The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
One billion people go to bed hungry every night and two million children die from malnutrition every year. A high proportion of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change, land grabs, food price fixing, commodity trading and the financial crisis all play their part in the food crisis that the world is currently facing. On March 26, the Frontline Club in London hosted a panel of experts to engage with the problem. One thing they agreed on is that there is enough food being produced in the...
Section 27 of the South African Constitution guarantees the right to food. However, if one tracks the impact of inflation on the poor, one finds that their purchasing power is being eroded because the basket of goods on which the CPI is based is determined by the middle class and the elites, argues Isobel Frye, director of the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute (SPII).
Worse, poor South Africans face even greater prejudices. Her organisation's research has found that the goods...
Oxfam has released a comprehensive report that measures how the world's 10 largest food companies perform on food justice issues. The 10 companies Oxfam scores are Associated British Foods, Coca Cola, Danone, General Mills, Kellogg, Mars, Mondelez, Nestlé, Pepsico and Unilever. Collectively, these companies make $1 billion a day. Oxfam based its report on seven social and environmental indicators in the food production chain: Small-scale farmers, farm workers, water, land, climate...
Glenn Ashton -
We produce sufficient food to provide a healthy balanced diet for everyone on earth. Yet we squander vast amounts of this fare through a wasteful supply chain that fails to efficiently shift our food from farm to plate. It is time to fix this dysfunctional global supply system.
Interestingly - and contrary to common belief - end consumers are often the least wasteful link in the food chain. Yet in some countries like the United Kingdom nearly half of consumer-ready food is thrown away...
The global population is forecast to reach nine billion by 2050 and a new United Nations report says climate change is threatening the world's three main crops.
Researchers are warning that rising global temperatures could see a shift in the world's traditional staples and who grows them. They predict that maize, wheat and rice will decrease in many developing countries - forcing farmers to replace them with crops more resistant to heat, drought and flooding.
The prediction, if true,...
Jos Martens -
Once again, Zimbabwe is experiencing a drought with famine affecting at least 1.4 of the 12.6 million people still living in the country. USAID estimates that the country produces just over half the two million metric tons (MT) of cereal needed to feed the entire population. Those most affected are the people in the rural areas located in the drier regions of the country, the estimated 350 000 farm workers and their families, most of whom lost their jobs under Zimbabwe’s “Fast...
