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Most recent bulletins on food and agriculture
August 15, 2018 West Africa/Europe: From Cocoa to Chocolate
http://www.africafocus.org/docs18/choc1808.php
"Cocoa growing communities, particularly in West Africa, are facing poverty, child
labour and deforestation that have been made worse by a rapid fall in prices for
cocoa. Widely touted efforts in the cocoa industry to improve the lives of farmers,
communities and the environment made in the past decade are having little impact. In
fact, the modest scope of the proposed solutions does not even come close to
addressing the scale of the problem." - Cocoa Barometer, April 2018
May 8, 2017 Africa: World Bank Financing Land Grabs
http://www.africafocus.org/docs17/land1705.php
"The World Bank Group has indirectly financed some of Africa's most notorious land
grabs, according to a report by a group of international development watchdogs. The
World Bank's private-sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is
enabling and profiting from these projects by outsourcing its development funds to
the financial sector." - Oakland Institute
February 20, 2017 Africa/Global: Agribusiness Giants on Merger Path
http://www.africafocus.org/docs17/ag1702.php
"If the Bayer-Monsanto merger is approved, the new merged company
will control almost 30% of the global commercial seed market and
25% of the agrochemical market - making it the world's largest
supplier of seeds and chemicals. In South Africa, it would control
about 30% of both markets. Already today, Monsanto is one of two
companies in South Africa that employs 80% of the private sector
breeders in maize and 100% of the breeders in soybean and sunflower
breeders. " - African Centre for Biodiversity
January 19, 2016 Africa: Stealth Assault on African Seeds
http://www.africafocus.org/docs16/seed1601.php
"There is a renewed and stronger assault on seed ... based on legal
systems that permit exclusive rights over seeds on the spurious
contention that plant varieties were 'discovered' and improved on.
But these 'discovered' varieties are the product of the whole
history of collective human improvements and maintenance carried out
by peasants. To assert exclusive rights over the whole on the basis
of small adjustments is nothing short of outright theft." - SouthSouth
Dialogue, Durban, South Africa, November 2015
February 18, 2015 Africa: Privatizing Land and Seeds
http://www.africafocus.org/docs15/ag1502.php
"The G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition was launched in
2012 by the eight most industrialised countries to mobilise private
capital for investment in African agriculture. To be accepted into
the programme, African governments are required to make important
changes to their land and seed policies. ... [for example] Despite
the fact that more than 80% of all seed in Africa is still produced
and disseminated through 'informal' seed systems (on-farm seed
saving and unregulated distribution between farmers), there is no
recognition in the New Alliance programme of the importance of
farmer-based systems of saving, sharing, exchanging and selling
seeds." - Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa and GRAIN, January
2015
July 31, 2014 Africa/Global: Talking Points on Common Issues
http://www.africafocus.org/docs14/tp1407.php
As African leaders and corporate CEOs gather to meet with
President Obama and U.S. government officials, a wide
variety of civil society activists will also be meeting in
Washington, some in officially recognized side events, others in
alternative venues. Many more will be issuing statements and
communicating their views, some appropriating the twitter hashtag
#AfricaSummit used by U.S. government officials, thus inserting their
views as well into that hashtag stream.
March 17, 2014 Africa/Global: The Right to Food
http://www.africafocus.org/docs14/food1403.php
"The right to food is the right of every individual, alone or in
community with others, to have physical and economic access at all
times to sufficient, adequate and culturally acceptable food that
is produced and consumed sustainably, preserving access to food for
future generations. ... Because of the various channels though
which access to food can be achieved, the creation of decent jobs
in the industry and services sectors plays an essential role in
securing the right to food, as does the provision of social
protection."- Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Final Report
November 9, 2013 Africa: Monopolizing Maize
http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/food1311.php
According to a new report from the African Centre for Biosafety, in
South Africa, "Monsanto's Bt maize, MON810, has failed hopelessly
in South Africa as a result of massive insect resistance, after
only 15 years of its introduction into commercial agriculture." Yet
the same variety is being promoted in other African countries by
projects supported by Monsanto. And South Africa's supply of maize,
a staple food, is dominated by a few large companies and consists
almost entirely of GM crop varieties.
June 12, 2013 Africa: Underdeveloping African Agriculture
http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/ag1306.php
"These interventions from AGRA [Alliance for a Green
Revolution in Africa] and the G8 are, first and foremost,
about opening markets and creating space for
multinational corporations such as Yara, Monsanto and
Cargill, to secure profits. ... As world leaders speak in
philanthropic terms about 'ending hunger', behind the
scenes Africa's seed and trade laws are being
'harmonised' to the whim of agri-business giants. The
efforts of Africa's farmers over millennia stand to be
privatised and expropriated, while traditional and vital
practices such as seed saving and sharing stand to be
criminalised." -- Francis Ngang, Secretary General of
Inades-Formation (http://www.inadesfo.net/)
June 12, 2013 Mozambique: Agriculture Project Challenged
http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/moz1306.php
"We, the rural populations, families from the communities
of the Nacala Corridor, religious organisations and
Mozambican civil society, recognising the importance and
urgency of combating poverty and promoting sustainable
and sovereign development, believe it is timely and
crucial to voice our concerns and proposals in relation
to the ProSavana Programme. ... After several discussions
at community level in the districts covered by this
programme, with Mozambican Government authorities [and
with representatives of Brazil and Japan], we find that
there are many discrepancies and contradictions
[confirming] defects in the programme design;
irregularities in the alleged process of public
consultation and participation; serious and imminent
threat of usurpation of rural populations' lands and
forced removal of communities from areas that they
currently occupy." - Open letter to leaders of
Mozambique, Brazil, and Japan, May 28, 2013
Feb 26, 2013 Zimbabwe: New Narrative on Land Reform, 2
http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/zim1302b.php
"Under the fast track land reform, 169,000 farmers have
received land since 2000. Most are small farmers under
model A1, but the fast track also includes model A2 with
land for wealthy people prepared to invest in largerscale
commercial farming--maintaining the dual
agriculture policy that had continued since the colonial
era. The 146,000 A1 farmers moved quickly onto their land
and are using more of the land than their white
predecessors. A2 farm allocation was more competitive and
politicized ... [nevertheless] The bulk of settlers are
'ordinary' people ... Undoubtedly some are political
elites or what are sometimes called 'cronies,' which we
guess to be 5% of farmers and 10% of land." - Hanlon,
Mantengwa, and Smart, in Zimbabwe Takes Back the Land
Feb 26, 2013 Zimbabwe: New Narrative on Land Reform, 1
http://www.africafocus.org/docs13/zim1302a.php
Whether to take credit for it or to cast blame, both
ZANU-PF and most of its critics attribute responsibility
for the land reform in Zimbabwe since 2000 to the party
of Robert Mugabe. Although much of the debate in the
media about the book "Zimbabwe Takes Back Its Land," has
repeated this familiar point and counterpoint, the
authors in fact deny this premise, arguing that the
principal force behind the land reform and how it was
implemented was not ZANU-PF but Zimbabwean farmers.
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