Two delegates from the 2015 Youth Ag-Summit will be jetting to Rome in October to take part in a meeting of the United Nations’ Committee on World Food Security. Australia’s Laura Grubb and Kenya’s Samba Ouma were selected from 80 nominees. Ouma and Grubb are now charged with presenting the Canberra Youth Ag Declaration — […] Read more

Youth Ag-Summit: Two to represent at UN meeting
Number of hungry people worldwide drops below 800M, U.N. says
Rome | Thomson Reuters Foundation –– The number of people in the world still going to bed hungry 15 years after the U.N. placed eradicating hunger and extreme poverty at the top of its Millennium Development Goals has dropped to 795 million, according to a report released on Wednesday. The report by three U.N. agencies […] Read more
World food prices fall in January, rally seen unlikely
Rome | Reuters — World food prices are unlikely to rise much from their four-year slump as long as high production, low oil prices and limited import demand continue, a senior economist for the United Nations’ food agency said Thursday. The U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) global food price index fell in January, continuing […] Read more
Food diversity under siege from global warming, UN says
Rome | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Climate change threatens the genetic diversity of the world’s food supply, and saving crops and animals at risk will be crucial for preserving yields and adapting to wild weather patterns, a United Nations policy paper said on Monday. Certain wild crops — varieties not often cultivated by today’s farmers […] Read more

The four fallacies of sustainable food production
Intensive, large-scale production employing the latest technology is key to feeding a hungry world
Reading Time: 4 minutes The view that we need to change how we produce food in the name of sustainability has become ubiquitous in Canada and other developed countries. Indeed, spurred on by the perceptions of some consumers, the food industry has become keenly interested in how farmers produce food. They want to know about their carbon footprint; animal […] Read more

UN declares 2014 International Year of Family Farming
Proclamation aims to put family farming higher on policy agendas
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has declared 2014 as International Year of Family Farming. The declaration aims to “help reposition family farming at the centre of agricultural, environmental and social policies in the national agendas,” an FAO news release said. The declaration aims to broaden discussion and co-operation at all […] Read more