"Via Campesina proposal to Solve Food Crisis: Strengthening peasant and farmer-based food production
OPEN LETTER to Mr Jacques Diouf Secretary General
of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Mr. Yasuo Fukuda, Prime
Minister of Japan, President of the G8, Mr. John W. Ashe, Permanent UN
representative, Antigua and Barbuda's Permanent and Chairman of the Group of 77
From: Henry Saragih, International Coordinator for La Via Campesina Jakarta,
April 28, 2008
DEVELOPMENT REPORT No 17: Fair to the Last Drop: The Corporate Challenges to Fair Trade Coffee
Fair to the Last Drop:
The Corporate Challenges to Fair Trade Coffee
-By Eric Holt-Giménez, Ian Bailey, and Devon Sampson
Coffee, Poverty and Crises
Coffee has long stood for both privilege and poverty. Since the time of the colonial coffee booms of the mid 1800s, coffee has been one of the world's most valuable export commodities, and today is among the top five in gross value of world trade.
Food, Fuel and Green Revolutions: The U.S. 2007 Farm Bill slogs forward
The 2007 Farm and Food Bill is mired in the no-man's land between the recently passed House version ("Farm, Nutrition, and Bioenergy Act of 2007) and the yet to be agreed upon Senate version, which lawmakers say may take well into October. Then the two versions must be reconciled in House—Senate conference before going to the president to be signed into law—perhaps as late as next year. Every step of the way, Republicans and Democrats, urban and rural lawmakers will fight over what is to be done and who will pay for it.
Shattering Myths: Can sustainable agriculture feed the world?
For years, critics and proponents alike have worried that the related methods of organic, low-input, low- or no-pesticide, integrated, small-scale, and sustainable production may address environmental concerns, but cannot produce sufficient food to sustain the large and growing human population. Such skepticism was understandable—the so-called Green Revolution of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s had been credited with averting widespread hunger crises by drastically increasing agricultural production, while the downsides of its technological advancements only began to enter the popular consciousness in the years after Rachel Carson's Silent Spring in 1962. Questioning the source of the cornucopia that provided plenty to people throughout the world seemed downright ungracious and backward. How could we be critical of the Green Revolution when it had staved off so much hunger?
Eric Holt-Gimenez discusses Bio-Fuels on KPFA
Eric Holt-Gimenez was a guest on the KPFA Morning Show July 6, 2007.
Information on the show can be found at http://kpfa.org/archives/index.php?arch=21104
Listen to an excerpt of the show (5.5 mb mp3)
Against the Grain interview with Eric Holt-Gimenez
KPFA's Against the Grain
Wednesday, March 21st, 2007
The Against the Grain is an interview with Eric Holt-Gimenez and George Naylor, President of the National Family Farm Coalition.
Listen to this program on your computer by clicking here:
KPFA stream
Or, download the mp3 file here:
The 2007 Farm - and Food - Bill
Across the U.S., farm, food, and conservation advocates are consulting and providing comments on the upcoming Bill. Many family farmers and rural business people are calling for farm policy reform, voicing opposition to costly and unfair USDA crop subsidy payments, and demanding support for organic farming, farmland conservation, rural development, and support for young and minority farmers.1 The Farm Bill is an Agri-food Bill that determines the function (or dysfunction) of the entire U.S. food system. The economic fate of family farmers and the food security of low-income consumers-both high-risk sectors in the U.S.'s food system-are affected by the Farm Bill, which funds Food Stamps and School Commodity Programs (50% of entitlements), Emergency Food Assistance, Commodity Supplemental Food, and Community Food Projects, among other programs. Community food activists point out that this aid (approximately $50 billion) is insufficient to address the needs of the nation's 36 million food insecure citizens.