Surging tides from the Indian Ocean, linked in part to climate change, have pushed salt water into Tanzania’s Rufiji Delta, home to the world’s largest mangrove forest and where “more than 90% of households…make their living from rice farming.” Due to the destruction of rice crops by the intrusion of salt water, farmers have moved in search of fresh water and better land. However, better land is increasingly difficult to find because changing weather patterns have decreased the amount of arable land in the delta.

As a result, many farmers have started cutting down trees and cultivating rice in government-protected mangrove forests.  This has led to conflicts with government officials who fear that the destruction of these forests will undermine biodiversity as well as increase carbon dioxide emissions, worsening the effects of climate change. According to the chief executive of the Rufiji Basin Development Authority, Aloyce Masanja, the situation will worsen as program officials “have done many studies, and they have proved that this problem will certainly spread, threatening [the Rufiji Delta’s] food security.”

Posted by: Yekaterina Fomitcheva

Image credit: ALERTNET/Kizito Makoye

Good news: Conditions in Somalia have improved enough for the UN to declare an end to the 8-month famine.  Bad news: The food security situation remains perilous for Somalis.

The declaration of the end of drought conditions is good news, but it brings the risk that the international community will see it as the end of the crisis gripping the people in the Horn of Africa.  One resident of a refugee camp in Mogadishu explained, “‘The famine is almost over but we are desperately dependent on the food aid… If they stop it we will be back to [famine conditions] again. Our children are now better than before, but we ask the United Nations still to help us.’”

Mark Bowden, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia explained,

“We mustn’t give the impression that we’ve solved the problem…What we’ve done is actually reduced the very high levels of mortality and malnutrition which caused so much suffering. And we are now in the position to make even further progress to help people get back to normal lives. But we’ve still quite a long way from a return to normal and secure situations.”

On the ground, nearly 31% of Somalia’s population, or 2.3 million, are still in need of humanitarian assistance.  In the Horn of Africa region, 9.5 million people are expected to need ongoing humanitarian assistance.  Jose Graziano da Silva reminded the public of the continued danger in Somalia by saying  the crisis “‘…can only be resolved with a combination of rains and continued, coordinated, long-term actions that build up the resilience of local populations and link relief with development.’”

Another factor which may be helping with is the weakening of the al-Shabab militant group in Somalia.  BBC reports that while it has been pushed back by foreign forces,  al-Shabab’s deleterious effect on food security is evident in moves like preventing the International Committee for the Red Cross from carrying out its aid mission.

Image credit: Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP/Getty Images/NPR

Buffered by a signature Obama administration goal to fight childhood obesity, the final piece of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 was implemented on January 25th.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the final set of nutrition standards enacted include:

• Ensuring students are offered both fruits and vegetables every day of the week;
• Substantially increasing offerings of whole grain-rich foods;
• Offering only fat-free or low-fat milk varieties;
• Limiting calories based on the age of children being served to ensure proper portion size; and
• Increasing the focus on reducing the amounts of saturated fat, trans fats and sodium.

While these changes are a substantial improvement, there are still some items that were not excised from the menu.  Although Margo Wootan, director of nutrition policy at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, described the menu as the “best ever”, she is still disappointed that Congress did not allow for the removal of french fries from school menus, nor the designation of pizza as a vegetable.

Bettina Elias Siegel points out “the Good, the Bad and the Ugly” of the new food standards.  On the “Good” side, the new guidelines is that it brings caloric requirements more in line with acceptable levels for children and eschews the “nutrient standard” system for determining school lunch offerings, which included foods that did not necessarily draw nutrients from the right foods.  In the “Bad” category, she highlights how Congress will have a difficult time funding the program.  For the “Ugly” dimension of the new rules, Elias Siegel points to the continued role of the food lobby in keeping foods like french fries and pizza on menus.

Writing in the Atlantic, Marion Nestle applauds the new standards, but observes that the work to improve child nutrition is not done.  “Good work. Now let’s get busy on the next challenges:

• Set nutrition standards for competitive foods in schools — those sold outside of the lunch program as snacks and meal replacements.
• Teach kids where food comes from.
• Teach kids to cook.”

