Gaps in technology, policy and investment are making it difficult for farmers and corporations to meet sustainability goals.
Tag Archives food demand
Critical gaps slow progress towards sustainable food systems
Severe ‘food shocks’ seen more likely due to extreme weather
London | Reuters — Extreme weather such as intense storms, droughts and heatwaves will cause more frequent and severe food shortages as the global climate and food supply systems change, British and U.S. experts warned Friday. The pressure on the world’s food supplies is so great, and the increase in extreme weather events so rapid,
Clear rules needed on low-level GM contamination
Clear and reasonable rules for low levels of genetically modified grains and oilseeds need to be part of any Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, Canadian farm leaders told their counterparts from Peru and other countries during a recent trade trip to Lima. “It was a great opportunity to explain to negotiators and other stakeholders why the TPP
FCC reports rise in Manitoba farmland values
Astrong agricultural economy fuelled by low interest rates, growing world food demand and resulting higher commodity prices, continue to underpin a national increase in average farmland values. The average value of farmland in Manitoba increased by 13.9 per cent during the second half of 2012, according to a new Farm Credit Canada. The latest increase
Farm prosperity will depend on income
Farm Credit Canada’s top economist says if you’re a Canadian farmer, you should really be hoping for the best in the Chinese economy. That’s because while population growth catches all the headlines and is credited for growing food demand, it’s looking increasingly like we’ll be able to feed nine billion by 2050. The question is
Economics versus culture
Dermot Hayes, a respected livestock economist from Iowa State University, is admittedly flummoxed over the question of whether it will be grain producers or the livestock sector benefiting from the growing demand for protein in emerging economies. Hayes was in town last week delivering the annual Kraft Lecture, a memorial to the late University of
EU Reform Plans Target Greener, Fairer Farm Subsidies
European Union officials want to make farm subsidies fairer and more environmentally friendly, in a bid to win support for keeping annual agricultural spending at about 55 billion euros (US$75 billion) up to 2020. Critics of the bloc s common agricultural policy (CAP) had urged the European Commission to take advantage of high global food
Are Higher Commodity Prices The “New Normal?”
Higher commodity prices might be the rule rather than the exception in the coming years, a Purdue University agricultural economist says. While prices regularly rise and fall, they have trended upward in a way that suggests they’ve reached a plateau, said Mike Boehlje. He attributed much of the price movement to bullish export markets, weather-shortened
UN Expert Urges Huge Investment In Small Farmers
Asenior United Nations food expert appealed June 20 for a massive investment in smallholder farming to end poverty and hunger. In an interview before the G20 meeting of farm ministers, Josef Schmidhuber, deputy director of the statistics division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), said local poverty was the root cause of hunger, not
More Support Needed For Small-Scale Farming
U.K. charity Oxfam, warning that food demand will have jumped by 70 per cent by 2050, said soaring food prices and weather and financial shocks had aggravated the hunger crisis and that the global food economy was broken. “The food system is pretty well bust in the world,” Oxfam chief executive Barbara Stocking told reporters,
Cyber-Savvy Farmer
