MALNUTRITION: Boost expertise to achieve green economy, says UNEP

Maina Waruru : 24 February 2012
 Flickr/CIMMYT
The world needs more experts to tackle environmental challenges

The world is facing a major shortage of experts capable of tackling sustainable development challenges that could undermine efforts to achieve a green economy, a top-level advisory panel to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) warned this week.
It said that this shortage needed to be addressed both through training and the upgrading of existing expertise.
The report was launched at UNEP's 12th special session of its governing council in Nairobi, Kenya, this week (20–22 February).
They presented a list of key environmental concerns, and then asked more than 400 leading environmental scientists from around the world to rank the list in order of importance.
The report aims to provide governments, civil society and businesses with scientific assessments to help them forge an agreement at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in Brazil in June.
According to UNEP chief scientist, Joseph Alcamo, there is a wide skills gap in many priority areas, including renewable energy, ecosystem services, food safety and security, and water.
The report put this lack of skills as the second most important challenge.
However, the issue rated most important was environmental governance.
The system of international global governance that emerged in the 20th century and is largely unsuitable for addressing this century's challenges, the report says.
It called for governance to be better aligned with global sustainability challenges, and said that the effectiveness of emerging, novel governance structures will need further scrutiny for this to happen.
Scientists said at this week's meeting that food security, which ranked third on their priority list, must be handled from an ecological perspective — and not merely a political and socioeconomic perspective, if sustainability was to be achieved.
Food production systems in many developing countries remain under a severe ecological threat, with agriculture and fisheries ecosystems coming under severe pressure, from poor ecological management.
The other top issues in the report of the Foresight Panel included reconnecting science and policy; accelerating the implementation of environmentally-friendly renewable; integrating biodiversity across the environmental and economic agendas; new challenges for climate change mitigation and adaptation; and the need for a new approach for minimizing risks of novel technologies and chemicals.
http://www.scidev.net/en/science-and-innovation-policy/capacity-building/news/boost-expertise-to-achieve-green-economy-says-unep-1.html

MALNUTRITION: Canada: Sustainable foods production and research

JESSICA LEEDER  Mar. 25, 2011

A year-long search is over for a sustainable-foods guru fit to initiate research that will transform Canada’s food producers into global leaders.
Plant and animal scientist Ralph Martin, a Nova Scotia-based academic and director of the Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada, has been appointed chair of Sustainable Food Production at the University of Guelph, a post backed by a $3-million grant from Loblaw Cos. Ltd.
Prof. Martin’s post at the country’s largest agriculture school is the first privately funded academic chair of its kind in Canada. Its creation is part of the grocery giant’s foray into bringing positive change to the food system. The move is in line with an increasing global trend: With agriculture research on a well-documented down slope, large food-related companies have begun wading into the science and policy realms to backstop and ignite efforts to ensure the future sustainability of natural resources – and the food business.
“It’s all part of the recognition that the private sector has to play a larger role in research on agriculture and food,” said Douglas Hedley, executive director of the Canadian Faculties of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine. “Industry cannot get all of what it needs from publicly funded research.”
Nor can universities get all they need any more from public funds. Amid rising global food prices in January, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research council, a $1.1-billion agency that finances Canadian university research, wiped food-related studies from its target funding area. Economists and development experts frequently cite a three-year decline in global agriculture research as a driver of the vulnerability many nations are experiencing to food-price shocks. Global agriculture productivity has not kept pace with demand or population growth, a fact some leading economists attribute to widespread hubris after the increase in agricultural productivity in the 20th century known as the Green Revolution.
Governments have not yet recognized the importance of boosting agriculture research as global population numbers creep toward a projected nine billion in 2050.
Speaking at a recent global food security conference at McGill University in Montreal, Rebekah Young, a senior economist with the Canadian Department of Finance, said Canada is badly in need of a new approach to funding innovation in agriculture. However, she underscored that her views were not representative of the department’s.
“We have very essential investment in basic agriculture research that needs to happen,” she said. “We can’t let up on the gas pedal.”
Thus, a novel private-sector role in supporting public research – once a sacrosanct realm – is becoming crucial.
“We need to be working much closer with people who are interested in funding what universities want to do,” said Alastair Summerlee, president of the University of Guelph. “At a time when the public purse is being pulled in many, many directions, I think it’s the way of the future for universities.”
Prof. Martin will be tasked with uniting researchers, food producers, retailers and policy makers across the country to develop solutions to food system failures, including rampant waste, hunger, and food price dynamics that have generally made healthy food more expensive and less accessible than cheap, processed foods. Over-consumption of the low-cost convenience foods has been linked to conditions such as obesity and diabetes.
“Loblaw stepping up to the plate on this issue ... sends a signal to the government that the private sector really is interested in developing policies for the benefit of all in the long run,” he said. “Business will not do well if people are not eating well.”
At Loblaw, the feeling is mutual. In addition to the new chair, the company is funding a three-year effort to develop a national food policy with the Conference Board of Canada. In its stores, where 14 million people shop every week, it is implementing one of the most aggressive seafood sustainability policies ever attempted by a retailer. By 2013, about 2,500 products from 250 suppliers will be certified sustainable.
“Our concern is for the future of our food supply and food systems,” said Bob Chant, the company’s vice-president of corporate affairs. “We think we can be part of the solution.”
That same feeling is driving large multinationals deep into the realm of global food and resource policy.
Greg Koch, director of global water stewardship at Coca-Cola Co., is leading the soft drink manufacturer’s effort to help more than 80 nations develop sustainable agriculture and water policies.
“Sustainability ... is a business imperative,” he said. “Your response as a business cannot just be within the four walls of your direct business.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/scientist-named-to-boost-sustainable-food-production/article1956075/

MALNUTRITION: Feed The Future Initiative

At the G8 Summit in L’Aquila, Italy in July 2009, global leaders committed to "act with the scale and urgency needed to achieve sustainable global food security." They recognized that the combined effect of longstanding underinvestment in agriculture and food security, historically high and volatile food prices, and the economic and financial crisis was increasing dramatically the number of poor and hungry and jeopardizing global progress toward meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDG). By robbing people of a healthy and productive life and stunting the development of the next generation, hunger leads to devastating consequences for individuals, families, communities, and nations. At L’Aquila, leaders called for increased investment in agriculture and rural development as a proven lever for combating food insecurity and as an engine for broader economic growth, prosperity, and stability.
Feed the Future (FTF), the U.S. government’s global hunger and food security initiative, renews our commitment to invest in sustainably reducing hunger and poverty. At L’Aquila, President Obama’s pledge of at least $3.5 billion for agricultural development and food security over three years helped to leverage and align more than $18.5 billion from other donors in support of a common approach. The 2009 G8 and G20 Summits established a framework for coordinated and comprehensive action among host governments, donors, civil society, the private sector, and other stakeholders. The five principles of a common approach, first articulated at L’Aquila, embrace the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness and the Accra Agenda for Action, and were endorsed unanimously as the Rome Principles for Sustainable Food Security by 193 countries at the 2009 World Summit on Food Security.
We are guided by the Rome Principles as we work alongside development partners to support processes through which countries develop and implement food security strategies and investment plans that reflect their needs, priorities, and development strategies. The country-owned plans, referred to in this document as Country Investment Plans (CIPs), serve as the foundation for countries to mobilize resources and coordinate with development partners to accelerate their progress toward the Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people suffering from hunger and poverty by 2015. As described in the Rome Principles, we commit to work in partnership to:
http://www.feedthefuture.gov/FTF_Guide.pdf