International
Clean water, food, fuel in short supply; reports of raw sewage in some streets of Gaza Strip as Israeli air strikes continue for seventh day and ground war begins (click 'See also'). UN says that at least 100 of some 400 Palestinians killed by Israeli action so far were civilians.
BBC News 2009-01-03 (entry)
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Cholera, spread by feces-fouled drinking water, has sickened 16,000-plus Zimbabweans since August. Nearly 1,000 have died (click 'See also); cases could surpass 60,000. Fresh water supplies captive to chaos of Mugabe regime; hospital system shut down by an exodus of workers whose salaries are worthless from hyperinflation. Millions enduring severe and worsening hunger. And: UN, running out of funds, may cut food rations there (click 'See also').
By Celia W. Dugger
The New York Times 2008-12-12 (entry)
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Slow U.S. economy stalls global trade, jobs. Freight lines that sailed full in summer now slashing prices as cargo traffic plummets and unsold goods pile up at ports - shipment of soybeans rotted for lack of shipping, insurance funding. Decline is affecting export boom that brought investment, trade to China, India and lifted millions out of poverty in recent years.
By Anthony Faiola and Ariana Eunjung Cha
The Washington Post 2008-12-11 (entry)
Adding 1 billion points to global IQ is as simple as adding iodine to salt, and Canada leads way with Micronutrient Initiative, which also advocates adding vitamin A, iron, zinc and folic acid to diets. Simple technology improves lives at low cost and in short time, says World Bank.
By Nicholas D. Kristof
The New York Times 2008-12-04 (entry)
Obama must grasp that food, climate, energy, economy are globally linked and must be solved together, and that atmospheric CO2 must be cut from 385 to 350 parts per million. Fossil-fuel use must cease by 2030; we must make massive investment in green energy; we need a Marshall Plan for carbon. And: Food/agriculture sector of economy produces more than one third of greenhouse gas emissions, says UN agency (click 'See also).
By Bill McKibben
The Guardian (UK) 2008-11-06 (entry)
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Equating water pollution, other lapses with cheating on customers, Wal-Mart announces new supplier standards, including ban on child labor, forced labor and pay below local minimum wage. New rules also will include audits of factories for working conditions and compliance with standards regarding water, air, land pollution and waste disposal. Critic says incentives to cheat include pressure to offer low prices, plus lucrative, long-term contracts.
By Stephanie Rosenbloom
International Herald Tribune 2008-10-22 (entry)
Gorillas, elephants, other animals at risk of extinction as starving population in central Africa struggles to eat and more people move to region for jobs in illegal logging and mining industries. Granting local peoples limited hunting while managing specific populations of animals in jungle may be only way to conserve, study authors say.
Scientific American 2008-09-15 (entry)
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Feeding 6.3 million North Koreans to avert famine will cost half a billion dollars in emergency food aid in next 15 months, UN says. U.S. just delivered 110,000 tons of food, but bad weather, price hikes, export restrictions and political maneuvering have kept stores low. And: Roughly a third of country's children, mothers are malnourished (click 'See also').
By Peter Ford
The Christian Science Monitor 2008-09-04 (entry)
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As planet faces droughts, food shortages and water shortages, with subsequent mass migrations and social unrest from climate change, U.S. influence will diminish because that of other countries will grow, 2025 intelligence analysis predicts. Intelligence agencies accept scientific view of global warming, and that it's too late to avoid consequences over the next 20 years. Barack Obama has been briefed; John McCain is next.
By Joby Warrick and Walter Pincus
The Washington Post 2008-09-10 (entry)
Collapse of trade talks indicates revolution in way we see economics of agriculture, and it should be reflected in freer trade. It's time for U.S. to let markets and need determine what farmers grow and how they farm - and lead by example. And: Doha failed after U.S., India and China couldn't agree on farmer protections in developing countries (click 'See also').
By Victor Davis Hanson
The New York Times 2008-08-01 (entry)
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Barack Obama's Berlin speech vague on trade, a concern for Europe considering earlier vow to renegotiate NAFTA, opposition to Colombian trade deal. Europeans dislike $289 billion farm/food bill that maintains U.S. farm subsidies; Americans say they're losing $200 million yearly because Europe won't buy their chickens disinfected by chlorine bath. Click 'See also' for youtube video.
By Steven Erlanger
The New York Times 2008-07-25 (entry)
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EU debates produce grading - cucumber's maximum arc, refractive ability of a peach, 29 pages on quality standards for onions. Some favor stringency since shoppers aren't allowed to touch merchandise, but agriculture commissioner wants regulations pared, citing waste, food prices and bureaucracy.
