The Human Imprint

Improvements in rice harvest in Kenya

Check out the video  at the FAO Media Centre.

Le's all be vegetarians

If only tackling the void between what the world population wants to consume and what the planet can deliver was this simple. If we removed a range of food providing animals from the planet what would be the environmental justification for pets?

The Independent carries an article about an interview with Professor Stern ahead of current climate talks. The reduction in the impact of humans on the planet will be addressed by social measures and accepting responsibility for the food we eat is one of those social measures, as well as, reducing the waste we produce, and also looking at the way we support the human population in the lives that people strive for whilst making sure that we can provide that with best use of natural resources. The solutions require empathy and understanding for individual and community motivations and effective communication with the message delivered by people we believe in and trust.

The challenges will be met not just product labelling, but by a two-way discussion on nutrition and health and well-being all of which is addressed by a balanced and varied diet. I have written about the barriers to this many times including the transition of diets across the world to dairy and meat based diets and the limiting access to vitamins due to the cost of fruit and vegetables. In the UK,  I can buy ten apples for around £4 or a kilogramme of blueberries or I can buy 5kg of dried pasta - if I am on a limited income which will I choose?

There are a billion people who are vegetarian through necessity, because they can't afford meat, in fact they don't have secure access to food period. This is a complex mesh of issues which will be addressed by a multilayered approach and I believe will ultimately succeed from a ground up not a top down movement.

Spanish olive farmers hit by price falls

BBC News reports that olive prices in Spain have hit a new low. The growers' union, La Union de Pequenos Agricultores y Ganaderos (UPA), says the average price its members have been getting this year has been 1.85 euros ($2.70; £1.70) a kilo.  The worst month was in May when the price dropped to just 1.60 euros.  The UPA estimates that for a small grower the break-even point is around 2.20 euros.

The olive growers are entitled to European Union agricultural subsidies and because prices fell so much this year the EU has given extra support.  The EU has paid olive oil producers to store their oil until the market recovers.  The aid is for 180 days and up to a maximum of 110,000 tonnes.  Producers get 1.30 euros per tonne, per day. Follow the link to find out more.

2050: Increased investment in agricultural research essential

The FAO Media Centre reports that: "Boosting agricultural production to the levels needed to feed an expanded world population will require sharply increased public investment in research and development and widespread adoption of new technologies, farming techniques and crop varieties." This is according to a new FAO discussion paper published on the 25th September.

"The paper, titled "The Technology Challenge," is one of several produced by the UN food agency to serve as starting points for panel discussions at the "High-Level Expert Forum on How to Feed the World in 2050," taking place at FAO's Rome headquarters October 12-13. The Forum will prepare the ground for the World Summit on Food Security from 16 to 18 November 2009.

FAO's latest projections indicate that global agricultural production must grow by 70 percent by 2050 in order to feed an additional 2.3 billion people". Follow the links to find out more.

Fruit and vegetables have 'unacceptable' levels of pesticides

The Telegraph has reported on the findings of the Pesticides Residues Committee, part of the Health and Safety Executive, after testing more than 4,000 samples of food and drink.The article states that:

"The levels of pesticides varied considerably, with imported fruit and vegetables tending to have higher levels, according to its 2008 annual report. One in 7 beans in a pod one in 25 fresh peas (in pods) and one in five yams all had pesticides above the allowed level. One in 70 apples and pears had illegal levels of pesticides.

The Food Standards Agency insisted the illegal levels did not necessarily mean that the food was unsafe to eat, and pointed out that the overall levels of pesticides in food had fallen over the last year. In 2007 1.8 per cent of food had illegal levels; 2008 it had fallen to 1.2 per cent".

Post-Chernobyl monitoring reports published

The UK FSA has issued a press release on the 2008 monitoring reports for radioactivity on farms following the Chernobyl incident. The release states that:

"In 1986, an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former USSR (now Ukraine) released large quantities of radioactivity into the atmosphere. Some of this was deposited on certain upland areas of the UK where sheep are farmed.

In order to protect the health of consumers, restrictions were placed on the movement and sale of sheep from areas of the UK where contamination levels in sheep meat were over 1,000 Becquerels (a measure of radioactivity) per kilogram (Bq/kg) – the safety limit set in 1986.

