Chicago | Reuters — Chicago wheat fell for a third straight session on Friday, retreating further from a two-month high hit earlier this week as technical selling pressured the market, traders said. Corn also eased, as accelerated U.S. planting and news that Argentina may expand an export volume cap weighed. Soybeans gained on strong export […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat extends fall, soybeans firm
Corn books third week down
U.N. chief in talks on restoring Ukraine grain exports
Contact made amid global food crisis
United Nations | Reuters — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that he is in “intense contact” with Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the United States and the European Union in an effort to restore Ukrainian grain export as a global food crisis worsens. “I am hopeful, but there is still a way to go,” said […] Read more
U.S. grains: Wheat futures slide on Russian crop exports, U.N. grain talks
Soybeans, corn also pull back on wheat pressure, profit-taking
Chicago | Reuters — U.S. wheat futures fell sharply on Wednesday following a report about United Nations efforts to restore Ukraine grain shipments and as forecasts of ample Russian supplies added to the impact on sentiment of expectations high prices will curb demand. Corn and soybean futures also slid as falling wheat prices led profit-taking, […] Read more
Food, farming, forestry must be transformed to curb global warming, UN says
Earlier draft of panel report called for reduced intake of meat
Reuters — Protecting forests, changing diets, and altering farming methods could contribute around a quarter of the greenhouse gas cuts needed to avert the worst impacts of climate change, according to the United Nations’ climate panel. But the changes are unlikely to happen unless governments act to spur them along, the report from the Intergovernmental […] Read more
U.N. to roll out global early-warning systems for extreme weather
London | Reuters –– With climate change fueling dangerous weather worldwide, the United Nations is pledging that early-warning weather monitoring will cover everyone on the planet in five years. “Half of humanity is already in the danger zone,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said earlier this week. And yet, “one-third of the world’s people, mainly in […] Read more
Ukraine war already impacting food security, U.N. agency warns
London | Reuters — The war in Ukraine is already resulting in rising food prices and a shortage of staple crops in parts of central Asia, the Middle East and north Africa, the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said on Thursday. The Russian invasion of Ukraine last month has severely curtailed shipments […] Read more
Afghanistan ‘marching towards starvation,’ UN food chief says
Doha | Reuters — Millions of Afghans could soon face starvation due to a combination of conflict, drought and the coronavirus pandemic, the executive director of the World Food Programme said on Tuesday, calling on political leaders to act fast. “There’s a perfect storm coming because of several years of drought, conflict, economic deterioration, compounded […] Read more
Once-in-50-year heat waves now happening every decade: U.N. climate report
Reuters – Extreme heat waves that previously only struck once every 50 years are now expected to happen once per decade because of global warming, while downpours and droughts have also become more frequent, a U.N. climate science report said on Monday. The report www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1 found that we are already experiencing those effects of climate […] Read more
World Food Programme starts distributing food in Venezuela
Reuters — The U.N. World Food Programme (WFP) said Wednesday it had begun distributing school meals to children in Venezuela, where some seven million people require humanitarian assistance after years of economic collapse in the once-prosperous OPEC nation. The WFP’s first take-home rations were distributed for children under six years old at some 277 schools […] Read more
U.N. counts cost of ‘man-made’ famines
US$400 for a plate of rice and beans?
New York | Reuters — Nearly 30 years ago a malnourished two-year-old girl died in front of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield at a refugee camp in northern Uganda. Two days ago U.N. food chief David Beasley met a starving five-month-old girl at a hospital in Yemen — she died on Thursday. […] Read more