Last week, I attended the Senate hearing for the Global Food Security Act (S-384) that was re-introduced in the Senate in February by Senators Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Robert Casey (D-Penn.). The bill is being co-sponsored by Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

The bill calls for $10 billion over five years for agricultural initiatives in the developing world. In particular, the bill focuses on rural agricultural programming, research and technological innovation, and contains some funding for emergency food assistance with the option of purchasing the food locally rather than shipping it from the U.S.

It was exciting to hear ONE’s themes resound at the hearing. This palpable support is essential as the developing world is facing high food prices, coupled with the global economic turndown. The World Bank estimates that the financial crisis could push 53 million more people into poverty this year, and already 963 million people are hungry worldwide – an increase of 40 million people between 2007 and 2008.

In his opening statement, Senator Kerry cautioned that the world has a long way to go before we reach the first Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger and poverty. Senator Lugar outlined four primary challenges effecting agriculture and food security in the developing world – population growth, rising energy costs, water scarcity, and climate change – noting that “Despite these alarming trends, investments in agriculture have tumbled in recent decades.”

Highlights from the testimonies included former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and former head of the UN World Food Program Catherine Bertini, who co-chaired the recently released Chicago Council task force report on global hunger and poverty, praising more assistance for programs that will increase food production in developing countries – like agricultural extension, research, and training – in complement to traditional food aid. Dr. Gebisa Ejeta, a plant geneticist working with sorghum, proposed that investments in people, local institutions, and policies that all support research and technology transfer could assist a future agricultural revolution in developing countries. Senator Kerry and David Beckmann of Bread for the World also both made references to the importance of pursuing a foreign assistance reform process that would ensure that the U.S. has an effective foreign aid system. A list of witnesses and their full statements can be found here.

The Global Food Security Act is an important step towards achieving the economic opportunity and food security so urgently needed in the developing world. Increased funding for agriculture could have a significant impact on sub-Saharan Africa in particular where the sector employs approximately two-thirds of the population and accounts for, on average, one-third of GDP. Hopefully the introduction of this legislation – and the support that it has clearly garnered in the legislative, academic, and NGO communities – signals a trend that the U.S. is putting agriculture in the developing world on the agenda.

The bill could be reviewed by the Committee as soon as this week; we will keep you updated about any developments.

-Beth Adler

Cadbury’s UK announced their intention this week to convert approximately 20% of their chocolate range to Fair trade, joining Divine Chocolate on a journey we started 10 years ago.

Seventy percent of the world’s cocoa comes from West Africa. Big chocolate companies such as Cadbury’s have been sourcing from the region for a century. While Ghana cocoa has developed a global reputation for its quality, cocoa farmers remain poor and unable to access the true value of what they create.

Divine is delighted that Cadbury is joining us in saying that the current way of working is neither sustainable nor fair. Together we can create a step change, where the very least companies should do is pay a Fair Trade price for the ingredients they buy, and that anything less is just not acceptable.

Today is the 52nd anniversary of Ghana achieving independence from colonial rule. We wonder whether this anniversary marks another historic moment for West Africa. Is this the new era of fairness in the chocolate industry, of real partnership between chocolate brands and the cocoa farmers who help make chocolate great?

We believe that it will be so – with your support.

My challenge to you is this:

1. If you’re planning on purchasing chocolate, use your purchasing power to support Fair Trade for cocoa farmers. You can find a full list of Fair Trade chocolate brands at www.fairtradecertified.org
2. Ask for Divine Chocolate and other Fair Trade products whenever and wherever you shop.

And – I invite you to join in our celebration of this new age of fairness for cocoa farmers. Enter to win a gorgeous Divine Chocolate basket. Share it with your friends and family and ask them to join in and to make trade sweet for cocoa farmers!

-Erin Gorman, Divine Chocolate

Last week, a new report calling for a new U.S. led initiative on global agricultural development was released. The report, titled “Renewing American Leadership in the Fight Against Global Hunger and Poverty,” was produced by a group of bipartisan foreign policy and development leaders, led by Catherine Bertini (former head of UN’s World Food Programme) and Dan Glickman (former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture), convened by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The report calls for a renewed U.S. commitment to alleviating global poverty through agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, the two regions with the largest number of poor people, many of them small farmers and their families. The report includes five recommendations and 21 specific action suggestions for how the U.S., through increased agricultural development assistance and partnerships at home and abroad, could help achieve the Millennium Development Goals’ first goal of halving hunger and poverty by 2015. It calls for a government-led strategy to significantly increase investment in the key areas of global agricultural development where the US has much to contribute — specifically in the areas of research, education and infrastructure — and help nations in Africa and South Asia to achieve their goals of alleviating rural poverty and related hunger.

The five recommendations include:

1. Increase agricultural education and extension;
2. Increase funding for agricultural research;
3. Emphasise on expanding rural and agricultural infrastructure;
4. Reform of US and international institutions that deliver agricultural development assistance; and
5. Reform of US policies that discourage agricultural development abroad.

The report argues that the proposed recommendations can be implemented at a modest cost – total costs to the US budget is estimated at $340 million in the first year starting in 2009 (compared to $83 million now spent on these activities in SSA and S. Asia), increasing to $1.03 billion by year five and continuing to year ten.

