Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture

Image: "Dawn Reflections" Indigenous art projected on the Sydney Opera House, to kick off Australia Day, 26 January 2023. CC BY-SA 4.0

Heated Debate on Giving a Constitutional Voice to Indigenous Australians

By Kalinga Seneviratne

SYDNEY (IDN) — Each year on January 26, Australians celebrate “Australia Day”, a national holiday that marks the day Captain Arthur Phillip sailed into Sydney Cove in 1788, planted the Union Jack and proclaimed the continent for the British Crown.

Later it was enshrined in the Australian constitution that it was “terra nullius” (unoccupied land). But Australia’s Indigenous People claim otherwise, and they have protested in growing numbers in recent decades, calling it the “Invasion Day”.

: Kalinga Seneviratne; THE WORLD; Asia-Pacific; 25 January 2023

Unprecedented Drought Emergency in the Horn of Africa

Catastrophic Consequences Feared

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — The United Nations has warned that the Horn of Africa is facing an unprecedented drought emergency, which will unleash catastrophic consequences. Communities in the region are in the midst of a likely fifth consecutive failed rainy season. They may face a sixth failed season in March-May 2023.

Across the Horn of Africa, at least 36.4 million people will be affected by the most prolonged and severe drought in recent history in the last months of 2022, including 24.1 million in Ethiopia, 7.8 million in Somalia and 4.5 million in Kenya.

: J Nastranis; THE WORLD; Horn of Africa; 26 December 2022

Photo: Girls from the Arhuacos indigenous community of Colombia. UNODC/Laura Rodriguez Navarro

Alarm Bells Ringing for Endangered Indigenous Languages

UN Launches 10-year Survival Plan

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) — Indigenous Peoples are guardians to almost 80 per cent of the world’s remaining biodiversity, said Csaba Kőrösi, the incumbent President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), while launching on December 16 the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 17 December 2022

Photo: Some urban Zimbabweans have resorted to growing vegetables in their backyards to supplement their food amidst rising inflation in the country. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/ IDN.

Urban Dwellers in Southern Africa Turn to Backyard Farming

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE, Zimbabwe (IDN) — At unoccupied swathes of land behind houses in Bloomingdale, a medium-income suburb in the Zimbabwean capital Harare, numerous maize fields and vegetable gardens have emerged as urban dwellers enduring economic hardships switch to backyard farming.

Zambia, despite emerging from an economic crisis during former President Edgar Lungu’s reign that ended last year, has dozens of urban dwellers taking up agriculture to supplement their earnings.

: Jeffrey Moyo; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 30 November 2022

Photo: Training on mycotoxin analysis in food samples at the Veterinary Public Health Laboratory in Malaysia. Credit: M. Modzi/Veterinary Public Health Laboratory, Malaysia.

UN Agencies Help Enhance Food Safety and International Trade in 14 Countries

By Joanne Burge, IAEA Office of Public Information and Communication

VIENNA (IDN | IAEA) — Animal diseases and crop pests can badly affect food supply and economies. Managing these problems can result in farming practices that involve the use of chemicals, which can lead to another problem: unsafe levels of chemical residues and contaminants in foods.

To help countries enhance food safety and adhere to the stringent requirements of import and export controls, the IAEA and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently completed a regional project in Asia and the Pacific with laboratories in 14 countries to help establish or improve their food safety testing capabilities.

: UN Bureau; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 23 November 2022

Photo source: Pesticide Action Network – North America

Agroecology, The Antidote for Climate Change?

By Busani Bafana

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (IDN) — The world needs to dump the false solutions of industrial agriculture for food and nutritional security and adopt agroecology in tackling climate change, says Edward Mukiibi, president of Slow Food, a global organization promoting local food and traditional cooking.

Agroecology rejects chemical fertilizers and tackles climate change while making it possible to move from exploiting resources to regenerating them. Instead of taking away from the planet, it brings back diversity, valuing local varieties, biodiversity, and knowledge.

: Africa & ME Editor; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 22 November 2022

Photo: Climate philanthropies have pledged close to $2 billion to help protect carbon reserves and biodiversity. Source: afr100

Funders Commit to Restoring African Forests

But Is Philanthropy the Way to Go?

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A coalition of climate philanthropies, governments, technical support providers and others, responding to an urgent call by African leaders for environmental funding, has pledged close to $2 billion to help protect carbon reserves and biodiversity.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 14 November 2022

Image: Massive protest at COP27 demanding leaders to address vital issues realted to agriculture, adaptation and climate resilience. Credit: Laura Quinones

A New Initiative Seeks to Transform Agriculture & Food Systems

By Bernhard Schell

SHARM EL-SHEIKH (IDN) — The Egyptian Presidency of the UN Climate Conference COP27 has launched a new initiative Food and Agriculture for Sustainable Transformation or FAST, to improve the quantity and quality of climate finance contributions to transform agriculture and food systems by 2030.

The cooperation programme will have concrete deliverables for helping countries access climate finance and investment, increase knowledge, and provide policy support and dialogue.

: Bernhard Schell; SUSTAINABILITY; Food security, nutrition & sustainable agriculture; 12 November 2022

Photo: A view of the 2022 Arctic Assembly. Credit: Arctic Circle

Indigenous Societies Draw Focus of the Arctic Circle Assembly

By Lowana Veal

REYKJAVIK (IDN) — The Arctic region is a unique area among Earth's ecosystems. The cultures in the region and the Arctic indigenous peoples have adapted to its cold and extreme conditions. Life in the Arctic includes zooplankton and phytoplankton, fish and marine mammals, birds, land animals, plants and human societies.

Reykjavik—capital of the Nordic Island nation Iceland—hosted the Arctic Circle Assembly (ACA)—nearly four weeks ahead of the UN Climate conference COP27. The Arctic region is not on the agenda of the 2022 annual gathering in Sharm El-Sheikh (Egypt).

: Lowana Veal; SUSTAINABILITY; Poverty; 09 November 2022

Photo: Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems ‘Kihamba’, Shimbwe Juu, Tanzania. ©IWMI / Prashanth Vishwanathan

COP27: First official Food and Agriculture Pavilion

Putting agrifood systems transformation at the heart of the COP27

By Jaya Ramachandran

ROME (IDN) — For the first time, the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), CGIAR and The Rockefeller Foundation will host the official Food and Agriculture Pavilion at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) taking place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, from November 6 to 18.

COP27 will be held at a time when communities around the world are grappling with the compounded impacts of a global pandemic, growing pressures from the climate crisis, high energy and fertilizer prices, and protracted conflicts, which have disrupted production and supply chains and dramatically increased global food insecurity, especially for the most vulnerable.