UN envoy says Canada needs a “right to food strategy”

The special rapporteur on the right to food's visit marks the first time the UN has 
dispatched an official to investigate food insecurity in a developed country

If everyone using a food bank in Manitoba lived in one place, it would be the province’s second-largest city. There are approximately 56,000 Manitobans who lack access to food because they either can’t afford it, or have nowhere to produce any themselves — or both. They are the Manitobans that Winnipeg Harvest has been trying

Canada lagging in ag research

Canadian agriculture is being shortchanged by governments when it comes to basic research compared to other countries, according to John Cranfield of the University of Guelph. “We are standing still while other countries are getting ahead of us,” said Cranfield, citing statistics from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. The professor, an agricultural economist,


Agency says female farmers key to boosting global food supply

Reuters / Empowering female farmers in developing countries is crucial to solving the world’s food problems, according to the chair of a panel which advises governments and donors on agricultural development in sub-Saharan Africa. “If we’re going to feed the world and in particular if Africa is going to be fed, we need every tool

UN-backed land use rules ready for final OK

milan / reuters / After three years of debate, the United Nations is issuing guidelines on responsible land use as part of an effort to regulate so-called land grabbing and boost food security. The guidelines include promoting equal rights for women in securing title to land, creating transparent record-keeping systems accessible to the rural poor,





Professor says farmers and ranchers are “an endangered species”

The rural landscape is changing, and not for the better. “Farm and ranch people are an endangered species, without the benefit of protective legislation,” Roger Epp told farmers attending a recent grazing conference in Winnipeg. “Their habitat has also become subject to persistent encroachment over time.” Agriculture and rural life on the Prairies were once

Food Bank Use On The Rise In Canada

Higher food and housing costs are squeezing low-income Canadians and the 4,100 food banks across Canada that try to help them, says a study released Nov. 1. Even with the economic recovery, food bank use has risen 26 per cent since the start of the 2008 recession, Katherine Schmidt, executive director of Food Banks Canada,


Funding For Food Programs Facing Cuts

In China, dairy cows revolve on carousels in synchronized milking, while in Kenya, small farmers are planting a new high-yielding sweet potato. These projects, and scores more, are shaping a new century of agriculture. Whether it be cattle herders in sub-Saharan Africa or rice growers in rural Asia, farmers and ranchers need help to produce

North Koreans Suffering Chronic Malnutrition

In a pediatric hospital in North Korea s most productive farming province, children lay two to a bed. All showed signs of severe malnutrition: skin infections, patchy hair, listless apathy. Their mothers have to bring them here on bicycles, said duty doctor Jang Kum Son in the Yellow Sea port city of Haeju. We used