says. It would also slow efforts to make pizzas -- a longtime standby on school lunch lines -- healthier, with whole grain crusts and lower levels of sodium.
"They are making sure that two of the biggest problems in the school lunch program, pizza and french fries, are untouched," she said.
A group of retired generals advocating for healthier school
lunches also criticized the spending bill. The group, called
"We are outraged that Congress is seriously considering language that would effectively categorize pizza as a vegetable in the school lunch program," Amy Dawson Taggart, the director of the group, said in a letter to members of Congress before the final plan was released. "It doesn't take an advanced degree in nutrition to call this a national disgrace."
Specifically, the provisions would:
-- Block the Agriculture Department from limiting starchy vegetables, including corn and peas, to two servings a week. The rule was intended to cut down on french fries, which some schools serve daily.
-- Allow USDA to count two tablespoons of tomato paste as a vegetable, as it does now. The department had attempted to require that only a half-cup of tomato paste could be considered a vegetable -- too much to put on a pizza. Federally subsidized lunches must have a certain number of vegetables to be served.
-- Require further study on long-term sodium reduction requirements set forth by the USDA guidelines.
-- Require USDA to define "whole grains" before they regulate them. The rules would require schools to use more whole grains.
Food companies who have fought the USDA standards say they were too strict and neglected the nutrients that potatoes, other starchy vegetables and tomato paste do offer.
"This agreement ensures that nutrient-rich vegetables such as potatoes, corn and peas will remain part of a balanced, healthy diet in federally funded school meals and recognizes the significant amounts of potassium, fiber and vitamins A and C provided by tomato paste, ensuring that students may continue to enjoy healthy meals such as pizza and pasta," said Kraig Naasz, president of the American Frozen Food Institute.
The school lunch provisions are part of a final House-Senate compromise on a $182 billion measure would fund the day-to-day operations of the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development. Both the House and the Senate are expected to vote on the bill this week and send it to President Barack Obama.
United offers state fruit, veggie profiles
(Wire Services)
“These valuable resources underscore what those in our industry have known to be true for decades: that the fruit and vegetable industry has a tangible impact on the health and economy of every state in the country,” said United Fresh President and CEO Tom Stenzel. “Even in states that may not traditionally be considered produce growing states, producers are growing, shipping and selling fresh fruits and vegetables, employing workers, and contributing to the health and well-being of their communities, both physically and economically.”
The state profiles also detail the impact of adult and childhood obesity and diabetes in each state, as well as the number of participants in federal feeding programs such as the National School Breakfast and Lunch programs, the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as the Food Stamp Program.
Additionally, the profiles examine each state’s share of the Farm Bill Specialty Crop Block Grants, WIC program funding and funding allotment for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program, showcasing projects and success stories for each.
The profiles are available free of charge at www.UnitedFresh.org
End Transmission