While these new measures take aim at identifiable problems with child nutrition, other factors may continue to influence strategies for keeping kids healthy.  A recent study from Penn State suggests that there is “no correlation at all between obesity and attending a school where sweets and salty snacks were available.”  There is also the possibility that the lack of choice in food will create a backlash from children who may not eat as much healthy food if they feel restricted from their own food choices.

Image credit: Gourmet.com

In Berlin, farm ministers and policy makers criticized the food waste of developed countries and emphasized the importance of nutrition education programs. Every year, consumers in developed countries waste 220 million metric tons of food, while almost one billion people go hungry. These practices not only hurt those affected by hunger, but also those who over consume and, as a result, suffer from diseases such as obesity. The FAO said that at our current rate of consumption, food production would need to increase 70% by 2050 to feed the expanding population.

However, the FAO website also states that “given the limited availability of natural resources it is more effective to reduce food losses than increase food production in order to feed a growing world population.”  Furthermore, according to Jose Graziano da Silva, the director general of the FAO, ensuring food security in the future will take more than simply focusing on sustainable food production. More importantly, citizens of developed countries must change their consumption practices and ways of thinking. They must adopt a new set of values, eat correctly, and waste less.

Image credit: Blog de Auma/Well HOme

Posted by: Yekaterina Fomitcheva

Last week, Ertharin Cousin was named by the United Nations to replace Josette Sheeran as the head of the World Food Programme (WFP).  Cousin currently serves as the U.S. ambassador to UN food agencies based in Rome, which include WFP and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Cousin, described by Reuters as a “a stalwart of the U.S. Democratic Party…worked in the retail food sector and served as an executive of Feeding America, the largest U.S. domestic hunger organization. She led that organization’s response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.”

CBS News described her previous work in government in the “Clinton Administration for four years, including as deputy chief of staff for the Democratic National Committee and White House Liaison at the State Department. In 1997 she received a White House appointment to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development.”

Cousin will begin her post in April, when Josette Sheeran’s five-year term expires.

Photo credit: WFP/Giulio D’Adamo

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) plans to encourage climate-smart farming in Malawi, Vietnam, and Zambia, providing these countries with “strategic plans tailored to each country’s own reality.” According to the FAO, “Agriculture policies are the cornerstones for achieving food security and improving livelihoods.” However, current agricultural practices are a problem because they are responsible for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change, which in turn threatens agricultural productivity and food security.

Climate-smart agriculture seeks to provide a solution to this destructive cycle by promoting sustainable agricultural practices that increase productivity and food security while decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. One promising practice is agroforestry, which may play an important role in improving agricultural techniques and food production in Sub-Saharan Africa.  For example, agroforestry would promote planting of the Faidherbia tree, which has been shown to store carbon dioxide, enhance soil water retention and nutrient levels, as well as increase crop yields. Some other climate-smart practices involve conservation agriculture and integrated food-energy systems. Furthermore, climate-smart agriculture focuses on improving various elements of food production systems including soil and nutrient management, water harvesting and use, and pest and disease control.

The three year climate-smart agriculture project aimed at Malawi, Vietnam, and Zambia reflects the idea of the new FAO Director-General, Jose Graziano da Silva, who said that “Hunger eradication should not be separated from responses to other global challenges…such as mitigating and adapting to climate change.”

Posted by: Yekaterina Fomitcheva

Image credit: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Hoping to aid in Haiti’s recovery from the January 2010 earthquake, some political leaders and development officials looked at one problem deemed to be a persistent obstacle – overcrowded urban areas.  The solution?  Redevelopment of Haiti’s agricultural sector as a way of encouraging people to move out of cities, create a market for local food products and create jobs in the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.

For those proponents of this plan, The New York Times wrote recently, trying to fix one problem while ignoring others can be dangerous.  “But the vision has run up against Haitian reality: myriad economic and infrastructure deficiencies, the lack of credible opportunity in rural areas and the fading of international interest and funds. “  A controversial presidential election and the closing of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission have further clouded the atmosphere for effective development planning.

The article goes on to illustrate the promise and peril of rural development with the example of an experimental farming village called Papaye.  Although foreign aid money has helped Papaye to get off the ground and provide Haitians with a successful model, difficulties faced by the new farmers makes some of them second guess their involvement and hope for a return to city life.

