TIGblogs TIG | TIGblogs GROUP TIGBLOGS LOGIN SIGNUP
GSimon's TIGBlog
GSimon's TIGBlog
Right to Food cont'd - Facts and Figures
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

I took some notes from the last report for the UN, Building resilience: A human rights framework for world food and nutrition security, from Olivier De Schutter, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Human Rights Council. Olivier De Schutter is absolutely wonderful and I am amazed at everything he is doing to advocate positive change for the right to food. The main idea of the document is that the current increase in food prices can be seized as an opportunity in order to advance the realization of the right to food by the adoption of structural measures, leading to a profound reform of the global food system.
Here is a random list of facts and figures I compiled:
- It has been estimated that with a 20 per cent increase in food prices in 2025 relative to the 1996 baseline, the number of undernourished people in the world would increase by 440 million
- It has been estimated that the production of food will have to increase by 50 per cent by 2030, and double by 2050, if an increase growth in demand is to be met
- Most of the food insecure live in rural areas. Agricultural workers are among the most vulnerable, owing due to the often informal character of their employment, depriving them of legal protection from their employers. They amount to 450 million, and represent 40 per cent of the world's agricultural work force.
- There are approximately 500 million small-holder households, totalling 1.5 billion people, living on two hectares of land or less. Many are facing an unprecedented increase in the price of inputs, as a result of the increase of the price of oil and, for livestock farmers, of crops, at the very same moment that, as net food buyers, they are spending larger amounts of their budgets on food.
- The surge in prices in 2006-2008 is the result of policies that have systematically undermined the agricultural sector in a number of developing countries over a period of 30 years
- Food crops currently used to produce ethanol are also the crops that form the largest part of the diets of poor people, maize, sugar cane, soy, cassava, palm oil and sorghum provide around 30 per cent of mean calorie consumption of people living in chronic hunger. There is a need for international guidelines on the production of agrofuels
- At both ends of the chain (producers and retailers) and in the middle (the food processing sector), the degree of concentration is particularly high: for instance, the 10 leading food retailers have a 24 per cent share of the $3.5 billion global market, and their activities in developing countries have expanded dramatically in recent years.
- “Cargill, the world’s biggest grain trader, achieved an 86 per cent increase in profits from commodity trading in the first quarter of this year. Bunge, another huge food trader, had a 77 per cent increase in profits during the last quarter of last year. ADM, the second largest grain trader in the world, registered a 67 per cent increase in profits in 2007. Nor are retail giants taking the strain: profits at Tesco, the UK supermarket giant, rose by a record 11.8 per cent last year. Other major retailers, such as France’s Carrefour and Wal-Mart of the US, say that food sales are the main sector sustaining their profit increases” (GRAIN report, Making a killing from hunger, April 2008, available from: www.grain.org/articles/?id=39)
- In 2007, approximately 23 per cent of coarse grain production in the U.S. was used to produce ethanol, for a share of ethanol in the gasoline transport fuel market of 4.5 per cent in 2008; in the EU, although 47 per cent of vegetable oil production was used in the production of biodiesel, causing higher imports of vegetable oil to meet domestic consumption needs, the biodiesel share of the diesel transport fuel market was 3.0 per cent.

November 7, 2008 | 8:29 PM Comments  0 comments

You must be logged in to add tags.


GSimon's Profile

GSimon's Friends


Latest Posts
International House,...
Personal Diary
Right to Food cont'd -...
Right to Food Conference
Définition de la...

Monthly Archive
April 2006
May 2006
June 2006
August 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
February 2007
April 2007
May 2007
March 2008
November 2008
April 2009
June 2009

Change Language


Tags Archive
aedev apprentissage atelier autoformation biofuels burkinafaso caire cmc concours e-livre e-poupatempo egypte ethanol foodsecurity hebdomadaires humanright humanrights i.house ihouse ihousenyc.org internationalhouse logicielslibres mena newyork nouvelles righttofood services telecentre.org téléphoniemobile yampukri

Filter By Type
Events
News
Travel
Topics

Friends
Chelsea Baker
:: Nilesh Roy ::
a.st.l
ACKEY Spéro hector
Adam Clare
Adama Diop
adara
Adrian Mois
Ahed Ali
Ajmal Pashtoonyar
Akporobome c. Asheshe
Alexander
Allan Cox
allen kelly auksaq
alpha bacar Barry
Andy
Andy Carvin
Antoine Huss
armand
Aspidistra
Axel Van Goud
Barry Mamadou Aliou 1
bella oden martial
benoît
billy2
Binetou
Bob Harmon
chaptal21
Chiara C.
Chibeze Sunday Ezekiel
CHISOMAGA
Corinne
Cynthia Lacasse
dah bird
Damian Profeta
Daniel Hatcher
Darcy Higgins
Dave Matthews
Desire--Clitand
diallo moustapha
Diomandé Moussa
Eatidad Noor
Emily Briggs
Emily Kornblut
Eric
EROSS OCAMPO
Fanny
fardeen
Fernán Sepúlveda Santos
Francis
Francisco Pereira
Francklin Pierre
François Godonou
gbemiga
Giorgio Tinelli
Guyverson
Hannes Koudelka
Hansha Sanjyal
Hasmik Harutyunyan
hayadin
Hugh Switzer
ijebuboy
ilyes
Incia Zaffar
India Volunteer Program
Ines ATTYA
IYPF
J.Vengo
Jack
Jamie Arron
Jan Peloza
Jean-Sébastien Marier
Jennifer Corriero
jill mills
Joanna Dafoe
Joel Kalpram
José Luis Ortega
Julie
Julien Fortier
Justin Iftime
Justine Castonguay-Payant
kate raynes-goldie
Kimia
KOUYATE
Kristiana
Kristina Martin
Latif M'bengue
Le Réseau global des jeunes engagés
Leora Sas
Luke
Luke Walker
LYS DE MAI
Lysiane van der Knaap
Madelaine Hamilton
Mafer
MAIGA Oumar
Malick
Mamoudou
Marie
mark
Martin Breskvar
Michael Furdyk
Minakshi
Mohamed Barrie
mohamed elkashash
motcho martial
Moungonga Luc Fernand Deliberthy
Muhammad Rauf
MUKAMA Nicholas
Muqing
Mustapha
Mwansa Njelesani
Myriam Toumi
Nathaniel Cyrus Yue-Kiu Chan
ndranto ranaivoson
Neil Jones
Nelly
Nick Moraitis
Nick Yeo
Niombo Sylvie
Os
Pascal Bekono
Peter Koll
pierre paul audate
piximariana
rachid
Raquel Lins
Reginald Masocha
sailor
Sam
sanjeev
sarah
Sarah TOUMI
saskia harmsen
Sessi
Sheridy Leslie
Simon
Spéro Hector ACKEY
Svitlana
Tala Nabulsi
Tarjan Linda Eszter
Tchekwie
Terri Willard
Thanguy NZUE OBAME
Thanu
Ugonna Wachuku
uzma
Valentina Jovanovski
Yasmary Mora
Yasser Salimi
Yuming Ma
Zaruhi Kocharyan

Links
50 best non profit's online
AEDEV
AUF
Canada Helps
Droits & Démocratie /...
IGLOO
INFODEV
Jeunes Volontaires...
UN


28977 views
Important Disclaimer