Global Food for Thought

The Power of Private Investment

The Power of Private Investment: Leveraging the Strengths of Business to Meet Food Security Goals - Open Table Dinner Series

On the eve of the 2012 G8 announcement of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, The Chicago Council on Global Affairs convened a small group of business, government, and civil society leaders from the U.S., Europe, and Africa to discuss the private sector’s role in meeting food security goals.  This issue brief summarizes the dinner discussions.

May, 2012 -The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition announced at the Camp David G8 summit highlights the shared commitment among G-8 and African leaders, private business, and non-profit organizations to achieving global food security.  Building on the commitments made at the L’Aquila G8 summit three years ago, it will spur US$3 billion in initial investment by private companies across the agricultural value chain.  This private sector investment, coupled with sustained public sector support, may be the key to turning the New Alliance vision into a reality.

The challenge

Due to declining mortality rates and high birthrates, half of the world’s population growth over the next forty years will be in Africa—which will have twice the population of China in 2050.  To meet this exploding demand for food and increased agricultural output, a new model is needed that brings governments, business, farmers, and civil society together to build lasting social, environmental, and economic change in the food sector in Africa and other parts of the world.

Roger Thurow - Outrage and Inspire - Derailing Momentum

DERAILING MOMENTUM

There is no doubt that the financial crisis roiling Europe has unsettled world markets, scrambled politics, shaken re-election prospects in several countries and darkened many 401-k prospects.  But as the drama stretches on and on, another mighty impact is emerging: it is derailing the momentum to fight hunger and poverty through agricultural development.

The Euro crisis certainly overshadowed the G8 meeting in May.  President Obama announced the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition before the leaders began their deliberations.  But when the deliberating began, it was consumed by the politics and economics of the Eurozone.  Earlier this week, the G20, meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, was also preoccupied by the financial crisis.  The G20 was supposed to be the setting to really move the needle on development challenges.  While some of the G20 countries did support a new initiative to drive private sector investment into more innovative agricultural solutions, the G20 didn’t do much to put into action the Action Plan on Agriculture it had ballyhooed at its previous meeting in Cannes.  As a number of advocacy groups noted, the focus was on more words rather than new action.

Expert Commentary - Deepening Food Insecurity Casts Shadow over South Sudan’s First Birthday

By Paul O’Brien, Overseas Director, Concern Worldwide

On July 9^th, the Republic of South Sudan will celebrate its first Independence Day since its secession from the Republic of Sudan in 2011. I recently travelled, first to Juba, the capital, and then to the Aweil West and Aweil North areas of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state—a region bordering the Republic of Sudan where a staggering 800,000 people live below the poverty line.

In this region, malnutrition rates rise and fall along with the levels of food available pre- and post-harvest. In Aweil West, for instance, fluctuations in child malnutrition rates from harvest to the ‘lean season’—the time preceding the harvest when food supplies are at their lowest—doubled from 12 percent to 26 percent in November 2011. Given that a rate of 15 percent is considered to be at emergency-level, it is clear that communities in South Sudan are constantly confronting food insecurity, even in times of what they consider to be ‘plenty.’

On travelling to one market, I met a woman who told me that they had seen a three-fold increase in prices for their staple food, dura (sorghum). People are eating less food, less often. The food that was available lacked variety—vegetables were few and far between with the exception of a few small onions. Many of the vegetables were imported. Because they are such a vital source of vitamins and minerals, vegetables, or rather not having vegetables, can have a profound impact on the health and wellbeing of children.

No sustainable development without eradication of hunger and extreme poverty

By José Graziano da Silva, Director-General, Food and Agriculture Organization; Kanayo F. Nwanze, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Ertharin Cousin, Executive Director, World Food Programme; and Emile Frison, Director General, Bioversity International

We stand at a crossroads: it lies within our reach to eliminate hunger and poverty, using methods that do not compromise the future of life on this planet. That is the essence of sustainability. It will require not just universal acceptance of the right of every person to be free from hunger, but also profound changes in the way we produce and consume food and manage the earth's resources.

Rio+20 gives us a golden opportunity to bring together the agendas of food security and sustainable development to build the future we want. Increasingly, we know how to eliminate hunger and poverty in ways that also promote sound management of natural resources, encourage social inclusion and drive economic growth.

There are 1.3 billion people living in extreme poverty, and close to 900 million chronically undernourished. An additional 1 billion suffer from “hidden hunger”, a lack of vitamins and minerals. Undernourishment in children prevents them from ever reaching their full physical and cognitive potential, costing lives, livelihoods and economic growth. We must all understand that the Rio vision of sustainable development cannot be achieved as long as hunger and extreme poverty persist.

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Dr. Daniel Hillel awarded 2012 World Food Prize

The 2012 World Food Prize will be awarded to Dr. Daniel Hillel for conceiving and implementing a radically new mode of bringing water to crops i­­n arid and dry land regions - known as “micro-irrigation.”

Dr. Hillel’s pioneering scientific work in Israel revolutionized food production, first in the Middle East, and then in other regions around the world over the past five decades.  His work laid the foundation for maximizing efficient water usage in agriculture, increasing crop yields, and minimizing environmental degradation.

Statement of Achievement

First drawn to the critical needs of the water supply in arid regions during his years of living in a small settlement in the highlands of the Negev Desert, the new approach Dr. Hillel developed provided for a low-volume, high-frequency, calibrated water supply to plants. As such, his research led to a dramatic shift from the prevailing method of irrigation used in the first half of the twentieth century: applying water in brief periodic episodes of flooding to saturate the soil, followed by longer periods of drying out the soil. The new innovative method developed and disseminated by Dr. Hillel applied water in small but continuous amounts directly to the plant roots, with dramatic results in plant production and water conservation.

Impact

Dr. Hillel’s development and promotion of better land and water management clearly demonstrated that farmers no longer needed to depend on the soil’s ability to store water, as was the case when using the previous method of high volume, low frequency irrigation. The technology he advanced, including drip, trickle and continuous-feed irrigation, has improved the quality of life and livelihoods throughout the Middle East and around the world.

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Photo Credit: The Chicago Council/Les Talusan

Roger Thurow - Outrage and Inspire - A Beautiful Day

A BEAUTIFUL DAY

It was a beautiful day, as Bono might sing, when President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton and a phalanx of corporate leaders, and the Irish rock star himself, gathered in Washington DC on May 18 to shift the effort to end hunger through agricultural development into a higher gear.

I’ve written about the words of President Obama that day, demanding an “all hands on deck” effort.

And I’ve spoken about Secretary Clinton’s emphasis on the nutrition pillar of this effort, especially focusing attention on the crucial 1,000 Days time that stretches from a woman’s pregnancy to her child’s second birthday.  “Nutrition is too important,” she said, “to be treated as an afterthought.”

But I’ve kept quiet on what Bono said that day mainly because I wanted to confirm that he really said what I thought I heard.  Now that I’ve read the text of his speech, I know I wasn’t hallucinating when he launched this riposte:

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