Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture

Famine is a Policy Choice: The Afterlife of Covid, Institutional decay, and Privatization—Part 2

This is the second in a series of two articles. Click here for Part 1

COLOMBO (IDN) — What was never mentioned in connection with power cuts and soaring fuel and energy prices was the privatization of sale of the Yugadanavi power plant to an American New Fortress company in a corrupt mid-night deal in November 2021 by former US citizen President Rajapakse, before he took wing to New York to address the United Nation’s General Assembly to boast about his green energy and fertilizer policies that had bought Sri Lanka to the current disaster!

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 18 June 2022

Photo: Millions of people globally are on the brink of famine. Credit: WFP/Marwa Awad

Famine Is a Policy Choice: IMF Talks, Geopolitics and Disaster Capitalism—Part 1

Viewpoint by Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake *

This is the first in a series of two articles.

Them belly full but we hungry
A hungry mob is an angry mob
A rain a-fall but the dirt, it tough
A pot a-cook but the food no ‘nough

A hungry man is an angry man
— Bob Marley and the Wailers

: Asia Editor; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 17 June 2022

Photo: African Union head Macky Sall told Vladimir Putin that Africans were 'victims' economically of the conflict in Ukraine. Credit: Mikhail KLIMENTYEV SPUTNIK/AFP

Western Russia Sanctions Hurting African Economies, Says AU Head

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | MOSCOW (IDN) — African Union chair Macky Sall, after a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has urged western and European “partners” to remove their sanctions hurting African economies.

Senegalese president Sall underscored the pain resulting from the barrage of international sanctions on Russia which have disrupted supplies of fertilizer, wheat, and other commodities, pushing up prices for food and fuel.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Russia; 12 June 2022

Achieving SDGs by 2030 in Peril

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — After two issues focusing mainly on the impact of the Ukraine-Russia war on the achievement of SDGs, this month we wanted to shift the focus, but it was not as easy as reflected in the articles published here.

The United Nations has revised its global growth estimates due to the war, and the Security Council holds an emergency session on food security, while Southern Africa feels the pinch of the war because of its widespread economic relations with Russia and food imports from Ukraine. Meanwhile, global leaders keep on talking about the loss of lives and livelihood but are impotent to do anything about it.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 30 May 2022

Photo: Women fruit and vegetable vendors chat at a market in La Paz, Bolivia. Source: UN News/Unsplash/Lesly Derksen

There Should Be No Crisis in World Food Supplies

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power

LUND, Sweden (IDN) — The world is lather about the jump in world food prices in world food prices. Just this last weekend the Minister of Agriculture of Egypt was saying that, without assured grain supplies from Russia and Ukraine, he expected a rise of widespread malnutrition.

: Jonathan Power; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 24 May 2022

New Report Focuses on Security Risks of Environment Crisis

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The world’s growing environmental crisis—including climate change, which has resulted in widespread droughts, floods and heatwaves threatening major food crops—is escalating security risks worldwide.

A new policy report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), titled Environment of Peace: Security in a New Era of Risk,‘ points out that between 2010 and 2020 the number of state-based armed conflicts roughly doubled (to 56), as did the number of conflict deaths. At the same time, the number of refugees and other forcibly displaced people also doubled, to 82.4 million.

: Thalif Deen; SUSTAINABILITY; Climate Action; 24 May 2022

Photo: Africa braces for food price inflation as Russia-Ukraine war continues. Anatolii STEPANOV / FAO/AFP

Southern Africa Feels the Pinch of Russia-Ukraine War

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — Life is no longer the same for Zimbabwe’s shop owner, 34-year-old Richwell Mhasi in the capital Harare who has had to park his car at home, switching to his bicycle, cycling to and from work amid the rising prices of fuel since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war this year.

: Jeffrey Moyo; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 20 May 2022

Ukraine War Constraints UN To Revise Global Growth Estimates

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — The latest United Nations forecast warns that growth prospects have weakened significantly amid the war in Ukraine, upending the fragile economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, triggering a devastating humanitarian crisis in Europe, increasing food and commodity prices and exacerbating inflationary pressures worldwide.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 18 May 2022

Image: Representational Image. Courtesy: Tribune India

Behind India’s Wheat Fiasco

By V Sridhar

This article was issued by NewsClick, and is being republished courtesy of that independent media organization in India.

NEW DELHI (IDN) — The month of May seems to be the Narendra Modi Government’s favourite month for conjuring a crisis out of thin air. Exactly a year ago, it was the vaccine fiasco; this year, it is the wheat crisis. About a month ago, (Prime Minister) Modi, accustomed to the bombast of a Vishwaguru (world guru), told US president Joe Biden that India, a non-existent player in the global wheat trade, could play a role in feeding the world.

: Asia Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 18 May 2022

Security Council to Hold Emergency Session on World Food Security

By Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) — The United States, which is holding the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council this month, has summoned an “emergency session” of the Council on May 19 to focus largely on world food security in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken told reporters May 15 the United States and Western allies are coming together to address “some of the broader consequences that are flowing from Russia’s aggression, primarily the global food shortages and rising food prices”.