Food Waste Has Environmental Downside

The Poultry Site – Far too much of the food we produce goes to waste. This is not just a waste of resources – it is also something that has a needless detrimental effect on the environment. It is particularly the consumer who is responsible, but waste is also an issue in other parts of the food chain.

In the EU, the consumption of food and drink is responsible for 20-30 per cent of the overall environmental impact and more than 50 per cent of eutrophication.

Organic sales slip again amid economic gloom

By Rebecca Smithers
The Guardian - Sales of organic products in the UK have fallen by 1.5% over the past year, continuing their downward slide in the face of ongoing tough economic conditions.

Supermarkets are blamed in a new report for cutting back their ranges and shelf space, leading to a 2.4% slump in organic sales across the multiple retailers. But at the same time a “Jamie [Oliver] generation” of ethically aware shoppers aged under-35 is driving growth through other outlets, accounting for 16% of all sales, and significantly increasing their spending on organic food, drink and other products.

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Vitamin Enriched Cassava

By Evanildo da Silveira

FAPESP – Agricultural staples richer in vitamins and nutrients than those currently consumed, such as a cassava with 40 times more vitamin A than the typical one, for example, are now in the final phase of field testing at the Campinas Institute of Agronomy (IAC). In addition, varieties of eight food species – pumpkin, rice, sweet potatoes, beans, cowpeas (black-eyed peas), maize (corn), cassava and wheat – richer in iron and zinc and with greater resistance to disease and climate change are already on the market or in the final phase of development at the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). This is a process known as food biofortification, carried out through classical breeding methods that seek to crossbreed different varieties, such as plants with disease resistance, a high yield and good nutritional characteristics with more vitamins and minerals. The work is slow and time consuming and may take 10 to 15 years.

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Source and Photo: FAPESP, October 2012
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Will biotechnology provide food security?

World Economic Forum – According to David Lawrence, biotechnology, like all technologies, is not in itself good or bad. It’s what we do with it that decides
The way we human beings behave can be strange. For at least 30 years I used to give talks which included a slide showing how population increase was reducing the land available to feed an individual, pointing out that unless we changed something, at some point we would run the risk of not being able to feed everyone on the planet. Every few years I would update it, and while the trends continued as predicted, no one seemed to want to pay any attention. Historic stocks were depleted, the rich ate more, and more people fell into hunger.

Reducing Food Price Volatility

 

By Sara Gustafson

IFRIR - While food price volatility has decreased since 2010, price spikes and unpredictable markets remain a significant threat to global food security. The uncertainty that stems from price volatility can cut into farmers’ profits and discourage long-term planning and investment, decreasing agricultural productivity. In turn, smaller harvests and lower food stocks can lead to further price increases and decreased availability of food, particularly for already vulnerable populations. But what is behind price volatility, and what can be done to control it?

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Source and Photo – International Food policy Research Institute, February 8, 2013
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GM Based on Science, Ethics or Urban Myths?

ANALYSIS – The degree to which science, emotion or assumed ethics should drive technological changes in agriculture and farming are becoming central to the arguments over the development of biotechnology and genetic modification (GM), writes Chris Harris.

At the Oxford Farming Conference, last week, the concerns over the growth in the global population and how to feed growing numbers at a time of climate change and diminishing land and water resources were at the forefront of the debate.

Food engineering to be a topic at the São Paulo School of Advanced Sciences

By Fábio de Castro
Agência FAPESP – Nutrition and health have been central topics for science and food engineering, and researchers from these areas are taking more and more interest in another aspect of the universe of food, that is, the pleasure of eating.
In April 2013, some of the foremost international specialists from this sector will meet in Pirassununga (SP) to discuss scientific developments that will allow for the manipulation of structural factors to bring pleasure and satisfaction to natural and processed food consumers.

Danish Whistle-blowers Reveal Links between GM soy, Roundup and Health Damage in Pig Herd

A farming newspaper (Effektivt Landbrug) has caused a storm of controversy in Denmark by publishing (1) an extended analysis of the connections made by pig farmer Ib Borup Pedersen between GM soy and health problems in his herd of breeding sows. In an interview for the newspaper, Mr Pedersen contended that there was also a link between Roundup herbicide residues and stillbirths and malformations in pig litters. But most interestingly of all, he explained that since switching the feed in his breeding sow house to non-GM soy, health problems and medical costs have declined dramatically, to the point where the extra costs involved in purchasing non-GM soy feed are more than offset by reduced medication costs. The bottom line is that his farming operation is now more profitable than it was under the GM-soy feeding regime.

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Source and Photo: Sustanaible Pulse, April 24th, 2012
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Tackling food waste through a social enterprise model

By Jo Confino

The Guardian – If you were to search for a torchbearer to represent the social enterprise movement, you would be hard put to find someone better than 27-year-old Jenny Dawson.

The founder of chutney and jam company Rubies in the Rubble has that rare quality of integrating a sharp and ambitious business mind with a heart of gold.

Dawson, who this week won the UK prize in a European-wide social enterprise competition run by ice-cream company Ben & Jerry’s, left her lucrative fund management job two years ago because she did not want to reach middle age and wonder why she had not concentrated on something she was passionate about.

Source and Photo: The Guardian, August 22nd, 2012
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Global Agricultural Productivity Report™

Global Havest – The 2011 GAP Report Features the latest comparison of the current rate of global agricultural productivity with the rate required to sustainably meet the needs of the more than nine billion people expected to inhabit the Earth by 2050, and four national-level case studies which highlight the impact of key policies on agricultural productivity….. >> Read More<<

Source an Photo: Global Haverst
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