Image credit: AFP/Voice of America

Summary of Global Food Security 2011

The Global Food Security blog’s coverage for 2011 started where 2010 left off, with posts about controversial land grabs in Africa.  The recovery of Haiti was strained when even the production of rice, a staple crop, was slowed by fears that it might contribute to a growing cholera outbreak.  Foreshadowing the shortfalls that would be seen in other parts of the world in 2011, a post on food insecurity in Afghanistan revealed the aid agencies expected the conflict-torn country to have low-level food security.

With the FAO’s monthly report on global food prices showing that food prices in January 2011 were already at levels higher than the 2007-2008 food crisis, anxiety increased about whether this increase would subside or continue during the year.  As with the 2010 wildfires in Russia, fears that a natural disaster would upset food prices did occur when floods in Australia impacted global wheat supply.

As the protests of the Arab Spring emerged as one of the 2011’s major news stories, an underlying story followed by this blog was the role that frustration over food prices played in setting off unrest and fears of new unrest caused by food security in other regions of the world.

By February, concern emerged that drought conditions in China may lead to a run by the Chinese government on global food markets, raising prices across the board globally.  When rainfall arrived at the eleventh-hour to relieve parched Chinese farmland, the world quietly avoided another food crisis.

The March 11th earthquake in Japan and subsequent tsunami had the immediate effect of cutting off survivors from safe food and water.  In the aftermath of the natural disaster, fears of radiation contaminating the food supply in Japan shut down the export of food produced in areas nearby the Fukushima prefecture.  Throughout the year, lingering fears of radiation contamination in Japanese food products were confirmed with high radiation levels in some food products.

In June, a deadly outbreak of E.coli contamination in Germany killed 31 people and sickened over 3,000.  The story resonated because of the number of people affected, as well as the speed and reach of the outbreak.  The difficulty in identifying the source of the outbreak created new calls to examine how governments handle such outbreaks.

In July, a critical famine warning hit the Horn of Africa, a formal recognition of a problem that was building for several months.  With over 9 million people initially affected by the drought, the humanitarian situation looked as bleak as it could, until a few weeks later, when the UN declared famine conditions existed in two regions of Somalia.  The plight of the people in the Horn of Africa, desperately trying to escape areas devoid of food, only to become caught up in regional conflicts, overrun refugee camps and a painfully slow international aid response was covered by several blogs on the FPB network throughout the remainder of the year.  Added attention by the global media only bore witness to a worsening situation, but did not necessarily engender a greater aid response.

The international community’s attention to global food security was displayed in some important events in 2011.  At a May 6th FAO meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called attention to the need to immediately address the effects of rising food prices.  In late June, the G-20 held a landmark Agriculture Summit to discuss the connection between food production and distribution as a way of understanding how to prevent food crises.

Food security was given a prominent forum as the subject of two high-level meetings at the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly in September.  The theme of addressing rising food prices was carried on for World Food Day, October 16th.

As the year closed, western Africa’s Sahel region was preparing for the emergence of drought conditions across several countries.  Will lessons learned in 2011 be applied to address this budding crisis?  Or will 2012’s first food security crisis come from western Africa?

Most Unexpected Event

Many would like to say that in this day and age, no area of the world should suffer prolonged food insecurity from drought and famine.  Food security experts who tracked the crisis in the Horn of Africa would note that warnings about a natural disaster in the area and the challenges that would face a humanitarian aid response were already known.  While these experts would not call this crisis wholly unexpected, its results remains shocking.

Person (or people) of the year

While this category is addressed at the end of the year in all of the blogs, it always proves particularly difficult for this blog.  Of course, there are many examples of aid workers and individuals who aim to improve food security in the areas they live or work, and we try to acknowledge their work in posts as frequently as possible.

The Global Food Security blog therefore selects: The people of the Horn of Africa.  Using this space, we would like to once again call attention to the needs of over 10 million people by referring you to our posts from earlier in the year, where you can donate much needed funds to organizations working in the Horn of Africa.

Must reads for Global Food Security

Bloggers have included their recommendations for books related to their blog topics, but we would like to use this space to recommend that readers revisit some of this blog’s posts from the past year that highlighted unique aspects of this diverse topic.

