UN Sees Food Production Down 25 Per Cent By 2050

Up to a quarter of global food production could be lost by 2050 due to the combined impact of climate change, land degradation and loss, water scarcity and species infestation, the United Nations said Feb. 17. The fall-off will strike just as two billion more people are added to the world’s population, according to the

New Biofuels Seen Coming From Many Sources

New-generation biofuels will come from a wide range of sources and no single feedstock may dominate, a conference on second-generation biofuels organized by German commodity analysts F. O. Licht heard Feb. 13. Non-food plants and crops mentioned at the conference as possibilities for use in future biofuels range from corn husks, grasses and algae to


Cuba Grants Land To Thousands Of New Farmers

Cuba has approved 45,500 land grants in the largest land redistribution since the 1960s, the Communist party Granma newspaper reported Feb. 2, as the country turns to the private sector to increase food production. “Deputy Agriculture Minister Alcides Lopez explained 96,419 applications had been received as of Jan. 22 … for 1,300,000 acres (650,000 hectares)

Farming Must Change To Feed The World

The world’s farmers must quickly switch to more sustainable and productive farming systems to grow the food needed by a swelling world population and respond to climate change, FAO’s top crops expert told an international farm congress Feb. 4. In a keynote speech to 1,000 participants at the IVth World Congress on Conservation Agriculture (CA)


UN Agency Promotes Organic For Africa

“Even in this current economic crisis, where demand for most products is dropping fast, demand for organic products continues to grow.” Demand for organic foods will keep growing despite the world economic crisis, creating an opportunity for farmers in poor countries, the United Nations’ trade and development agency said Feb 9. In a research note,

Give Us The Tax Break And No One Gets Hurt

DAVE BEDARD It’s hard not to sympathize with the folks in the province’s general farm organization as it lobbies on farmers’ behalf. Given all the “wedge issues” in farm policy, when you strive to stake out a position that a majority of farmers can support, the positions you adopt won’t generally lend themselves to a


Fresh ideas for rejuvenating country fairs

“Our last two generations have forgotten how to cook, how to garden, how to sew, how to can.” – Doris Fletcher The volunteers who log countless hours organizing community fairs should not lose sight of why they got involved in the first place, community development expert and motivational speaker Paul Born says. “Caring is the

Pushing GMOs to feed the planet

“How do the starving destitute react? Well often and not surprisingly they react with violence.” – joe clark Co-operation and innovation, including new genetically modified crops, are needed to feed the world as it grows and gets richer, speakers told CropLife Canada and the Grain Growers of Canada meeting in Ottawa last month. “This combination


Ontario law threatens farm pesticides

Ontario’s “arbitrary” ban on ‘cosmetic’ pesti -cides threatens their use in agriculture and that’s why CropLife Canada is fighting back. “This is about more than just dandelions,” CropLife president Lorne Hepworth warned the 350 people attending CropLife’s annual meeting here Dec. 3. “It’s about agriculture and the not-so-subtle impact this has on the impressions Canadians

V-day for farm workers in Ontario

The recent victory in the Ontario Court of Appeal allowing farm workers to form unions and bargain collectively comes after a long, protracted, and exhausting battle to give them the same rights as other workers. Farm workers carry out some of the most dangerous, difficult, and dirty jobs in the country, under conditions most Canadians