Hunger Set to Become a Key Issue in Global Politics -- BERLIN, September 28, 2010 /PRNewswire/ --

Hunger Set to Become a Key Issue in Global Politics -- BERLIN, September 28, 2010 /PRNewswire/ --: "The prices of wheat and other agricultural commodities have risen yet again, following the already significant price increases of 2007 and 2008. According to the Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture, these are the early indicators of a latent food crisis, which will hit the world within the next ten years.
'If no decisive action is taken, the prices of key food commodities are likely to be 50 to 100 per cent higher by 2020 than they were at the turn of the millennium. This would dramatically increase the level of hunger and malnutrition, around the world,' says Harald von Witzke, president of the Humboldt Forum for Food and Agriculture, an international think tank, headquartered in Berlin, Germany."

Globally scanning for "Megatrends of the Mind": Potential futures of futures thinking

Scopus preview - Scopus - Document details: "The paper first identifies new ways of thinking within several disciplines such as science, philosophy, religion and education. New knowledge patterns are then identified in discourses that traverse disciplinary boundaries through transdisciplinary approaches such as futures studies and planetary/global studies. The paper then discusses evolution of consciousness, identifying research that theorises new ways of thinking as being related to individual psychological development and/or socio-cultural evolution. Finally, evolutionary concepts are discussed that attempt to meta-cohere the new knowledge patterns via the terms postformal, integral and planetary."

Cambridge Journals Online - Fulltext - Reduced Expectations: the political and institutional challenges of REDD

Reduced Expectations: the political and institutional challenges of REDD: "Development and environmental policies in developing countries are often based on narratives that provide an argument for a particular action or intervention based on a simplification of the world’s complexity (Hirschman, 1968; Roe, 1991). Strong narratives can become convincing arguments for change, particularly when supported by powerful agencies such as national governments, donors and international organizations, and can lead to blueprints for action that may or may not be based on effective implementation elsewhere. However, history tells us that great ideas designed to improve human societies can sometimes fail with startling results (Scott, 1998). Great ideas are not necessarily doomed to failure but they should avoid unduly simplifying the social, economic, political and institutional complexity of the problem."

Millennium development goals in an age of fear and loathing | Jeffery Sachs | Global development | The Guardian

Millennium development goals in an age of fear and loathing | Jeffery Sachs | Global development | The Guardian: "The world's continuing dedication to a set of global goals to fight poverty, hunger and disease is no small triumph in an era marked by cynicism, the fraying of social bonds and the widespread fears of economic dislocation. The millennium development goals have come through a week of UN summitry not only intact but invigorated. The goals, it turns out, are doing double duty: helping the poor countries to fight poverty and the rich countries to preserve a sense of social solidarity."

Sustainable Prosperity Research and Policy Network | Sustainable Prosperity

 

The operating system of our modern world – the capitalist market – is an incredible tool.  It links billions of producers and consumers every day, generating price signals that help people around the world decide what to make and what to buy.  But when it comes to conserving Earth’s natural environment, our markets are badly broken: we don't pay the true environmental costs of making, using and getting rid of stuff.

Sustainable Prosperity Research and Policy Network | Sustainable Prosperity

We Can End Poverty, Millennium Development Goals, 2015: UN Summit, 20-22 September 2010, New York

We Can End Poverty, Millennium Development Goals, 2015: UN Summit, 20-22 September 2010, New York: "With only five years left until the 2015 deadline to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), world leaders are meeting at a summit in New York (20-22 September) to accelerate progress towards the MDGs."

Trade-offs in Conservation: Deciding What to Save: Amazon.ca: Nigel Leader-Williams, William M. Adams, Robert J. Smith: Books

Trade-offs in Conservation: Deciding What to Save: Amazon.ca: Nigel Leader-Williams, William M. Adams, Robert J. Smith: Books

Science: what has it done for the Millennium Development Goals? - SciDev.Net

Science: what has it done for the Millennium Development Goals? - SciDev.Net: "When the United Nations published the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2000, with aspirations including the ending of poverty and hunger; the promotion of gender equality and a reduction in child mortality, there was little mention of science. Yet most people involved in working towards the goals accepted that achieving them would rely on the successful application of science. Now, five years before the deadline, and on the eve of a gathering in New York to discuss progress,"

World must rethink poverty fight: U.S. aid chief | Reuters

World must rethink poverty fight: U.S. aid chief | Reuters: "The world must rethink strategies for fighting global poverty, with new emphasis on economic growth, accountability and governance key if basic goals for helping the world's poorest by 2015 are to be met, the U.S. aid chief said.

