Food & Agriculture

The Crisis in Venezuela

By Alfred de Zayas
My mission to Venezuela in November/December 2017 was the first by a UN rapporteur in 21 years. It was intended to open the door to the visit of other rapporteurs and to explore ways how to help the Venezuelan people overcome the protracted economic and institutional crisis.

Urgent Call for African Food Sovereignty Movements to Connect with Radical Feminist Movements on the Continent

By Mariam Mayet, Stephen Greenberg and Linzi Lewis of the African Centre for Biodiversity
Africa is facing dire times. Climate change is having major impacts on the region and on agriculture in particular, with smallholder farmers, and especially women, facing drought, general lack of water, shifting seasons, and floods in some areas.

Smart Tech Will Only Work for Women When the Fundamentals for Its Uptake Are in Place

By Ibrahim Thiaw
Science and technology offer exciting pathways for rural women to tackle the challenges they face daily. Innovative solutions for rural women can, for example, reduce their workload, raise food production and increase their participation in the paid labour market. But even the very best innovative, gender-appropriate technology makes no sense without access to other critical resources, especially secure land rights, which women in rural areas need to flourish.

Developing Agriprenuers to Save Nigeria’s Youth from Crime

By Busani Bafana
When Lawrence Afere told his parents he was going into farming rather than getting a job in Nigeria’s lucrative oil and gas sector, they swore he was bewitched.

Does Climate Change Offer New Opportunities for Agriculture in Argentina?

By Daniel Gutman
Climate change poses a global threat to food production, but for agriculture in Argentina it could also present new opportunities. In some areas of the country, farming conditions will improve, according to an analysis by experts of the latest climate projections.

The Future of Urbanism: Is the UAE Pioneering it?

By Rabiya Jaffery
According to data from the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Arab world is one of the most urbanised areas in the world, with more than 70 per cent of the population of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)--- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)-- living in urban areas.

Reverse Engineering for SDGs

By Kakoli Ghosh and Loreta Zdanovaite
When young people from small towns and villages seek higher education they have to usually migrate to big cities leaving their local communities behind. On completion of their degree from the Universities, they generally prefer staying in cities, in search of a good job and a successful career. Though this is a standard practice, it is also a case of lost opportunities, especially for students who pursue higher education in agriculture. Here is why.

Wake Up and Smell the Organic Coffee

By Busani Bafana
In 1992, the idea of replanting her father’s ruined coffee farm seemed foolhardy at the time. But in retrospect it was the best business decision that Dorienne Rowan-Campbell, an international development consultant and broadcast journalist, could have made.

Agribusiness Is the Problem, Not the Solution

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
For two centuries, all too many discussions about hunger and resource scarcity has been haunted by the ghost of Parson Thomas Malthus. Malthus warned that rising populations would exhaust resources, especially those needed for food production. Exponential population growth would outstrip food output.

Mining Grabs Up Land, Deals Blow to Agriculture in Central America

By Edgardo Ayala
Like an octopus, metals mining has been spreading its tentacles throughout Central America and dealing a blow to the region's agriculture and natural ecosystems, according to affected villagers, activists and a new report on the problem.

Q&A: Jamaica Pushes Climate Smart Policies to Secure the Future of its Food Supply

By Busani Bafana
The island state of Jamaica is vulnerable to climate change which has in turn threatened both its economy and food production. But the Caribbean nation is taking the threat seriously and it has constructed a robust policy framework to support national climate action, particularly when it comes to promoting climate-smart agriculture (CSA).

Q&A: We Are Helping the World Mitigate Climate Change, Now it’s Time to Help Us

By Desmond Brown
The Caribbean nation of Suriname may be one of the most forested countries in the world, with some 93 percent of the country’s surface area being covered in forests, but it is also the most threatened as it struggles with the impacts of climate change.

Farmers Secure Land and Food Thanks to ‘Eyes in the Skies’

By Busani Bafana
Six years ago while wondering how best to use her engineering skills, Tanzanian ICT entrepreneur Rose Funja decided to enter an innovation competition. Years later she has turned a digital idea into a viable business that helps smallholder farmers across the East African nation access credit.   

Canada Implements New Food Guidelines, But What About the Food Waste?

By Stephen Leahy
Canada introduced a new healthy eating food guide January 2019 and, for the first time, the meat, dairy and processed food and beverage industries were not involved. Based on the recommendations of health and nutrition experts, the guide places a new emphasis on eating plants, drinking water and cooking at home.

Ethics for artificial intelligence

By Rosli Omar and Jomo Kwame Sundaram
Owing to our varied circumstances and experiences, there are contradictory tendencies to either exaggerate or underestimate the power and importance of artificial intelligence (AI) in contemporary society.

Desertification, Land Degradation and Climate Change Go Hand in Hand

By Desmond Brown
The link between desertification, land degradation and climate change is among several issues occupying the attention of the 197 Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) for the next three days.

COP24: Sum and Substance of Climate Diplomacy

By Chandra Bhushan
As I was attending the 24th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—to create a rulebook to operationalise the Paris Agreement—in Katowice, Poland, it dawned on me, like never before, that the negotiations were taking place in a make-believe world.

Bringing Greener Pastures Back Home

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
One month on since the Global Compact for Migration was approved, civil society has highlighted the need to turn words into action, supporting those who have been displaced or forced to migrate as a result of environmental degradation.

Eat Plants, Save the Planet

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
While the modern agricultural system has helped stave off famines and feed the world’s 7 billion residents, the way we eat and produce food is posing a threat to future populations’ food security.

Family Farming Wages a Difficult Battle in Argentina

By Daniel Gutman
"Our philosophy is based on two principles: zero tolerance of pesticides or bosses," says Leandro Ladrú, while he puts tomatoes and carrots in the ecological bag held by a customer, in a large market in the Argentine capital, located between warehouses and rusty old railroad cars.

Climate Change Threatens Mexico’s Atlantic Coast

By Emilio Godoy
"I couldn't plant my cornfield in May, because it rained too early. I lost everything," lamented Marcos Canté, an indigenous farmer, as he recounted the ravages that climate change is wreaking on this municipality on Mexico's Caribbean coast.
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