Food Security

Poverty, not scarcity of food is the cause of hunger. The current world trade order is skewed against the interests of the needy. Change is required at all levels and small-scale farms matter most.

Glopolis has released a study focusing on the impacts and coherence of  the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)  with the EU development policy, with a detailed look on the role of the Czech agricultural sector and the Czech agrarian foreign trade.

What is the role of renewable energy sources – especially biomass, biogas and biofuels – in Africa? Can renewable energy sources make a significant contribution to future development in Africa? What are the pitfalls and obstacles to renewable energy sources in Africa and what is the outlook for change? Answers to these and other questions were sought by Glopolis during the week from 12 March till 15 March during which a series of seminars and discussions for students, professionals and the general public were held. The keynote speaker was Francis Namu Njoka, a renewable energy expert from Kenya.

In recent years African countries have enjoyed interest from abroad, thanks in part to a great amount of available land apparently ideal for cultivating crops for providing food security and for the production of biofuels.

Livestock is a sector on the move. Population in the global South are increasingly shifting consumption towards meat and dairy products. This growing demand is the main trigger of the so-called „livestock revolution“ , an important opportunity for pro-poor growth. Yet, the dairy sector on which this article focusesis the one often reported to be undermined by Europeanmilk powder exports. At the moment of reforming the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), what is the situation and where are we heading to?

Small steps in the Czech Republic towards sustainable agricultural production and consumption. 

The article insists on the importance of participation of farmer organizations from developing countries in the definition of European aid to agriculture. It describes the action lead by a European group of NGOS in asking Eva Joly, chair of the European Parliament´s Development Committee for increased dialogue with Southern civil society.

Governments are therefore sounding the alarms. Twenty Member States are even coming to the Council with a joint declaration on an approach to the fight against the milk crisis.

On a Sunday morning of June, a couple hundred of people walked the streets of Prague against child hunger, in solidarity with other 330,000 people across the planet. Dying of hunger in the 21st century, which is the case of a young child every six seconds, is no less than a violation of human rights.

The Italian Province of Treviso will be hosting this week the first G8 Agriculture Ministers' Meeting in the history. Ministers will discuss concrete proposals for strengthening world food security.

On 9th April 2009, four African farmer organization representatives from Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mali and Niger together with European NGOs (SOS Faim, Glopolis, CFSI) visited three farms in Southern Bohemia, Czech Republic: family farm in Přísečná, family farm in Chlumeček and a cooperative in Brloh.

On 7th April 2009 organized Glopolis in cooperation with two other European NGOs: SOS Faim Belgium and CFSI France and their 4 African partners: Bassiaka Dao (CPF-Burkina Faso), Abdou Hima (PFPN-Niger), Souleymane Keita (CNOP-Mali), Nadjirou Sall (FONGS-Sénégal) a lunch debate as a side event of the official EU ACP JPA, in the premises of the JPA.  

Article based on the keynote speech of Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, to the conference “The food crisis, one year on. How to achieve food security for all?” organized by Glopolis and Heinrich Boll Stiftung on March 4th, 2009.

An interview of Klara Bratova, an external redactor of Český rozhlas 6 with the participant of the conference The global food crisis, one year on. How to achieve food security for all? Daniel de la Torre Ugarte, Professor and Associate Director of Agricultural Policy and Analysis Center of the University of Tennessee about current situation on food security.