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Food Scarcity: The Timebomb Setting Nation Against Nation

Fri, 2012-10-19 15:44 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Paul G.Kaplan

        

A drying corn field in southern Minnesota. Bad weather has resulted in a poor harvest this year. Photograph: David I. Gross/ Corbis

As the UN and Oxfam warn of the dangers ahead, expert analyst Lester Brown says time to solve the problem is running out

guardian.co.uk - by John Vidal - October 13, 2012

Brandon Hunnicutt has had a year to remember. The young Nebraskan from Hamilton County farms 2,600 acres of the High Plains with his father and brother. What looked certain in an almost perfect May to be a "phenomenal" harvest of maize and soy beans has turned into a near disaster.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Book - Full Planet, Empty Plates
http://www.earthpolicy.org/mobile/books/fpep

Oxfam Report - 'Our Land, Our Lives': Time Out on the Global Land Rush
http://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/our-land-our-lives-time-out-on-the-global-land-rush-246731

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United States
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Agriculture
Climate
Drought
Food
Land Use
Scarcity
Security
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Situation Report

25 Primate Species in Africa, Asia Reported on Brink of Extinction from Deforestation, Hunting

Thu, 2012-10-18 18:06 — Kathy Gilbeaux

       

LuAnne Cadd/AP - A baby Grauer's gorilla that had been poached from Kahuzi-Biega National Park is seen at the Senkwekwe Orphan Gorilla Center at Virunga National Park in eastern Congo. Twenty-five species of monkeys, langurs, lemurs and gorillas are on the brink of extinction and need global action to protect them from increasing deforestation and illegal trafficking, researchers said Oct. 15, 2012.

The Washington Post - Associated Press - October 15, 2012

NEW DELHI — Twenty-five species of monkeys, langurs, lemurs and gorillas are on the brink of extinction and need global action to protect them from increasing deforestation and illegal trafficking, researchers said Monday.

The report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature was released at the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity being held in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

Conservation efforts have helped several species of primates that are no longer listed as endangered, said the report, prepared every two years by some of the world’s leading primate experts.

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Ecosystems
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Situation Report

Video - The Man Who Planted Trees

Wed, 2012-10-17 00:21 — Kathy Gilbeaux

http://vimeo.com/32542316 - from MrGreatShortFilms

production: Societe Radio-Canada - Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

The story of one shepherd's long and successful effort to re-forest a desolate valley.

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Solutions

Food Distribution in the Horn of Africa Goes High-Tech

Mon, 2012-10-15 23:18 — Kathy Gilbeaux

huffingtonpost.com - by Cathy Herholdt - October 10, 2012

Getting food into the hands of the hungry in the Horn of Africa is about to go high-tech. Seattle-based humanitarian organization World Concern is piloting a new mobile phone app in the drought-stricken region, aiming to streamline the process of tracking food distributed to hungry families and payment to local merchants.

The system tracks beneficiaries and the food they receive via bar codes that are scanned into a mobile phone. Merchants have an I.D. card with a bar code, which is also scanned so they can be paid via wire transfer almost instantly.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

World Concern
http://www.worldconcern.org/

Scan My List
http://scanmylist.com/

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Global
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Disaster Response
Food
Technology
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Solutions

The ‘Avon Ladies’ of Africa

Thu, 2012-10-11 23:39 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Tine Frank… Living Goods managers explained business opportunities to new recruits in Masaka, Uganda.

submitted by Alisa Keesey

The New York Times
by Tina Rosenberg
October 10, 2012

Living Goods, which operates in Uganda, has a very promising model.  It brings goods the poor need to their doorsteps, at below-market prices.  Most important, Living Goods is building a business with the potential to sustain itself — it has already hit some important milestones.  That’s the key to a long life and wide growth — to helping vast numbers of people.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Living Goods
http://livinggoods.org/

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Economics
Sustainable Development
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Cutting Food Losses in Half Would Feed an Additional Billion People

Thu, 2012-10-11 22:28 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Samuel Bendett

Homeland Security News Wire - October 11, 2012

More efficient use of the food production chain and a decrease in the amount of food losses will dramatically help maintaining the planet’s natural resources and improve people’s lives; researchers have proved a valid estimation, for the first time, for how many people could be fed with reducing food losses

Researchers in Aalto University have proved a valid estimation, for the first time, for how many people could be fed with reducing food losses.

An Aalto University release reports that the world’s population is an estimated seven billion people. An additional one billion can be fed from our current resources, if the food losses could be halved. This can be achieved if the lowest loss percentage achieved in any region could be reached globally.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Food
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Situation Report

Global Food Supply - We Need to Plan for System Failure

Wed, 2012-10-10 18:34 — Kathy Gilbeaux

ethicalcorp.com - by Mallen Baker - October 4, 2012

Mallen Baker argues that it’s irresponsible not to make contingency plans, especially when the potential failures concern the fundamentals – such as food

Imagine your critical business systems depend on one computer server. This server is huge – it has immense capacity – but you have grown into that space and now every single day you are pushing it to its limit. . .

. . . Now let’s substitute the global food system for the server. Here we have a system that is operating at full capacity. Any hiccups in normal production can lead to serious problems. This year we have seen such hiccups.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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ISO Focus+ - From Fish to Forests - May 2010

Tue, 2012-10-09 18:22 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Albert Gomez

iso.org - May 2010

The use of fish and wood products continues to grow and are fast becoming the world's most traded commodities in their respective fields. At the same time, both sectors, crucial to biodiversity, are facing the pressing threat of climate change.

ISO's standards are powerful tools for taking action and the May issue showcases stories from companies benefiting from ISO standards, such as a Namibian fish processor or a large Brazilian company in the paperboard market, implementing management systems standards for quality and environmental or food safety as well as occupational health and safety.

http://www.iso.org/iso/home/news_index/iso-magazines/isofocusplus_index/isofocusplus_2010/isofocusplus_2010-05.htm

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Global
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Agriculture
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Situation Report

Spain Hit by New Wave of Street Protests

Tue, 2012-10-09 10:51 — Kathy Gilbeaux

aljazeera.com - October 7, 2012

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Global
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Arctic Ice Melt, Sea Level Rise May Pose Imminent Threat To Island Nations, Climate Scientist Says

Sat, 2012-10-06 23:07 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

This Sept. 16, 2012, image released by NASA shows the amount of summer sea ice in the Arctic, at center in white, and the 1979 to 2000 average extent for the day shown, with the yellow line. Scientists say sea ice in the Arctic shrank to an all-time low of 1.32 million square miles on Sept. 16, smashing old records for the critical climate indicator. (AP Photo/U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center, File)

huffingtonpost.com - by James Gerken - October 5, 2012

Low-lying island nations threatened by rising sea levels this century could see the disastrous consequences of climate change far sooner than expected, according to one of the world's leading climate scientists.

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