FAO in North America

Innovative agricultural finance and risk management

Submitted by Teresa Buerkle on July 24, 2012

FAO in cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has just published a new working paper titled Innovative agricultural finance and risk management. The publication looks into the issue of risk management in agricultural finance in transition countries. These countries – like Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Russia – have the potential to become major world grain exporters if their agricultural yields, with investment from the private sector, increase to reach the standards achieved in similar countries around the world. This would help address the problem of rising global food demand - which FAO estimates could grow 60-70 percent by 2050 as a result of population and income growth. But to attract private investment in agriculture, new financial and risk management instruments need to be developed.

The paper identifies effective ways for international finance institutions like the EBRD to adjust their investment portfolio in order to support the creation and development of agricultural finance and risk management products, mechanisms and institutions. These include pre- and post-harvest financing instruments, price risk management and the development of trading platforms. According to the report, these advances could help reinforce the entire agriculture supply chain so that it is more profitable and secure for all parties involved, and consequently food production could be substantially improved.

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Policy reform to resolve food crisis

Submitted by Rachel Friedman on February 16, 2012

A recent report by the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy addresses how food security has made its way into the parlance of governments and international agencies as a priority issue. In particular, the report looks at how the policies and investments surrounding food and agriculture have changed since the outset of the food crisis in 2007.

The conclusions suggest that while there has been renewed attention to agricultural and rural development, as well as increased funding for the sector, these actions lack the urgency necessary to address the immediate needs of the hungry. Moreover, the authors suggest a need for a redesign of policy for agricultural trade and development, calling for more emphasis on agro-ecological methods and decoupling energy and agriculture.

In order to achieve some of the reforms suggested in terms of biofuel expansion, price volatility, and land grabs, the authors call for increased engagement of developing country governments and a shift in focus by those of developed nations.

Read the full report online.

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Changes in the lunch line

Submitted by Rachel Friedman on January 27, 2012

Photo credit: Chuck Kennedy/White House

On January 25, First Lady Michelle Obama and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack released new nationwide standards to govern school lunch menus. With close to 32 million students on school-run lunch programs, this update to the nutrition standards of the meals (the first in over 15 years!) is a milestone. The new standards increase the amount of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and limit the number of calories in school lunches. There is also a focus on reducing saturated fats, transfats, and sodium, with only low-fat and non-fat milk now offered. Mrs Obama emphasized the importance of this change to the larger effort to improve childhood nutrition:

“For many kids whose families are struggling, school meals can be their main — or only — source of nutrition for the entire day. So when we serve higher-quality food in our schools, we’re not just fighting childhood obesity; we’re taking the important steps that are needed to fight child hunger as well.”

For more details, read the USDA press release.

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Seminar on fostering seed industry

Submitted by Steve Hirsch on December 9, 2011

Photo: ©FAO/Giulio NapolitanoA seminar on fostering the seed industry will be held in Washington on 14 December, centering on findings in a policy brief on the industry produced by the Enabling Agricultural Trade Project, a U.S. Agency for International Development initiative, and Iowa State University’s Seed Science Center.

The brief, Building an Enabling Environment for Seed Sector Growth, says the industry needs policies focused on initial support to the private sector while allowing it to adapt to the market and develop independently through a transparent, rules-based legal and regulatory system, instead of advancing government control and supervision.

Participants will include Joseph Cortes of Iowa State University, Mark Huisenga of USAID and Judy Chambers of the International Food Policy Research Institute.

Further information, including registration links, is available here.

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Hunger report urges policy shift toward healthy foods

Submitted by Steve Hirsch on November 21, 2011

The Bread for the World Institute is today calling for U.S. food and agriculture policies to be shifted toward improving nutrition for Americans.

The group’s recommendations come in its 2012 hunger report, Rebalancing Act:  Updating U.S. Food and Farm Policies.

U.S. farm policies are now skewed toward production of calories, not nutrients, the report said, adding that the United States does not now produce enough fruits and vegetables for Americans to meet the recommended daily allowances of vitamins and minerals.

The report also cited a need for the United States to strengthen its traditional role as the largest provider of food aid while improving nutritional quality of that aid. Purchasing more food aid locally would result in savings that could be used to reduce maternal and child nutrition, particularly in the crucial 1000 days from pregnancy to a child’s second birthday, the report said.

Recommendations in the report included a call for farm policies to be realigned so that they help build markets for domestic farmers to provide nutrition programs with healthy food.  Moreover, the report said, they should be linked to local and regional development of rural areas.

The report said the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program – formerly known as the Food Stamp Program – should “at least” be able to protect all family members from hunger during the duration of benefits, and should include incentives to make it easier for recipients to afford healthy food.

Among the other recommendations were calls for the provision of meals meeting established dietary guidelines in child nutrition programs, a legal means for illegal farm workers to be in the United States, and an increased commitment to Feed the Future, the U.S. government global hunger and food security initiative.

The report also calls for a shift from farm subsidies to a comprehensive revenue insurance program to help farmers manage risk.

