FAO Report Issues Warning

Climate change bringing floods and drought, growing biofuel demand and national policies to protect domestic markets could drive up global food prices and threaten long-term food security, the United Nations said. High and volatile food prices are a growing global concern, partly fuelling the protests that toppled the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt this year.

Britain Threatens To Withdraw From FAO

Britain said Feb. 26 it could leave one of the United Nations’ agencies fighting hunger unless it improves its “patchy” performance. The threat to pull out of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) follows a review of British overseas aid ordered by the nine-month- old coalition government, which administers one of the world’s biggest aid


North Korea Confirms Foot-And-Mouth Outbreak

North Korea has confirmed cases of foot-and-mouth disease across the country and lodged the outbreak with the UN food agency. South Korean media reported that the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) would dispatch a team next week to help the reclusive state contain the outbreak. The North’s KCNA state news agency said the most affected

China’s Wheat Crop Hurt By Drought

Wheat output in China, the world’s largest producer and consumer of the grain, may be at risk after severe winter drought in its main northern producing regions, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization said. “Substantially below-normal rainfall since October 2010 in the North China Plain, the country’s main winter wheat-producing area, puts at risk


FAO Head Wants New Commodity Rules

Market deregulat ion since 1999 has fuelled speculation on commodities markets, and that needs to be corrected to curb food price volatility, the head of FAO said Feb. 3. “We have created an environment that allows pure speculation,” FAO director general Jacques Diouf told Reuters Insider. “This is something that would require the necessary corrections

Somalia Faces Worst Drought In Five Years

Somalia is entering its worst drought in five years and aid agencies are unable to feed the majority of people in need, a senior United Nations humanitarian official said Jan. 28. Al Shabaab rebels, who profess loyalty to al-Qaida, have refused to allow food aid to be distributed in southern and central Somalia, which they


UN Food Body FAO Warns Against Food Export Curbs

The United Nations’ food agency warned food-producing countries Jan. 26 against introducing export curbs to protect local markets as world food prices rose close to levels that triggered food riots in 2007- 08. Global food prices rose above 2008 highs in December with the Food Price Index of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Food Prices Near 2008 Levels

World food prices have come close to the 2007-08 crisis levels after a spike in October, but global supplies are stronger now and cereal prices remain well below critical levels, the UN’s food agency economist said Nov. 2. The Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Food Price Index hit the highest level in 27 months in


Livestock Plague Could Hit Southern Africa

A viral disease which broke out in Tanzania earlier this year could spread to southern Africa, putting at risk more than 50 million sheep and goats in 15 countries, the UN’s food agency said Nov. 2. Known as peste des petits ruminants (PPR), or small ruminants’ plague, the disease does not infect humans but is

Food Security Risk If Crop Biodiversity Lost

Future global food security may be at risk unless greater efforts are made to conserve and use the genetic diversity of cultivated crops and their wild relatives, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization said. The world’s cereals output needs to rise by one billion tonnes a year by 2050 to feed a population that