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food and agriculture organization
According to UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), August 2015 saw a 5.2% fall in global food prices, the biggest drop since 2008.
The FAO saw monthly falls in all major commodities, from milk and vegetables to oils, sugar and cereals.
Food producers are being hit by slowing demand in China and a Russian embargo on Western products.
Now the European Commission is to release €500 million ($557 million) to help Europe’s farmers.
The commission said the most significant part of the package would support the dairy sector in all EU member states.
Photo Reuters
Dairy farmers have suffered a 20% fall in European wholesale milk prices in 2014.
The European Commission aid comes on top of extra help for European fruit and vegetable farmers, who have been hit by the Russian embargo on Western food imports in retaliation for EU and US sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine.
Farmers across Europe have been protesting in recent weeks against the plunging prices that they say are destroying their businesses.
On September 7, Belgian police fired tear gas and water cannon at some 7,000 European farmers demonstrating Brussels.
Last week, French farmers blocked the streets of Paris with more than 1,500 tractors.
The falling prices are unlikely to be reversed any time soon.
The FAO said in a statement: “Ample supplies, a slump in energy prices and concerns over China’s economic slowdown all contributed to the sharpest fall of the FAO Food Price Index in almost seven years.”
The FAO has raised its forecast for world cereal output in 2015 to 2.54 billion tonnes, thanks to what looks like good wheat and rice harvests in Argentina, Brazil and the US.
The World Food Day theme for 2013 is “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition”.
The official World Food Day theme – announced at the start of every year by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) – gives focus to World Food Day observances and helps increase understanding of problems and solutions in the drive to end hunger.
World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on October 16
Today almost 870 million people worldwide are chronically undernourished. Unsustainable models of development are degrading the natural environment, threatening ecosystems and biodiversity that will be needed for our future food supply. Calls for profound changes in our agriculture and food systems are becoming more frequent and more insistent.
World Food Day 2013 is an opportunity to explore these and other questions, and help bring about the future we want.
World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on October 16 in honor of the date of the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 1945.
The day is celebrated widely by many other organizations concerned with food security, including the World Food Programme.
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A recent United Nations report reveals that the food the world wastes produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any country except for China and the US.
Every year about a third of all food for human consumption, around 1.3 billion tonnes, is wasted, along with all the energy, water and chemicals needed to produce it and dispose of it.
Almost 30% of the world’s farmland, and a volume of water equivalent to the annual discharge of the River Volga, are in effect being used in vain.
In its report, released this week, entitled The Food Wastage Footprint, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimated that the carbon footprint of wasted food was equivalent to 3.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
If it were a country, it would be the world’s third biggest emitter after China and the United States, suggesting that more efficient food use could contribute substantially to global efforts to cut greenhouse gases to limit global warming.
The food the world wastes produces more greenhouse gas emissions than any country except for China and the US
In the industrialized world, much of the waste comes from consumers buying too much and throwing away what they do not eat. In developing countries, it is mainly the result of inefficient farming and a lack of proper storage facilities.
“Food wastage reduction would not only avoid pressure on scarce natural resources but also decrease the need to raise food production by 60% in order to meet the 2050 population demand,” the FAO said.
The report suggested improving communication between producers and consumers to manage the supply chain more efficiently, as well as investing more in harvesting, cooling and packaging methods.
It also said consumers in the developed world should be encouraged to serve smaller portions and make more use of leftovers. Businesses should give surplus food to charities and develop alternatives to dumping organic waste in landfill.
The FAO estimated the cost of the wasted food, excluding fish and seafood, at about $750 billion a year, based on producer prices.
The wasted food consumes about 250 cubic km of water and takes up about 1.4 billion hectares – much of it diverse natural habitat that has been cleared to make it arable.
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According to a new UN report, eating more insects could help fight world hunger.
The report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says that eating insects could help boost nutrition and reduce pollution.
