Food prices remained high for June, rising one percent on the FAO Food Price Index of May and 39 percent higher than in June 2010. However, cereal prices were down one percent from May, thanks to improved weather conditions in Europe and the lifting of the wheat export ban in Russia. Dry weather affected sugar production in Brazil, the world’sRead More …
Powerful images aid plea for help in Horn of Africa
8 July, 2011 by (comments)The Horn of Africa is in crisis. This is the strong impression we get from a series of dramatic photos published today by The Guardian, which show the devastating human impact drought is having on lives in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia. We see pastoralists standing over their dead livestock, children sick from malnourishment, hordes coming from miles toRead More …
Filed Under: Crops @en
China smog a smokescreen to temperature rise
5 July, 2011 by (comments)China’s coal burning frenzy in the last decade may be the reason behind stagnating global temperature rises between 1998 and 2008, a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences suggests. While increasing carbon emissions, burning coal can have an overall cooling effect with the release of aerosols into the atmosphere, which reflect heat back intoRead More …
Filed Under: Climate Change
2010: Hottest, wettest, coldest, driest on record
28 June, 2011 by (comments)New research has found that 2010 was plagued by some of the most extreme weather and temperatures in recorded history, according to the Guardian, following WMO reports that 2010 was the joint-warmest on record with 2005. And this year is shaping up to be one for the record books also, in particular the costliest year for weather-related disasters.
Filed Under: Climate Change
Brazilian food security expert to head up FAO
28 June, 2011 by (comments)José Graziano da Silva of Brazil has been elected Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a three-year term he will undertake as of January 2012, succeeding Senegal’s Jacques Diouf. Former Brazilian food security minister, Graziano da Silva earned recognition for his policies against hunger and malnutrition which helped lift 24 million people out of poverty andRead More …
Filed Under: Crops @en
G20 leaves food crisis looming?
24 June, 2011 by (comments)The food system will continue to suffer from a lack of strong leadership, and food price volatility will reign, say food experts and aid agencies following the first-ever G20 agricultural ministers’ conference to address food security and commodity regulation held this week in Paris. In particular, the contentious themes of biofuels and export bans remained unaddressed as big playersRead More …
Filed Under: Crops @en
