2010 March Countryside Survey of Great Britain contradicts that soils have lost carbon across England and Wales 1978-2003 of about 100mt according to the National Soil Inventory examined by P.Bellamy et al, Nature, Vol 437, 8.9.2005 (complete pdf). So an independent inquiry is in place (see Observer article March 2010). February
IUF launch website McJobs carrying stories of what it is like to work for the world's biggest hamburger comapany, including details of an agreement that McDonalds has reached with labour and environmental organisations in the states, "to survey its U.S. potato suppliers, compile a list of best practices in pesticide reduction and recommend those best practices to its global suppliers. It also will share its findings with investors and include the findings in its annual corporate social responsibility report.". Sceince publishes Special Online Collection: Food Security that "examines the obstacles to achieving global food security and some promising solutions. News articles introduce farmers and researchers who are finding ways to boost harvests, especially in the developing world." "We have perhaps 40 years to radically transform agriculture, work out how to grow more food without exacerbating environmental problems, and simultaneously cope with climate change." Global Environmental Change publishes The Story of Phosphorus: Global food security and food for thought."Current global reserves may be depleted in 50–100 years. While phosphorus demand is projected to increase, the expected global peak in phosphorus production is predicted to occur around 2030. The exact timing of peak phosphorus production might be disputed....This paper puts forward the case for including long-term phosphorus scarcity on the priority agenda for global food security." RELU asks What is Land for? saying "Use of land is one of the principal drivers of global environmental change, and, in turn, environmental change, particularly climate change, will increasingly influence the use made of land as communities strive to adapt to, and mitigate, the effects of a changing climate." and " Gordon Brown stressed the ‘core responsibility’ of British farmers to ‘grow and produce the majority of food consumed by the British people’, alongside a ‘front line’ role adapting and reacting to the challenges and opportunities of climate change and exploiting the potential of farmers to become ‘energy exporters’. Farmers and their advisors have been quick to embrace the ‘new productivism’". January Food Standards Agency Integrated Advice to Comsumers (IAC) discusses the research "undertaken to gauge consumer attitudes and reactions to the concept of a website providing integrated government advice for consumers in relation to food safety, healthy eating and environmental and wider sustainability issues." Recommendations pdf All Party Parliamentary Group Why No Thought for Food? asks "why has the (UK) Government consciously and deliberately run down its support for agriculture in international development when it once led the world – why no thought for food?" Lifeworth Consulting Capitalism in Question describes "how politicians and even business leaders are calling for more critical assessment of what kind of economic system we need for a fair and sustainable future" and reviews the main books that "seek to do something that previously seemed neither necessary or interesting − to defend capitalism.” Dan Morgan (he of "Merchants of Grain") for the German Marshall Fund of the US, in The Farm Bill and Beyond explains "At the White House, President Obama has proposed cutting some key subsidies, and he has signaled interest in aligning himself - at least symbolically - with a grass roots movement that supports "sustainable agriculture" and "healthy foods." These developments have moved long-standing tensions over agriculture policy to center stage". Meanwhile 1 in 8 Americans now use Food Coupons. FCRN & WWF-UK How Low Can We Go found that the usual account for the food chain is around 20% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. "However, this newly published report finds that, once food related land use change impacts are included in the calculation, the contribution from food rises to 30% of the UK total." It then goes on to look at scenarios for reducing this by 70% by 2050 in line with all government targets. Corinna Hawkes edits Trade, F sayingood, Diet and Health: Perspectives and Policy Options that "examines the role global food trade has played in the rise in diet-related chronic illness, looking carefully at how the trade of food across national borders, international and regional trade agreements, the process of trade and investment liberalization, and the growth of transnational food corporations affects what people eat and, by implication, their health."
Heinrich Boll Foundation Climate Change and the Right to Food study "proposes concrete methods by which institutions can address climate change problems and realize the right to food (see - de Schutter in November 09) symbiotically, in compliance with the principles of systemic integration under international law." Our other News feeds..
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