It notes than over 2 billion people worldwide already supplement their diet with insects.
However, it admits that “consumer disgust” remains a large barrier in many Western countries.
Wasps, beetles and other insects are currently “underutilized” as food for people and livestock, the report says. Insect farming is “one of the many ways to address food and feed security”.
“Insects are everywhere and they reproduce quickly, and they have high growth and feed conversion rates and a low environmental footprint,” says the report.
The authors point out that insects are nutritious, with high protein, fat and mineral content.
They are “particularly important as a food supplement for undernourished children”.
The report by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says that eating insects could help boost nutrition and reduce pollution
Insects are also “extremely efficient” in converting feed into edible meat. Crickets, for example, need 12 times less feed than cattle to produce the same amount of protein, according to the report.
Most insects are likely to produce fewer environmentally harmful greenhouse gases than other livestock.
The ammonia emissions associated with insect-rearing are far lower than those linked to conventional livestock such as pigs, says the report.
Insects are regularly eaten by many of the world’s population, but the thought may seem shocking to many Westerners.
The report suggests that the food industry could help in “raising the status of insects” by including them in new recipes and adding them to restaurant menus.
It goes on to note that in some places, certain insects are considered delicacies.
For example some caterpillars in southern Africa are seen as luxuries and command high prices.
Most edible insects are gathered in forests and serve niche markets, the report states.
It calls for improved regulation and production for using insects as feed.
“The use of insects on a large scale as a feed ingredient is technically feasible, and established companies in various parts of the world are already leading the way,” it adds.
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The UN food and agricultural body announces that global food prices sharply rebounded in July due to wild swings in weather conditions.
The rise has fanned fresh fears of a repeat of the 2007-2008 food crisis which hurt the world’s poorest.
Untimely rains in Brazil, drought in the US and production difficulties in Russia drove the rally, said the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Food prices jumped 6% in July from June after falling three months in a row.
The FAO food price index measures the monthly price changes for a basket of food commodities including cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar. The index reading in July was still well below the all-time high reached in February 2011.
The Rome-based organization took the surprise step of publishing the index this month – which it usually does not – due to the exceptional market conditions affected by unusual weather patterns.
The UN food and agricultural body announces that global food prices sharply rebounded in July due to wild swings in weather conditions
Cereal prices surged 17%, while sugar leapt 12% to new highs in July from the previous month after rains hampered sugarcane harvesting in Brazil, the world’s largest producer.
Delayed monsoons in India and poor rains in Australia also contributed to higher prices.
“The severe deterioration of maize crop prospects in the US following extensive drought damage pushed up maize prices by almost 33% in July,” said the FAO.
The price of rice and dairy was unchanged, although meat fell 1.7% due to a slump in pork prices.
The surge in prices have renewed fears of a food crisis that plagued countries in 2007-2008, sparking violent street protests in countries like Haiti and Egypt.
“There is a potential for a situation to develop like we have back in 2007-2008,” said FAO senior economist and grain analyst Abdolreza Abbassian.
“There is an expectation that this time around we will not pursue bad policies and intervene in the market by restrictions, and if that doesn’t happen we will not see such a serious situation as 2007-2008. But if those policies get repeated, anything is possible,” he added.
Higher food prices hurt the world’s poorest countries because it means they will need to pay higher import bills as they do not produce enough food at home.
Oxfam said that since the beginning of the year, rising food prices and drought had caused a food crisis in the Sahel sub-region of west and central Africa, affecting more than 18 million people over an area of land as wide as the US.
“This is not some gentle wake-up call – it’s the same global alarm that’s been screaming at us since 2008,” said Hannah Stoddart, Oxfam’s head of economic justice policy, regarding the FAO data.
“These latest figures prove yet again that there is something fundamentally flawed in the way we produce and distribute food around the world. For too long our leaders have stood by complacently, while up to a billion people go hungry worldwide,” she said.
“The time to act is now.”
