What We’re Reading 6/18/09

Jun 18th, 2009 12:25 PM UTC
By Grace Lamb-Atkinson

Financial Times: Food Security Fears Eased by Prices Outlook
Easing concerns about global food security, two leading organizations said yesterday that in the next decade agricultural commodity prices will rise by less than previously feared. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development said in a report that prices would stay low for 2 to 3 years during continued weakness in the general economy, and then strengthen with economic recovery. However, due to slower economic growth and cheaper oil, prices will still stay much lower over the next ten years than last year’s report predicted.

Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: Congress and the IMF’s Power Grab
In an op-ed, Judy Shelton attacks Congress’ support of the President’s request for funding of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), included in the war funding bill voted through yesterday. The article questions the effectiveness of the IMF in bringing about global financial security, and dismisses the Fund’s connection to national security, which was argued in a letter to Congress signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, National Security Advisory James Jones and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Shelton says, “All the IMF is offering our dangerous world is the prospect of lurching from one short-term economic fix to the next.”

Reuters: African Farmers Say They Need Subsidies Too
African governments must provide subsidies to help farmers on the world’s poorest continent produce more food and compete internationally, delegates said at an agribusiness conference on Wednesday. Developing countries have called on nations in the developed world to open up agricultural markets by cutting tariffs and subsidies — which they say discourage farmers from producing. However, with few signs that other governments will lower their subsidies, African farming groups are now calling on their own governments to boost support to help them survive.

Radio VOP Zimbabwe: World Bank Urged to Increase Reproductive Health Funding
Zimbabwe’s Radio ZOP reports that 33 civil organizations from across the world have urged the World Bank to increase funding for reproductive health and HIV/AIDS in developing countries, in which the Bank manages investments and development projects. This follows a demonstration by Gender Action – the only organization dedicated to monitoring International Financial Institution (IFI) investments for their gender impacts – that the World Bank’s funding for reproductive health and HIV/AIDS projects during 2000-2007 constituted less than one percent of total World Bank spending during that period.

AP: Global Health Leaders Gather for Seattle TB Summit
Global health leaders from 25 nations are in Seattle this week to work on the problem of drug-resistant tuberculosis. The Pacific Health Summit connects science, industry and policy and meets every June to discuss how scientific advances can be combined with government policies to prevent, detect and treat disease. Also in Seattle this week is the “H8” or Health 8, which brings together the leaders of international organizations including the World Bank, UNICEF, the World Health Organization and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Gates Foundation is the only private philanthropy at the meeting, and some nonprofits have complained about its participation.

-Grace Lamb-Atkinson

TAGS: What We're Reading