Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS Analysis by Mitch Moxley BEIJING, Jan 19, 2011 (IPS) – In China, a country with a history of famine and where rural dwellers still use the greeting "have you eaten?", food is close to sacred. Feeding the country’s massive population remains one of the biggest threats to future [...]
Another Africa is Emerging
December 3, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IDN By Paola Valeri* IDN-InDepth NewsAnalyisis MADRID (IDN) – Africa could be self-sufficient and in a position to feed itself within a span of one generation. This is what Professor Calestous Juma, from Harvard Kennedy School in the United States, told the leaders of the East African Community [...]
New Staple Crop Varieties Take Aim at Malnutrition
November 10, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Matthew O. Berger WASHINGTON, Nov 9, 2010 (IPS) – When the Green Revolution took root in the 1960s and 1970s, plant biologists’ main concern was increasing the yield of the staple crops on which people in poor countries depended. This, it stood to reason, would increase the [...]
Caribbean Fighting a Losing Battle Against Food Imports
November 3, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Bert Wilkinson ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, Nov 3, 2010 (IPS) – For much of late October, Caribbean ministers of agriculture, journalists, farmers and academics gathered in this tiny but picturesque south Caribbean island in a rearguard bid to refocus a region used to existing mostly for tourism on [...]
ARGENTINA: Experts Optimistic, Farmers Cautious on Grain Harvest
November 1, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Marcela Valente BUENOS AIRES, Nov 1, 2010 (IPS) – Agricultural analysts are predicting a strong grain harvest for Argentina, where soy, maize and wheat are among the engines driving the national economy. But farmers are more circumspect as they plant this year’s crops in the southern hemisphere [...]
Slow Food Picks Up Steadily
October 29, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Claudia Ciobanu TORINO, Italy, Oct 29, 2010 (IPS) – It’s been a steady, even if slow growth for the Slow Food movement around the world. Founded 22 years ago in Italy, the Slow Food movement tackles issues as diverse as basic survival of farmers, land-grabbing, biodiversity protection, [...]
SRI LANKA: Rising Bread Prices Expose Trade Vulnerabilities
October 28, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Amantha Perera COLOMBO, Oct 28, 2010 (IPS) – There was a time when being a breadseller here in Colombo enabled Charmindha to have modest dreams. But the teenager from Sri Lanka’s rural south has been seeing his daily earnings slide in the last two months, and indications [...]
U.S. Aid Shift Envisions Path to Self-Sufficiency
October 25, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Matthew O. Berger WASHINGTON, Oct 25, 2010 (IPS) – As part of a more general promise of reform to U.S. development policy, the U.S. Agency for International Development is poised to fundamentally alter the way it tackles poverty overseas. When President Barack Obama announced a new Global [...]
Europe to Slow Down on Food
October 25, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Claudia Ciobanu TORINO, Italy, Oct 25, 2010 (IPS) – The Slow Food movement has won significant support from the European Union. Dacian Ciolos, the European Union Commissioner for Agriculture, spoke to IPS in support of the movement at Terra Madre, a biennial reunion of promoters of the [...]
Churchill Denied Relief to Bengal Famine Victims, Book Says
October 25, 2010 By
Global Geopolitics & Political Economy / IPS By Sananda Sahoo WASHINGTON, Oct 25, 2010 (IPS) – A new book on the Indian famine of 1943, also known as the Bengal famine named after the specific region where it occurred, has squarely put the responsibility for the famine on then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. The [...]
