Fresh Produce Journal

World Grain Prices Reflect Russian Export Restrictions

09/02/2010

FreshProduceJournal.com | September 2, 2010
International food prices surged five percent in August, showing the largest month-on-month increase since November 2009, according the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The spike in the FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) was largely the result of pressures placed on global cereals supply and demand. These pressures were [...]

{ 0 comments }

Europe targets commodities derivatives trade

09/02/2010

BRUSSELS — Europe warned on Tuesday of moves to rein in commodity derivatives trading under a French-led drive to tame price distortions for raw materials ranging from oil to grain.
France launched the onslaught, calling on the European Union and the Group of 20 countries to take urgent steps to draft new [...]

{ 0 comments }

World food crisis: Eastern Europe

Rising food prices have emerged as a top political issue in many countries of the world. In some places, they have sparked riots in which people have died.
Food inflation is a burgeoning political problem in Eastern Europe too. It has forced families to make difficult choices about what they put on [...]

Read the full article →

Little Keeps Nigeria From a Crisis of Hunger

Country Suffers From Unreliable Agriculture Output

By David Hecht
Special to The Washington Post
KANO, Nigeria — The nation blessed with Africa’s largest oil reserves and some of its most fertile lands has a problem. It cannot feed its 140 million people, and relatively minor reductions in rainfall could set off a regional food [...]

Read the full article →

Pakistan Flooding Because of Farms?

By Mason Inman in Karachi, Pakistan
for National Geographic News
Published August 16, 2010

This story is part of a special series that explores the global water crisis. For more, visit National Geographic’s Freshwater website.
Pakistan’s extreme floods, which have displaced 20 million people and swamped a fifth of the country, have been made far [...]

Read the full article →

Floods just one of Pakistan’s water woes

SHIKARPUR, Pakistan Thousands of farmers have crowded this once-quiet Pakistani town. They live on the hospital’s lawn, they camp on overpasses. Their fields are destroyed, covered by billions of gallons of brown soupy floodwater.
But ask those farmers about their water troubles and they’ll tell you flooding is just the [...]

Read the full article →

Farming profits in the rich soils of carbon sequestration

On Saturday, Labor’s announcement of a “carbon farming initiative” received a cautious reception. “A welcome boost for regional Australians,” the Climate Institute called it, but warned that a carbon price was still necessary. The ACF similarly said the benefits of better land management wouldn’t be realised unless there was a carbon [...]

Read the full article →

Growers blame imports for cheap winter vegies

Winter vegetables are the cheapest they’ve been in five years.
Ausveg, the body which represents the country’s vegetable producers, believes imported vegies are driving prices down.
Spokesperson Andrew White says the prices aren’t sustainable for growers in the long term.
“We’re worried that imports are placing great pressure on growers still and the issue that we’re concerned [...]

Read the full article →

Soaring wheat prices will bite even higher up the food chain

Dealers in the pits at the Chicago Board of Trade – the world’s oldest futures and options exchange – haven’t seen anything like it for years.
A combination of bad weather and speculation by hedge funds has pushed the prices of many raw materials into the stratosphere, sparking fears of surging [...]

Read the full article →

When Agrochemical Corporations Invented Nature

BERLIN, (IPS) – A civil society protest against a British agrochemical company that claims it has invented a particular sort of broccoli has again focused attention on the question who owns natural biodiversity, especially vegetables, seeds, and many forms of meat and animal food products.
Delegates from some 300 environmental and consumer organisations [...]

Read the full article →

Turkey could be ‘Europe’s winter garden,’ FAO report says

Efforts to resuscitate agricultural life in Turkey have resulted in a “real success story,” a United Nations report evaluating improvements in agriculture and food safety around the world has said.
“With its rich natural resources and vast cultivable lands, Turkey has great potential to increase its agricultural exports,” the report by [...]

Read the full article →

Food Crisis in Niger Republic

Many Nigeriens depend on wild fruits as their daily meals following acute shortage of food caused by poor rainfall
Raya Sahi, a mother of 10, has been forced by the food scarcity in Niger Republic to forage for wild fruits and leaves to feed her family. She leaves her home everyday with [...]

Read the full article →

Foreign farm ownership merits deeper analysis

Friends came to New Zealand to manage a farm and a few years later they bought it.
Since then they have poured more money into it, increased its carrying capacity, productivity and the number of people employed on [...]

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries