-The United Nations International investments must give local farmers and active role and leave them in control of their land if they are to have a positive effect on the host country’s economy and advance development, according to a report released today by the United Nations food agency. Produced by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the report – Trends and Impacts of Foreign Investment in Developing Country Agriculture – emphasizes...

-The Indian Express Farmers welcome the stand of the government of India on the outright rejection of the recommendations of the technical expert committee to the Supreme Court, which suggested that a moratorium be imposed on field trials of GM crops. The SC shot down the proposal of an interim moratorium that would have strangled technology and innovation in the country. The moratorium would have also prevented Indian scientists and companies...

-The Hindu Have Emami and Karuturi bitten off more than they can chew in their land quest? Indian companies which invested in controversial deals involving hundreds of thousands of acres of land in Ethiopia have found themselves out of their depth in a fast-growing African economy that is still in the process of building critical transport and irrigation networks. Documents related to one such transaction reveal how Emami Biotech, a subsidiary of the...

-The Hindu One in eight people, or 12.5 per cent of the world’s population, is chronically undernourished today says the latest State of Food Insecurity (SOFI) report. The grave ethical and practical implications of this abominable statistic from the three Rome-based United Nations agencies are obvious. Not least because mass hunger is a man-made phenomenon. Historically, hunger and starvation have been caused not by shortfalls in food production but rather by...

Rising corn prices in the United States brought about by biofuel mandates have cost developing countries 6.6 billion dollars over the past six years, says a study by Global Development And Environment Institute at Tufts University (GDAE).  Net Food Importing Developing Countries, among the most vulnerable to food price increases, incurred ethanol-related costs of $2.1 billion, the study concludes. (See highlights and the links below). The recent spike in world food prices...