Live sheep are monitored using a hand-held radiation monitor pressed against them. This gives a count rate that relates to a radioactivity concentration in Bq/kg. To allow for variability in live monitoring results, a pass mark is used to ensure there is only a 1 in 40 chance of a sheep above the limit giving a monitor reading below the limit.

In 1986, almost 9,000 farms were under restriction in the UK. Since then, the levels of radioactivity in sheep meat have fallen and the number of farms still under restriction is now 369, of which over 95% are located in north Wales.

The Agency is continuing to undertake further surveys to ensure that other farms can be released from restrictions when the levels of radioactivity in sheep are within safety limits".

Although it is twenty-three years since the nuclear accident it is concerning that there are still over 350 farms under restriction because of the high radiation levels.

Wells polluted by agricultural run-off in US

The New York Times reports that in Morrison,Wisconsin more than 100 wells were polluted by agricultural runoff within just a few months. This led to  residents suffering from diahorrea, stomach illnesses and severe ear infections. The article states that: "There are 41,000 dairy cows in Brown County, which includes Morrison, and they produce more than 260 million gallons of manure each year, much of which is spread on nearby grain fields. Other farmers receive fees to cover their land with slaughterhouse waste and treated sewage." The article further suggests that

"Agricultural runoff is the single largest source of water pollution in the nation’s rivers and streams, according to the E.P.A. An estimated 19.5 million Americans fall ill each year from waterborne parasites, viruses or bacteria, including those stemming from human and animal waste, according to a study published last year in the scientific journal Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology." Check out the full article

Helping farmers in Zimbabwe

The FAO Newsroom reports that the FAO has started a major operation in support of small scale farmers in Zimbabwe as part of its joint efforts with the European Union (EU) to fight hunger this year. The organization has procured 26 000 tons of seeds and fertilizers for distribution to 17 6000 vulnerable farmers – representing between 10 and 15 percent of communal farmers in the country. Check out the full article

Guatemala declares hunger crisis

BBC News has announced that the Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom has declared a "state of public calamity" in order to try to mobilise funding to tackle severe food shortages in the country. The report states that 54,000 families living "in an area prone to extreme weather are in a critical situation and that so far this year, some 25 children are believed to have died of hunger. The UN's World Food Programme (WFP) announced it would start distributing 20 tonnes of nutritional biscuits to the worst affected areas". This is a worrying development.

Primary producers - price makers or takers

There has been an ongoing discussion in the agricultural sector about whether primary producers (farmers) are price makers or price takers. Due to the dynamics of the food supply chain farmers are very often price takers i.e. they are given a price and they can take it or leave it. 

Many economists would suggest that farmers look at becoming price makers i.e. look to, or create, markets where they can demand a premium price or get a higher profit on what they sell. These so-called "niche" markets. The problem is that the premium price is only in place whilst there is a shortfall of supply against demand. The minute that demand equals or exceeds demand the suppliers become price takers again.  The brake factor with primary production is that there is often such a huge lag phase between when a farmer decides to change their production methods (e.g. move to organic practices); move to free range from intensive production or vice versa and when they are then physically able to supply the market. This lag phase can vary from months to several years and by this time the market dynamics may have changed completely. There is also the "lemming" phenomenon in a market in that potential suppliers may move to an area where there are deemed to be better financial returns only to see those returns demininished or negated because the market is then oversupplied.

The other brake factor with agriculture is that working capital i.e. the money to buy the inputs such as livestock, feed, seeds, fertilisers, is very often borrowed in the hope that when the final crop is harvested there will be sufficient difference (margin) between the growing costs and the final crop price to pay back the loan and the interest and provide a living for the farmer.

The problems in the UK and indeed Europe with low bulk milk prices (liquid milk direct from the farm) and the viability of farming businesses has been in the news for some time. The EU is actually building up a "butter mountain" by so called intervention. There is currently 83 million kilogrammes of butter that is in storage because it has literally been taken off the market in an effort to maintain current prices. Market intervention is a tool that governments or trading groups can use to influence food prices, but it goes against the principles of "free" global food markets.

There have been many other examples in recent weeks of the weakness at primary production level of the global food supply chain. The US hog (pig) industry has been hit as described by Sox First and the chocolate supply in Ghana. The US government has also being buying pork meat to limit the drop in price to the tune of $151 million and the UK pig industry faced similar problems about eighteen months ago but there was no intervention in the UK market.  I wrote quite recently about sugar shortages too. This is a difficult time where the market economics of the food supply chain are really under scruitiny.