By John Ward Anderson
The Washington Post 2008-07-08 (entry)
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Genetically modified crops get boost in Bush administration's $770 million hunger package. Advocates say such crops can result in higher yields from plants that are hardier in harsh climates. Fierce critics in US, Europe, and in Africa say they can cause unforeseen medical problems, that water, fertilizer and weedkillers also required aren't affordable to poor farmers, and that the move benefits agribusiness.
By Stephen J. Hedges
Chicago Tribune 2008-05-14 (entry)
Airlifting of food, water and shelter to the two million at risk of death in Burma would not constitute an attack on a government but would aid people abandoned by their rulers. Where are the saber-rattlers? The Burmese must die because we are too busy pretending to save Afghans and Iraqis. For progress report on aid delivery, click 'See also.'
By Simon Jenkins
The Times (UK) 2008-05-11 (entry)
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Indians unite against President Bush after he cites diet of its growing middle class as factor in food price hikes. Earlier, Condoleezza Rice had listed dietary improvements in China and India as contributors to food crisis. Says one critic: 'If Indians start eating like Americans, the world would have to grow food on the moon.'
By Rama Lakshmi
The Washington Post 2008-05-08 (entry)
U.S., Canada, UK and Australia withhold OK of 400-scientist report calling for farming changes over positions on biotech and biofuels. Scientists said that genetically modified crops aren't quick solution to feeding the poor because assessment lags behind technology, and that biofuels rush can raise food prices and marginalize small-scale farmers or displace them.
By John Vidal
The Guardian (UK) 2008-04-16 (entry)
As Raoul Castro relaxes restrictions, Cubans buy pressure cookers and other consumer goods and make plans to plant coffee, other crops on unused state-owned land. The land initiative potentially could put more food on the table of all Cubans and bring in hard currency from exports, providing cash for a new consumer economy.
By Will Weissert
The Associated Press; Seattle Post-Intelligencer 2008-04-01 (entry)
United States Olympic Team symbol
Coca-Cola, McDonald's and others, as sponsors of Beijing's Olympics, grow concerned over violent clashes in Tibet and western China, as well as China's support of Sudanese government. Anti-Olympic campaign activists, led by Mia Farrow, cite Sudan's Darfur crisis. Firms want to link to China's vast and growing market, not rile government.
By Mei Fong
The Wall Street Journal 2008-03-17 (entry)
Drought was beginning of Darfur crisis, speakers tell leaders at World Economic Forum. They cite population growth, climate change and continuously rising food and energy prices, and warn of conflicts to come. "Too often where we need water, we find guns," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Diversion of food crops to biofuel also criticized.
Agence France-Presse 2008-01-26 (entry)
Palestinians in Gaza cross ruins of border fence to stock up on milk, cheese, sheep, goats, cows and other items in Egypt. Egyptian officials say they won't hinder visits for food, water, medicine and consumer goods.
By Steven Erlanger
The New York Times 2008-01-25 (entry)
European Union declares cloned meat and milk safe for consumption, but politicians from the group's 27 countries expect fierce opposition. Battle could be similar to current fight over genetically modified agricultural products and uncertainty of long-term effects.
By John W. Miller
The Wall Street Journal 2008-01-11 (entry)
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British government to review implications of trends in food industry, economy, society and environment after report details residents' increased consumption of refined and processed foods, as well as health implications of poor diet.
By Laura Crowley
Food Navigator 2008-01-04 (entry)
In Pakistan, Ramadan- and Eid-related demand for fruits, vegetables, milk, meat, poultry and cooking oil pushed September food prices up on a base of already-higher prices for wheat and flour. Experts expect decline beginning this month.
Daily Times (Pakistan) 2007-10-30 (entry)
In effort to stop inflation, Russia's smaller retailers join major food producers and store chains in freezing prices of staple foods in months before elections; representative says that alcohol and other premium products, not bread, milk and eggs, are biggest moneymakers.
Thomson Financial News; Forbes; Rossiyskaya Gazeta 2007-10-26 (entry)
Scramble to keep food prices artificially low in Russia and other countries with subsidies, quotas, price controls and export taxes distorts the market, and once cheap food prices are in place, it's politically impossible to withdraw, editors say.
The editors
Financial Times (London) 2007-10-24 (entry)
As elections near, major Russian food producers and retailers agree to freeze prices on milk, bread, eggs and cooking oil; other measures include raising export taxes on grain, intervention on the commodities market and reducing import for dairy products.
