I was on Canadian telly this morning with Anna Lappé from the Small Planet Institute. Her work is splendid and her latest project, on food and climate change, is extremely interesting: check it out at TakeABite.cc.

It joins the pantheon in the Newswire below.

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Posted on 21 April, 2008 - 01:22

Two important bits of news from the world of agricultural technology. First, we've a report that genetically modified soy beans yield less than ordinary ones. The study was motivated by a professor who heard soybean farmers asking "how come I don't get as high a yield as I used to?". A good question indeed. One answer - it wasn't designed to yield more, it was designed to withstand a herbicide sold by the same company that sells the seed.

But there's a bigger answer to the question of the future of agricultural technology. It comes with a report of the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). Snappy title? No. Bed-time reading? Hardly. It's hundreds of dense pages long (and I'll be reading it over the next week, so you won't have to).

But already, the IAASTD is an acronym to remember. ... read more »

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Posted on 21 April, 2008 - 03:11

From the African Biodiversity Network comes a tale of plunder, opportunism, and greed, a story of how biofuels are providing a pretext for privatisation. Full story below the fold. ... read more »

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Posted on 21 April, 2008 - 03:41

Just when you thought it couldn't get any more apocalyptic, the food crisis looks like it's getting a helping hand from another horseman: pestilence. ... read more »

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Posted on 21 April, 2008 - 03:53