MyPlate serves new nutrition guidelines
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new nutrition guidelines, represented in a new symbol, updating the “food pyramid” campaign.

Three new reports challenge food security forecasts
Three independent reports released in spring 2011 looked at the future of food security and how it will be impacted by  global warming, population and consumption patterns.

Five questions for…William Schanbacher
Discussing his recent book, Dr. Schanbacher shares his ideas on food sovereignty vs. food security, food as a cultural commodity and the effectiveness of international organizations in ending global hunger and poverty.

Forecast for 2012

One trend that was tracked in the past year was food insecurity in the United States.  As the 2012 presidential campaign moves into full swing, will hunger in the U.S. become a campaign issue?

The G-20 Agricultural Summit promised a great deal, but left some parts of the agreement unplanned or pushed them down the road.  Will the international community seize the momentum raised by this summit and other meetings to create mechanisms to keep food prices under control?  Or will it take another food crisis to initiate further action?

Come back to read and we will stay on top of these and other issues.

2011 Bloggers

In the past year, the Global Food Security blog had posts contributed by Nadja Boncouer, Michael Lucivero, Adam Read-Brown and Rishi Sidhu.  Ideas for posts were also contributed by members of the FPA staff.

Image credit: Sven Torfinn/The Guardian

Aid agencies are sounding the alarm about an impending drought in the countries of the Sahel region of Western Africa, threatening 12 million people with severe malnutrition, including 1 million children.

Production of cereals has been hampered by poor rainfall throughout 2011, raising prices of food across the region.  The coming crisis is expected to eclipse the drought that affected 7 million in Niger and Chad in 2009.

Just as the drought and famine in the Horn of Africa could have been prevented with greater intervention, aid agencies are warning that an “unprecedented effort” is necessary to ensure that drought in the Sahel region does not become a worst case scenario in 2012.

Image credit: Discover Magazine

The AARP Foundation’s August 2011 report, “Food Security Among Older Adults,” measured survey responses from older Americans in these three age categories.  Respondents were then grouped as marginally food insecure; food insecure, and very low food secure.

Among the findings:

• Of the age ranges measured, “food insecurity increased substantially after 2007″ in each category.

• Older Americans considered facing the threat of hunger increased 66%, facing the risk of hunger increased 79% and facing hunger increased 132% “from the levels of food insecurity in 2001 among this population.”

• Although food insecurity among the poor always doubles or triples food insecurity by the general population, level of food insecurity of the poor did not increase dramatically after the global financial crisis in 2007.  ” Thus, the recessionary increase in adult food insecurity was most pronounced among those with higher incomes.”

• Those closer to retirement report a 10% higher rate of disability and “points to a particular vulnerability for the onset of food insecurity” for the 50-59 age range.

• The numbers of food insecure are higher when considering racial, ethnic and geographic factors for those polled.

Read the full report for more details and recommendations.

The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement initiated a program in 1998 to help refugee communities in the United States to feel somewhat closer to home, by financing farms and gardens that allow refugees to grow crops that are traditionally grown in their home countries but are not available here.

The New York Times featured an article describing the budding “entrepreneurial movement” of refugee agriculture, which is not only producing familiar food and viable incomes for refugees, but is also introducing these new agricultural products to Americans through restaurants and markets.

Image credit: The New York Times

Working with a local telecommunications company, the World Food Programme (WFP) has developed a program in the Ivory Coast to facilitate cash transfers that can be used by thousands of Ivorians to by food despite  a climate of political violence.

WFP provides $75.00 per month to households, benefiting 54,000 people in the Ivory Coast.  However, people have had trouble accessing the money because of unrest plaguing Ivory Coast since the contested 2010 presidential election.  The phone cash transfer system works as follows:

“When a beneficiary receives a text message on their mobile phone alerting them that cash is available, they have to dial in a personal code (provided by WFP) to confirm receipt. They can then go to any MTN kiosk in Abidjan where they can withdraw cash on showing their WFP beneficiary card.

A WFP official said people could also get their money through any Societe Generale bank in the city or purchase goods directly from one of WFP’s partner shops.”

If the program continues to succeed, it could become a model for other WFP programs in countries where instability or high crime predominate.

Photo credit: Reuters via International Business Times