Washington, U.S.A - International agency Oxfam warned that the announcement of the “New Alliance to Increase Food and Nutrition Security” focuses too heavily on the role of the private sector to tackle the complex challenges of food insecurity in the developing world. The organization called instead for G8 leaders to keep the promises they have already made to help developing countries invest in sustainable solutions to hunger and poverty.

“The New Alliance is neither new nor a true alliance,” said Oxfam’s Lamine Ndiaye. “The rhetoric invokes small-scale producers, particularly women, but the plan must do more to bring them to the table.” Smallholder farmers, many of whom are women, make up the majority of hungry people in poor countries and are key agents of change in their communities.

Three years ago, at the G8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy, and President Obama rallied the leaders of the world’s richest countries to pledge $22 billion to poor countries that had good plans to tackle hunger. Seven months away from the end of the L’Aquila initiative, dozens of poor countries have lived up to their end of the bargain, but the G8 is falling down on the job.

“President Obama deserves credit for focusing the G8′s attention on the fact that one billion people go to bed hungry every night,” said Oxfam’s Gregory Adams. “We applaud the clear focus on the target of helping 50 million people escape hunger and poverty through agriculture.”

“G8 leaders should join President Obama to commit resources to help developing countries reach this ambitious goal. The pledge to find $1.2 billion for the trust fund to support country agriculture plans is a good start. But the G8 should recommit to the partnership they began at L’Aquila and maintain that level of investments. Otherwise, they’ll be offering a shrinking solution to a growing problem.”

The alliance includes 45 companies from around the world, representing what G8 leaders hope will be the missing link to achieve transformational development in poor countries. While there is a positive role for the private sector in the fight against global hunger, the plan’s top down approach does not reflect what many people in poor countries say they want or need. The average private sector role in existing country food security plans, the basis for the L’Aquila agreement, is about 5%, and most have no role at all.

“This new alliance – is a nice complement at best, a deflection at worst. The role of the private sector is important, but they will not be able to make up for the G8′s broken promises,” said Ndiaye. “Smallholder farmers need the freedom to pursue their own growing strategies, not take overly-prescriptive tips on farming from G8 leaders, or one size fits all technologies from far away CEOs.”

A number of African civil society leaders and groups publicly raised concerns about the path the G8 is taking on food security in an open a letter to the G8 and a declaration signed at a Committee on World Food Security Consultation for African civil society groups in April of 2012.

“Having been developed without African civil society, it’s unclear what role they will play in its execution,” said Ndiaye.

The plan mentions but must do more to address the growing threats of climate change and natural resource constraints. And while the G8′s initiative endorses the United Nations Voluntary Guidelines on Land Tenure, an important step forward in preventing land grabs, they make a misstep in also legitimizing a weaker World Bank standard.

“Unless the G8 reaffirms and continues its L’Aquila pledges, they are passing the buck on global hunger,” said Adams. “The private sector, especially local small and medium enterprises, can play an important role in tackling food security, but G8 leaders have to first deliver on their end of the deal.”

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Washington, U.S.A. – The World Cocoa Foundation (WCF) is launching a $4 million initiative to benefit 35,000 cocoa farmers in three West African countries that are among the world’s largest producers of cocoa.  The announcement comes as part of the Symposium on Global Agriculture and Food Security, taking place alongside the 2012 G8 Summit in Washington.

“WCF and our Member companies continue to invest in Sub-Saharan Africa and work together with national governments and partners to show our long-term commitment to cocoa farmers in the region,” said WCF President Bill Guyton.  Guyton also noted recent findings that demonstrate a strong link between modern cocoa farming techniques and food security in cocoa-growing areas.

Guyton said, “Cocoa farmers already have mastered concepts essential for producing crops and bringing a product to market.  Cocoa trees are well suited for combining with food crops. Cocoa farmers are uniquely positioned to form a cornerstone of many countries’ food security strategies.”

The new $4 million in WCF support comes in the form of a matching grants program and financial growth fund to provide business training and improved farming techniques to small-scale family farmers in Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Cameroon. Program activities will be carried out under the auspices of WCF’s ongoing $40 million Cocoa Livelihoods Program, which is co-funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and 16 leading WCF members.

