Bangladesh Adopts Food Security Plan

Bangladesh has adopted a nearly $8-billion plan to ensure food security over the next five years, Food and Disaster Management Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque said April 2. “We have finalized the investment plan for our food security until 2015 and have full support from our development partners to implement it,” he told Reuters. The government

FAO Sees Food Price Rebound

Global food prices are expected to rebound in the next few weeks after coming off record highs in March as demand keeps growing against tight supplies, a top official at the United Nations’ food agency said on April 7. “We believe that in the next few weeks, and there are already signs of it, prices


Brazil Turns And Backs French Commodity Proposal

Brazil has come around to back France’s proposal for increased regulation of commodity markets which have bumped food prices to record highs this year, the agricultural giant’s farm minister said April 7. France is seeking the support of the G20 group of wealthy and developing economies for a series of reforms intended to help stabilize

Record-High Food Prices? Or Just Better Than Record Lows?

Reporters and politicians are making frequent references to high food prices – some going so far as to suggest prices are nearing record levels. But for the farmers and peasants who produce the world’s food, prices are nowhere near record highs. In fact, what is currently happening to corn, beans, rice, or wheat prices would


Agriculture Gets Low Budget Profile

With commodity prices soaring and the federal government negotiating with the provinces on a new version of Growing Forward, no one expects agriculture to rate much more than mention in passing in the March 22 budget. A recent Agriculture Canada forecast predicted generally rosy conditions for most sectors of Canadian agriculture going forward as food

FAO Warns On Oil As World Food Prices Hit Record

Global food prices hit a record high in February, the United Nations said March 3, warning that fresh oil price spikes and stockpiling by importers keen to head off popular unrest would hit already volatile cereal markets. Rising food prices are a growing global concern, partly fuelling the protests which toppled the rulers of Tunisia


Russia May Extend Grain Export Ban

Russia, worried by soaring food prices and a shortage of grain to feed its livestock, may extend its ban on grain exports until the end of the year, Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said. “We are working on potential forecasts that involve keeping the ban in place until the end of the year,” Zubkov told

Mother Hubbard’s Empty CCC Cupboard

On a sunny, sub-zero day 20 or so years ago, the great-grandson of a Kansas homesteader related one of the most important lessons passed on to him by his family’s boom-bust-boom generations of dryland farming. “My grandfather,” he offered, “taught us that it’s not the choices you make in the bad times that usually cause


Indonesia Links Good Data To Food Security

Indonesia’s Agriculture Ministry and statistics agency have signed an agreement aimed at releasing more agriculture data, to help food-security planning in the world’s fourth-most-populous nation. Like many emerging markets, Indonesia is battling booming global food prices, and has been forced to import various foods as it grapples with inflation. Analysts also say a lack of

Food Inflation Controls May Backfire

Government efforts to control prices, now that food inflation has risen to the top of political agendas across the globe, may hamper a needed increase in supplies, a Cargill director warned Feb. 15. Paul Conway, senior vice-president and board member with the U.S. agribusiness and trading giant, said it was clear that political instability in