The Associated Press; International Herald-Tribune 2007-10-24 (entry)
Despite strong community opposition, European Union OKs imports of genetically modified corn and sugar beet for human and animal food; varieties were developed by subsidiary of DuPont, a unit of Dow Chemical, Monsanto and a German plant breeding company, KWS SAAT and taps into the $6 billion biotech crop market.
Bloomberg News; Reuters; International Herald Tribune 2007-10-24 (entry)
Though many in sub-Saharan Africa depend on farming for their living, new study shows that World Bank has long neglected support for region and its most important client; poverty expert likens criticism to saying that Coca-Cola is bad at making soft drinks.
By Celia W. Dugger
The New York Times 2007-10-15 (entry)
With seven percent of world's water and 20 percent of its population, China rollicks northward as concerns grow about dwindling water supplies, the worldwide economic impact of reducing wheat farming for conservation, and pervasive pollution of rivers and reservoirs.
By Jim Yardley
The New York Times 2007-09-28 (entry)
Biofuels hunger plus growing middle class in Asia and Latin America drive worldwide demand for corn, wheat and other staples, causing tenacious hikes in grocery bills; grain stockpiles down to 30-year low and humanitarian groups worry about feeding world's poor.
By Scott Killman
Wall Street Journal 2007-09-28 (entry)
Praying to the god of corn has its price: nitrogen waste in the waterways, taxpayer money feeding the industry, low-nutrition meat from animals that eat it, but it provides a fertile field of medical research, and in Mexico, growing corn is the only way one farmer ensures his wife's tortillas have the authentic taste.
By Hugh Dellios
Chicago Tribune 2007-09-09 (entry)
Though armed and hungry guerrillas with a taste for wild meat often spell doom for mountain gorillas, it's Africa's demand for charcoal - cooking fuel -- that truly is endangering them, leveling forests and spoiling water for drinking and habitats, paleontologist says.
By Richard Leakey
BBC News 2007-09-10 (entry)
As country's importance grows in the international market, Chinese people should understand that there will be greater scrutiny of both country and products, so greater care for quality and food safety is important; errors would victimize its own people first.
By Wu Jianmin
People's Daily Online (China) 2007-08-27 (entry)
Norway's Bastoey Prison now operates with ecologically sound food production, solar panels, wood-fire heating instead of oil and strict recycling to teach its 115 inmates respect for environment and for others.
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Genetically modified sugar beet seed designed to resist Monsanto herbicide is gaining popularity among growers and processors, including American Crystal Sugar Co.; Wyoming Sugar Co., and Minn-Dak Farmers Cooperative; farmers must pay $60 premium per acre, and GMO sugar won't carry special label.
Associated Press; CNN 2007-08-22 (entry)
CARE turns down $45 million in food aid from U.S., citing practice of selling tons of often heavily subsidized American farm products in African countries that compete with the crops of local farmers; other charities disagree.
By Celia W. Dugger
The New York Times (may require subscription) (entry)
Overfishing, poaching and pollution have depleted worldwide fish stocks to 10 percent of normal; for every pound of shrimp harvested, 10 pounds are discarded, along with turtles and dolphins, conservationists report.
By Eviana Hartman
Washington Post (entry)
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When discount superstore partnership enters India through wholesale stores, obstacles will include supply chain made up of mostly small shopkeepers, long chains of middlemen, each of whom takes a cut, and up to 60 percent waste during food transport.
Wall Street Journal (may require subscription) (entry)
"The Zen of Fish," and "The Sushi Economy," offer lessons in how global economy works, dangers of over-fishing and how it thrives on demand, and why trout might not be the best choice for eating raw (think tapeworms).
By Stuart Biggs
bloomberg.com 2007-08-08 (entry)
Bush administration's buy-local request for emergency food aid could help Kenyans, some of the world's poorest people, advocates say, but U.S. is mired in domestic farm subsidies and lobbies of shipping interests; aid for agricultural projects lags as well.
By Celia W. Dugger
The New York times (may require subscription) (entry)
Current agricultural policies distort food costs, waste billions of taxpayer dollars, and subsidize a handful of large farming operations that raise a few selected crops - and subvert subsistence farmers across the globe by dumping cheap surplus goods at below-market prices.
By Senator Richard Lugar and Representative Ron Kind
The Modesto Bee (CA) 2007-07-15 (entry)
Following South America and Asia, Germany calls a cheese by the name of a town in Italy famous for its cheese, causing purists to shudder and the Euro-court to contemplate - is Parmigiano Reggiano only from Italy, or is it just a style of crystal-grained, crumbly and tart-sweet cheese that adorns many pasta dishes?
ansa.it (entry)