The investment is matched by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Sustainable Trade Initiative and WCF Member company partners, with the aim of doubling farm household incomes. WCF Member companies participating in the matching grants program include Kraft Foods; Mars, Incorporated; Cargill; ADM Cocoa; Barry Callebaut; Armajaro Trading Ltd.; ECOM Cocoa;  and Olam International Ltd.

As a complement to the new program, WCF Member The Hershey Company has developed a text messaging service to support cocoa farmers in the field by providing critical information on fertilizer application, plant husbandry, harvesting techniques and other farming practices, as well as social messaging on topics such as prevention of HIV/AIDS and malaria.

Through the program, WCF also will increase cocoa farmers’ access to credit for fertilizer and other needs. The program additionally provides support to cocoa farmer organizations to expand their outreach to non-member farmers and to improve business operations. The program will be self-sustaining.

Image Courtesy of   Gates Foundation

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New York, U.S.A. –  The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) handed nearly 110,000 signatures on its global petition to improve the treatment of farm animals, to the Executive Coordinators of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), Ms. Elizabeth Thompson and Mr. Brice Lalonde. The petition represents the significant and growing worldwide support for Pawprint – WSPA’s campaign to put farm animal welfare on the agenda at Rio+20 in June.

Every day, billions of animals suffer on industrial farms. Pigs, chickens and cows are unable to move freely, breathe fresh air or even feel the sunlight. Not only is this one of the worst animal abuses in the world, it also has negative effects on the environment, poverty and human health. Through Pawprint, people from every corner of the globe have asked world leaders to include animal welfare as part of the discussions at Rio+20.

“We are thrilled that tens of thousands of people around the world have acknowledged that the well-being of animals is crucial to the future of people and our planet,” said Luis Carlos Sarmiento, Country Director of WSPA-South America. “Now, more than ever, it is evident that better animal welfare belongs on the conference agenda.”

“It is very encouraging to see such vast support for implementation of comprehensive humane and sustainable agriculture practices,” said Mr. Lalonde. “Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture is one of the priority areas that will be addressed at Rio+20.”

In the lead up to the conference in June, WSPA has sponsored high-level expert meetings, and developed several credible reports and farm-based case studies – all of which showcase that humane farming is a viable, environmentally-friendly alternative to intensive industrial production methods. WSPA’s goal is to lobby five recommendations to the UN, national government delegates and the agricultural industry:

• Develop policies for sustainable food supplies
• Manage the unsustainable demand for farm animal products
• Support research and development of humane and sustainable agriculture
• Phase out subsidies and investments in unsustainable, inhumane systems
• Recognizes the importance of farm animal welfare to poverty alleviation and sustainable livelihoods

In addition to helping the animals themselves, humane and sustainable treatment of farm animals has been shown to provide a series of health, safety and environmental benefits:

• Meat from grass-fed cattle can contain as little as half the fat of that reared in intensive, grain-fed farming
• Cage-free poultry farms in the UK were found to be significantly less likely to harbour bacteria that can cause deadly food poisoning
• Grass-fed beef production can use just half the fossil fuel energy of intensive industrial farming

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A new study led by a NASA scientist highlights 14 key air pollution control measures that, if implemented, could slow the pace of global warming, improve health and boost agricultural production.

The research, led by Drew Shindell of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York City, finds that focusing on these measures could slow mean global warming 0.9 degrees F (0.5 degrees C) by 2050, increase global crop yields by up to 135 million metric tons per season and prevent hundreds of thousands of premature deaths each year. While all regions of the world would benefit, countries in Asiaand the Middle East would see the biggest health and agricultural gains from emissions reductions.

“We’ve shown that implementing specific practical emissions reductions chosen to maximize climate benefits also would have important ‘win-win’ benefits for human health and agriculture,” said Shindell. The study was published today in the journal Science.

Shindell and an international team considered about 400 control measures based on technologies evaluated by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis in Laxenburg, Austria. The new study focused on 14 measures with the greatest climate benefit. All 14 would curb the release of either black carbon or methane, pollutants that exacerbate climate change and human or plant health, either directly or by leading to ozone formation.

Black carbon, a product of burning fossil fuels or biomass such as wood or dung, can worsen a number of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. The small particles also absorb radiation from the sun causing the atmosphere to warm and rainfall patterns to shift. In addition, they darken ice and snow, reducing their reflectivity and hastening global warming.