With leaders gathering in New York on Monday for a United Nations summit on the anti-poverty fight, USAID head Rajiv Shah said the Obama administration was pushing for a new approach in a battle that thus far has brought mixed results."

Maplecroft | Home | About Maplecroft | Media Room | News

Maplecroft | Home | About Maplecroft | Media Room | News: "The Food Security Risk Index 2010, released by risk analysis and rating firm Maplecroft, evaluates the risks to the supply of basic food staples for 163 countries. It uses 12 criteria developed in collaboration with the World Food Programme, to calculate the ranking including: the nutritional and health status of populations, cereal production and imports, GDP per capita, natural disasters, conflict, and the effectiveness of government."

Water security & climate change - SciDev.Net

Water security & climate change - SciDev.Net: "Climate change will certainly impact global and regional water resources, but the exact consequences for water security remain unclear. How well can scientists predict the problems? And what can policymakers do to prepare?"

UN Says Global Hunger Remains 'Unacceptably High' | News | English

UN Says Global Hunger Remains 'Unacceptably High' | News | English: "A report from the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, or FAO, on Tuesday says global hunger has fallen this year but remains 'unacceptably high.' The FAO estimates that there are 925 million undernourished people in the world this year, compared to a little more than a billion last year.

Can the World Meet its Promise to Halve Hunger by 2015? - Ecocentric - TIME.com

Can the World Meet its Promise to Halve Hunger by 2015? - Ecocentric - TIME.com: "A new report released by Oxfam this week has some good news and some bad news for the state of world hunger. The good news: last year, the FAO recorded the first significant dent in world hunger in 15 years, with a decrease from a record 1.02 billion people going hungry in 2009 after the global food crisis down to 925 million this year.

The bad news: 925 million people on the planet are still hungry, a fact that represents what is quickly shaping up to be a basic failure on the part of nations who met ten years ago to establish the UN Millennium Development Goals."

The Hindu Business Line : Mobiles on health call

The Hindu Business Line : Mobiles on health call "A recent initiative by a global consortia consisting of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University's Auton Lab, LIRNEasia, University of Alberta, Respere Lanka, Lanka Jathika Sarvodhaya Society and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), called the Real Time Biosurveillance Program (RTBP), has attempted to use the power of the mobile phone in developing a healthcare model."

ScienceDirect - Ecological Modelling : An interregional ecological approach for modelling sustainability in a globalizing world—Reviewing existing approaches and emerging directions

ScienceDirect - Ecological Modelling : An interregional ecological approach for modelling sustainability in a globalizing world—Reviewing existing approaches and emerging directions - In recent decades international trade has become a major source of supplying the need and wants of billions of people around the world. Virtually everyone now consumes resource commodities and manufactured products imported from ‘elsewhere’. In effect, globalization and trade enable consuming populations to support themselves on the output of distant ecosystems half a world away. However, while economic integration implies greater ‘connectivity’ within the global village, the spatial separation of material production (including resource extraction) from consumption eliminates some of the signals i.e., the negative feedbacks coming from supporting eco-systems from reaching those who depend on these ecosystems for their sustainability. At present, despite increasing global connectedness, most environmental studies and models apply to a single spatial scale: local, national or global; analysing diverse pressures on human well-being and ecosystems integrity. This paper argues that both economic globalization and global ecological change should force us to add an interregional scale for quantifying and modelling sustainability. Such an approach recognizes that, in a globalizing world, the sustainability of any given region increasingly depends, directly and indirectly, on the sustainability of many other regions.

Renewed instability in global food markets requires urgent response – UN expert

Renewed instability in global food markets requires urgent response – UN expert: "7 September 2010 – An independent United Nations human rights expert today called on governments and the international community to promptly tackle the renewed instability of global food markets, noting the related social unrest that has hit some countries in recent weeks.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is convening a special meeting in Rome on 24 September to examine the recent spike in wheat prices and help avoid any repeat of the recent global food crisis.

Wheat prices experienced their biggest monthly rise in almost a year in August, according to the FAO’s Food Price Index, climbing by 5 per cent following persistent drought in Russia – a major producer – and that country’s subsequent restriction on sales.

Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, called on the Rome meeting to “move beyond words” and prepare measures on speculation and food reserves. He also urged donors to step up their support to poor food-deficit countries."

Livestock background paper for World Development Report 2010: Development in a changing climate � ILRI News

Livestock background paper for World Development Report 2010: Development in a changing climate � ILRI News: "The inter-linkages between rapid growth in livestock production, climate change, and the impacts on water resources, land use, and deforestation'—was prepared as a background paper to the World Bank’s acclaimed�World Development Report 2010: Development in a Changing Climate"

Canadian honour for MS Swaminathan - Hindustan Times

Canadian honour for MS Swaminathan - Hindustan Times: "MS Swaminathan, one of the pioneers of the Green Revolution in India, will receive an honorary doctorate from Canada's University of Alberta for his contribution to food security in the world. The Edmonton-based university, which has forged strong relationship with India thanks to its Sri


Lankan-born president Indira Samarasekera, said the world-renowned Indian agriculture scientist will receive the honorary degree Oct 7.
He will also deliver the annual Bentley Lecture on Sustainable Agriculture and the Lester Pearson Memorial Lecture the same day.

Described as 'the father of economic ecology' by the UN Environment Programme, Swaminathan will speak on 'Food Safety and Security in an Era of Climate Change' at the university."

AgWired � Blog Archives � Former UN Sec’y General Awarded World Food Prize Medallion

AgWired Blog Archives Former UN Sec’y General Awarded World Food Prize Medallion: "Former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has picked up the World Food Prize Foundation’s Norman E. Borlaug Medallion, recognizing world leaders whose actions have benefited mankind but who would not normally be eligible for the World Food Prize.

This World Food Prize Foundation press release says Annan was befittingly awarded the medallion during the first-ever African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) in his home country of Ghana:"

6th International Conference on Emerging Zoonoses - WELCOME

6th International Conference on Emerging Zoonoses - WELCOME: "We take great pleasure in inviting you to join us for the 6th International Conference on Emerging Zoonoses, which will take place in Cancun, Mexico,
February 24 – 27, 2011.

Events in the last year have shown us that we are still very vulnerable to fatal zoonotic diseases such as pandemic swine-origin influenza virus H1N1. Since we met in Limassol, Cyprus in November 2007 avian and swine influenza has captured the world’s attention, and we have witnessed the emergence and/or re-emergence of many zoonotic diseases such as the Reston ebolavirus in pigs. Furthermore, new zoonotic pathogens with potential of causing severe human disease have been discovered such as a new arenavirus, Lujo virus, and a new lineage of HIV in Africa."

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics : Applying methodological pluralism to wildlife and the economy

ScienceDirect - Ecological Economics : Applying methodological pluralism to wildlife and the economy

Methodological pluralism is important when we study complex systems. We aim to show that methodological pluralism yields additional insight by applying it to a specific question: how are the economy and wildlife related in developed and developing countries? We identify three possible ingredients of methodological pluralism: (1) using both qualitative and quantitative information; (2) tapping the potential of history to illuminate slow-moving variables; and (3) explicitly synthesizing either individually or in groups, by thinking about the corresponding system. We illustrate with examples.

Bringing agriculture and health back together - SciDev.Net

Bringing agriculture and health back together - SciDev.Net: "Agriculture and health experts must work together to tackle disease, poverty and malnutrition, says development expert Jeff Waage.

The relationship between agriculture and health may seem intuitive and simple — grow more crops and people will have more food and live healthier lives. But because agriculture and health policies are rarely coordinated, the reality is far more complex.

The truth is that despite a huge increase in agricultural productivity and food availability over the past 50 years, and falling food prices, about a billion people remain chronically undernourished.

At the same time, production of cheap refined cereals, sugars and fats is contributing to urban diets that are energy dense and nutrient poor, leading to rapidly growing rates of obesity and diabetes, and associated chronic diseases. This dietary transition is now being seen in countries like China, India and Mexico."

Improving African food security in the face of climate change » ILRI News

 

Scientists, policymakers and farmers from across Africa are meeting this week in Windhoek, Namibia to discuss how to improve food security in Africa in the face of climate change. (Photo credit: ILRI/Stevie Mann)

Improving African food security in the face of climate change » ILRI News