The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that Setton Farms of California, which grows pistachio nuts for Kraft Foods, Inc., has announced a recall of its crop from the previous year after finding salmonella contamination in tested batches. There have been reported cases of illness related to the contamination which are being investigated. However, […]
Following UN Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf’s appeal to G-20 leaders to discuss agricultural initiatives for alleviating the global food crisis while meeting in London this week, the Fairtrade Foundation has repeated that call and said a fresh approach to trade was greatly needed to address the issue. The group called on the […]
The small African island nation of Seychelles has been forced to make a tough choice to improve its food security. The government announced that it will abandon a planned hotel project in order to preserve the land for growing food. Seychelles imports a large amount of its food because it has a dearth of arable […]
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization director-general, Jacques Diouf, called for restraint in tightening credit as a response to the global financial crisis while speaking at the biennial UN food policy conference in Bangkok, Thailand. In another example of the tie between the global food crisis and the economic downturn, Diouf voiced concern that the […]
A coalition of 183 social justice and civil society groups, including 76 U.S.-based organizations and 107 international groups from 29 countries, signed a letter appealing to President Obama and the U.S. Congress to re-regulate the commodities market as a means of preventing continued food price speculation – a practice food poliocy experts claim was a […]
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a hearing today aimed at asking what the U.S. can do to address the current global food crisis. A bill co-sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. (PA) and Senator Richard Lugar (IN) has been introduced to Congress to improve US and global efforts to increase crop yields, create […]
On Monday, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced plans for a summit on the global food crisis at the 36th Session of the Conference of the Organization in Rome this November. The proposal for the meeting had already received support from the heads of State and Government of the League of Arab States […]
The Kenya Food Security Steering Group – a consortium of Kenyan government officials, UN agencies, foreign aid officials, and NGOs – stated in a new report that the food security of 2.5 million Kenyans is threatened by an extended drought period in certain parts of the country. There are also more than 7 million Kenyans […]
The United Kingdom government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, John Beddington, predicted that the year 2030 will witness a “perfect storm of food, energy and water shortages” across the globe. Speaking at the Sustainable Development UK 09 conference in London, Beddington cited a growing global population as the driving factor behind the anticipated shortages. Beddington predicts that […]
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met for a two-day summit in Nigeria to review the impact of the food crisis in the region, especially over the last year, and devise a plan for countering the crisis ahead of the new farming season. ECOWAS principle programme officer Dr. Ernest Aubee said after the […]
President Barack Obama used his weekly address from the Whitehouse to call attention to food safety in the United States. “…[I]n recent years, we’ve seen a number of problems with the food making its way to our kitchen tables…Part of the reason is that many of the laws and regulations governing food safety in America […]
“Country Of Origin Labeling” (COOL) goes into effect today, expanding a labeling program from the 2002 Farm Bill, in response to concerns about contaminated food being imported into the United States. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, consumer groups and some farmers pushed for the adoption of the new rules, which for now are voluntary: “I […]
President Obama met with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon for the first time on Tuesday, talking at length about the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, the war in Afghanistan, the aftermath of Hurricanes in Haiti – and the ongoing shortages in global food supply, as reported in this Boston Globe article. Following the meeting, President Obama remarked […]
On February 28, 2009, China upgraded its 1995 food hygiene law by passing a new law creating a food safety commission which can increase compensation to those harmed by tainted food or impose severe penalties on those involved with producing and promoting tainted food products. The new law is intended to improve China’s food safety […]
One suggestion for combating future global food crises is to launch a new Green Revolution. The first Green Revolution took place in the mid-20th Century, and was a campaign that encouraged farmers, particularly in the developing world, to increase the success of their crops by using better seeds and farming methods. The Green Revolution succeeded […]