Methane, a colorless and flammable substance that is a major constituent of natural gas, is both a potent greenhouse gas and an important precursor to ground-level ozone. Ozone, a key component of smog and also a greenhouse gas, damages crops and human health.

While carbon dioxide is the primary driver of global warming over the long term, limiting black carbon and methane are complementary actions that would have a more immediate impact because these two pollutants circulate out of the atmosphere more quickly.

Shindell and his team concluded that these control measures would provide the greatest protection against global warming to Russia, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, countries with large areas of snow or ice cover. Iran, Pakistan and Jordan would experience the most improvement in agricultural production.Southern Asia and the Sahel region of Africa would see the most beneficial changes to precipitation patterns.

The south Asian countries of India, Bangladesh and Nepal would see the biggest reductions in premature deaths. The study estimates that globally between 700,000 and 4.7 million premature deaths could be prevented each year.

Black carbon and methane have many sources. Reducing emissions would require that societies make multiple infrastructure upgrades. For methane, the key strategies the scientists considered were capturing gas escaping from coal mines and oil and natural gas facilities, as well as reducing leakage from long-distance pipelines, preventing emissions from city landfills, updating wastewater treatment plants, aerating rice paddies more, and limiting emissions from manure on farms.

For black carbon, the strategies analyzed include installing filters in diesel vehicles, keeping high-emitting vehicles off the road, upgrading cooking stoves and boilers to cleaner burning types, installing more efficient kilns for brick production, upgrading coke ovens and banning agricultural burning.

The scientists used computer models developed at GISS and the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, to model the impact of emissions reductions. The models showed widespread benefits from the methane reduction because it is evenly distributed throughout the atmosphere. Black carbon falls out of the atmosphere after a few days so the benefits are stronger in certain regions, especially ones with large amounts of snow and ice.

“Protecting public health and food supplies may take precedence over avoiding climate change in most countries, but knowing that these measures also mitigate climate change may help motivate policies to put them into practice,” Shindell said. The new study builds on a United Nations Environment Program/World Meteorological Organization report, also led by Shindell, published last year.

“The scientific case for fast action on these so-called ‘short-lived climate forcers’ has been steadily built over more than a decade, and this study provides further focused and compelling analysis of the likely benefits at the national and regional level,” said United Nations Environment Program Executive DirectorAchim Steiner.

To see interactive and embeddable country-by-country graphs and maps of the impact of emissions reductions, visit: http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/dshindell/Sci2012/

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The Eye on Earth Summit, held in Abu Dhabi from December 12-15, brings together the world’s foremost thinkers about environmental information to reflect on how we can ensure that decision-makers everywhere make wiser decisions. Dozens of speakers with the caliber of President Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, UAE President H.E. Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and the Conservation International boss, Russell Mittermeier, are helping delegates formulate concrete recommendations for the next Earth Summit to be held in Rio in June 2012.

Access to environmental knowledge is critical: wise decision-making depends on it. As the COP-17 climate conference in Durban, South Africa, recently showed, it is becoming urgent to address the world’s ability to prepare for coming changes to our planet. Environmental information is becoming increasingly precious.

However, much of this information is unavailable, even when it already exists. It may be absent, inaccessible, or simply hidden. Much of it is held in incompatible standards, ‘protected’ by bureaucratic complexity, restrained by lack of open access, or kept in the dark through ignorance of its existence.

Emerging economies in particular are at risk of losing valuable assets because of decisions taken without full knowledge. Yet making more environmental information available to them and others need not be expensive or especially complicated. What is needed, above all, is collaboration, information, and understanding of the problems caused by unavailable data.

Water scarcity, food security, and climate change are policy issues that require solutions that extend beyond political boundaries.

This VNR contains short, impactful statements by the following distinguished speakers:

- H.E. Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Secretary General, Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi

- Jack Dangermond, CEO & President, Environmental Systems Research Institute (Esri)

- John E. Scanlon, Secretary General, Conservational on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES)

- President Bill Clinton

- Sha Zukang, UN Undersecretary General and Secretary General of the Rio +20 Summit

- Dr. Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

- Hernando de Soto, President, Institute for Liberty & Democracy

- Dr. Jane Goodall, Founder, Jane Goodall Institute

- Chief Almir Surui, Amazon Indigenous Leader

- Prof. Jacqueline McGlade, Executive Director, European Environmental Agency

Dave Newman / Shutterstock.com

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