“Congress has a great opportunity to trim our federal deficit and fix our broken food system,” said David Beckmann, president of the Bread for the World Institute. “We are offering a solution that will not only save money but save our country’s small farmers.”

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Do forest pests bug you?

Submitted by admin on November 10, 2011

A new guide released today by FAO aims to help countries prevent forest-damaging pests from spreading to new areas. The Guide to implementation of phytosanitary standards in forestry responds to risks posed by increased international trade and is the result of significant international collaboration, says Kerry Britton of the U.S. Forest Service, one of the specialists who coordinated development of the publication. (Read more.)

Not only that, but it may be the only publication on the subject whose rollout includes a rap video:

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Thoughts on World Food Day

Submitted by Teresa Buerkle on October 16, 2011

As World Food Day winds to a close and, along with it, this year’s Blog Action Day (B.A.D.), dedicated appropriately to food, I had hoped to pen a profound post on world hunger. But I’m written out, so just a few thoughts.

Tonight, around one person in seven will go to bed hungry. Every year, 10 million children die before their fifth birthday. One-third of these deaths are associated with undernutrition.

Few of us can imagine the horror of being unable to provide a meal for our children and wouldn’t wish this fate on anyone. Yet these horrific statistics persist, even though the world produces enough food to feed everyone.

Without adequate food, people can’t lead healthy, active lives. They’re not employable. They can’t care for their children, and their children can’t learn. This hardship, multiplied by family upon family, creates a devastating ripple effect that jeopardizes national economies and imperils global development.

On most days this provokes feelings of frustration, makes me angry, and most of all, bewildered about our values as a global society.

But this past week in Iowa left me feeling somewhat hopeful. Countries like Brazil and Ghana – whose former presidents shared this year’s World Food Prize – are making enormous progress, and their efforts can provide a roadmap for other countries, both developed and developing.

The key ingredient: commitment at the highest levels of government to eradicating hunger once and for all. And not just words, but significant investment in agriculture and rural development.

As a wise colleague said a few years ago, trying to stimulate economic growth when a fifth or more of the population is chronically undernourished is like trying to drive a car with the hand brake on.

This is something Presidents Kufuor and Lula recognized, and the results speak for themselves: under President Lula, Brazil cut its proportion of hungry people in half and its poverty rate from 12 percent to below 5 percent. In Ghana, malnutrition has fallen from one-third to less than one-tenth of the population, and poverty has been cut by 50 percent since the mid-1990s.

How did this happen? By investing in agriculture and rural development, by boosting incomes and improving access to food and education, by putting money where the mouths were.

Some say we can’t afford the level of investment needed to free the so-called “bottom billion” from hunger. The truth is we can’t afford not to do so.

In today’s New York Times, Nicholas Kristof sums it up perfectly:

Economists used to believe that we had to hold our noses and put up with high inequality as the price of robust growth. But more recent research suggests the opposite: inequality not only stinks, but also damages economies.

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Entering a ‘Year of Agriculture’

Submitted by Rachel Friedman on October 12, 2011

The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) kicked off their ‘Year of Agriculture‘ with the first in a series of development roundtables. Visiting scholar Robert Thompson discussed ‘The Challenge of Feeding Nine Billion by Mid-Century.’  The presentation provided context for issues associated with feeding a growing global population – increasing food production, improving infrastructure to store and transport crops, managing natural resources in a sustainable manner – and offered up Thompson’s recommendations for achieving these goals in the coming years. Watch the video of the presentation on the SAIS website.

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Fast food stamp of approval?

Submitted by Rachel Friedman on October 3, 2011

Are restrictions on the use of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) too rigid? Last week the New York Times’ Room for Debate tackled the controversy over expanding the domain of food stamps to include fast food establishments and providing more flexibility in the food choices of SNAP recipients. Four debaters weighed in, looking at the issue from both an economic and efficiency perspective and with health and nutrition as the primary concerns.

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Rwanda, US and Gambia win forest policy awards

Submitted by Teresa Buerkle on September 21, 2011

Forest policies from Rwanda, the United States and Gambia took the top honors in the 2011 Future Policy Award.

Rwanda’s National Forest Policy was crowned best in the world, with silver medals going to the US Lacey Act amendment of 2008, which prohibits all trade in illegally sourced wood and plant products, and Gambia’s FAO-supported Community Forestry Policy, the first in Africa to provide local populations with secure and permanent forest ownership rights.

The awards ceremony was held at the Central Park Zoo in New York, sponsored by the World Future Council in collaboration with FAO and other UN and environmental partners.

“I kind of know about awards, I’ve had a few myself and I think it’s much more important that we talk about this award because it affects everyone,” said FAO Goodwill Ambassador Carl Lewis at a press conference at UN headquarters in New York earlier in the day. In his athletic career, Lewis won 10 Olympic medals, nine of them gold.

Read more on the awards  and watch the announcement.

2011 Future Policy Award winners

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