The recent salmonella outbreaks in peanuts and pistachios may have been wake-up calls to the public about the dangers of food-borne illness, but U.S. agencies that measure food safety have seen how “progress has plateaued” in government efforts to combat contamination of U.S. food supply. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has released its […]
The danger of delivering food aid in unstable regions or conflict zones was further illustrated by yesterday’s hijacking of a U.S. cargo ship by Somali pirates. The Maersk Alabama was delivering food supplies to East African countries for several aid organizations: “‘The vessel’s manifest showed it was carrying 401 containers of food aid from USAID, […]
A joint report issued by the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) in New York and the Overseas Development Institute in London cited that 122 aid workers were killed and over 260 were attacked in 2008 while conducting aid programs, making it the most dangerous year for aid workers. A Reuters article quotes Abby Stoddard from […]
President Obama announced a plan designed, in part, to combat the global food crisis* on the final day of the G-20 summit in London last week. The initiative allots $448 million to address immediate aid concerns in Latin America and Africa, and allocates another $1 billion for the development of a long-term food security strategy. […]
California’s State Assembly has drafted new legislation in response to the investigation of salmonella contamination of pistachio nuts from Setton Farms of Terra Bella, CA. The draft bill aims to improve food inspections, testing and reporting of contaminated food. An article in the Los Angeles Times makes two important points: First, that the reaction of […]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that Setton Farms of California, which grows pistachio nuts for Kraft Foods, Inc., has announced a recall of its crop from the previous year after finding salmonella contamination in tested batches. There have been reported cases of illness related to the contamination which are being investigated. However, […]
Following UN Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf’s appeal to G-20 leaders to discuss agricultural initiatives for alleviating the global food crisis while meeting in London this week, the Fairtrade Foundation has repeated that call and said a fresh approach to trade was greatly needed to address the issue. The group called on the […]
The small African island nation of Seychelles has been forced to make a tough choice to improve its food security. The government announced that it will abandon a planned hotel project in order to preserve the land for growing food. Seychelles imports a large amount of its food because it has a dearth of arable […]
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization director-general, Jacques Diouf, called for restraint in tightening credit as a response to the global financial crisis while speaking at the biennial UN food policy conference in Bangkok, Thailand. In another example of the tie between the global food crisis and the economic downturn, Diouf voiced concern that the […]
A coalition of 183 social justice and civil society groups, including 76 U.S.-based organizations and 107 international groups from 29 countries, signed a letter appealing to President Obama and the U.S. Congress to re-regulate the commodities market as a means of preventing continued food price speculation – a practice food poliocy experts claim was a […]
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a hearing today aimed at asking what the U.S. can do to address the current global food crisis. A bill co-sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. (PA) and Senator Richard Lugar (IN) has been introduced to Congress to improve US and global efforts to increase crop yields, create […]
On Monday, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced plans for a summit on the global food crisis at the 36th Session of the Conference of the Organization in Rome this November. The proposal for the meeting had already received support from the heads of State and Government of the League of Arab States […]
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