The timing of the report release coincided with President Obama’s submission of the broad outlines of the FY10 Budget request last week which put the country on a path to double foreign assistance, a pledge made during his presidential campaign. President Obama’s budget blueprint also makes it clear that U.S. will “reach out to the global community and renew its role as a leader in global development and diplomacy” and that part of this commitment will include embarking on new initiatives that will foster global food security through sustainable agriculture. The time has come for renewed leadership from the U.S. on long-term funding for agriculture and we here at ONE will be keeping an eye on new developments.

- Mikiko Imai

Last week the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced two new grants designed to support small cocoa and cashew farmers in Africa. The $48 million in total funding will support public-private partnership projects that aim to boost production for smallholder farmers and expand productivity in the cashew and cocoa sectors in Africa.

The World Cocoa Foundation received $23 million for cocoa initiatives, and one of the German government’s development agencies, Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ), was given $25 million for cashew projects in Africa. Both grants awarded will supplement $42 million in cash and in-kind contributions from the private sector, NGOs, and local governments that will provide technical assistance to farmers and the industries.

Smallholder agriculture is a source of income and livelihood for more than half of sub-Saharan Africa’s population. According to the Foundation’s press release, cocoa is a key export from West Africa and accounts for 70% of the world’s supply, while Africa produces one third of the world’s cashew crop. Initiatives that improve the quality and yield for these crops have the potential to increase incomes and improve livelihoods of thousands of farming families.

The cocoa project will focus on farmer training and education, crop diversification, and making the supply chain more efficient, and aims to double the incomes of smallholder cocoa farmers. The five-year project will reach approximately 200,000 cocoa farmers in Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria. Bill Guyton, president of the World Cocoa Foundation commented on the grant announcement, “Cocoa has the potential to deliver significant improvements in income as well as in family and community well-being across rural West and Central Africa.”

Africa’s cashew market is currently impeded by a lack of cashew processing facilities. The cashew project plans to, build processing capacity, increase farmer productivity, and increase links between farmers and the marketplace. The project aims to help 150,000 smallholder farmers in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Mozambique increase their incomes by 50 percent by 2012. The development or expansion of local factories will also provide new employment opportunities in these countries.

Funding like these grants, that come with technical assistance and partner expertise, and focus on expanding opportunities for agriculture and trade, are an exciting step towards harnessing the power of agriculture to positively impact livelihoods in Africa.

-Beth Adler

On Tuesday, a broad-based coalition that includes several of ONE’s partners launched A Roadmap to End Global Hunger – a comprehensive strategy for addressing global hunger through short, medium, and long-term initiatives and reaching the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving hunger by 2015. Representatives Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) joined the co-sponsoring NGOs* at Tuesday’s release on Capitol Hill, and new bipartisan legislation that incorporates the key points of the Roadmap to End Global Hunger is expected to be introduced in the coming weeks.

The Roadmap pitches several strategies for addressing the dire situation of global hunger. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), 963 million people are hungry around the world, the majority of whom live in developing countries. As the document notes, despite previous U.S. commitments to end global hunger, the number of hungry people continues to rise as global hunger is exacerbated by continued higher than average food prices and the global economic downturn. The Roadmap calls for a total of approximately $50 billion in U.S. funding for agriculture and food security initiatives over five years.

The document details the need for a faster, more efficient response to food emergencies and emphasizes the importance of flexibility in the provision of emergency food assistance, including options for buying food locally and regionally, and implementing voucher programs where food is available but families are too poor to afford it. The plan calls for donated food aid, like bags of rice or maize, as well as cash assistance that can provide timely and appropriate emergency assistance. The plan also calls for additional funding for safety-net programs – like cash-for-work and school feeding programs – to prevent the most vulnerable populations from descending further into hunger. It also stresses the importance of establishing and expanding early childhood nutrition programs.

In order to promote the development of the agricultural sector in the developing world and break the cycle of hunger and poverty, the Roadmap suggests a more than quadruple investment in market-based agriculture and market development. The suggested $1.38 billion over five years would be aimed at initiatives supporting low-income, smallholder farmers – particularly women. Considering that agriculture employs nearly two-thirds of the population in Sub-Saharan Africa, programs that assist farmers in producing more goods, and helping farmers access markets in which to sell these goods, could have a wide-spread, positive impact on household income and food security.

The Roadmap calls for the (more…)

A few months ago, we noted a significant move on the part of South Korea to begin growing crops in Madagascar, a move that would address the duel challenge of recent food price increases and a shortage of cropland at home. We wanted to provide you with some additional information on the topic. ONE will continue tracking this trend and bring you future updates.

Excerpts below, full piece here

“These deals can be purely commercial ventures on one level, but sitting behind it is often a food security imperative backed by a government,” said Carl Atkin, a consultant at Bidwells Agribusiness, a Cambridge firm helping to arrange some of the big international land deals.

Madagascar’s government said that an environmental impact assessment would have to be carried out before the Daewoo deal could be approved, but it welcomed the investment. The massive lease is the largest so far in an accelerating number of land deals that have been arranged since the surge in food prices late last year.

“In the context of arable land sales, this is unprecedented,” Atkin said. “We’re used to seeing 100,000-hectare sales. This is more than 10 times as much.”

-Chris Scott

The Washington Post today reports that a new version of an old fungus is ravaging Kenya’s wheat fields and threatens to spread beyond Africa. Stem rust was thought to have been defeated 50 years ago, but a virulent, more resistant version is now posing a major problem for Kenya’s most fertile wheat fields, and could soon become a widespread crisis.

As farmers watch their crops – and livelihoods – wither, this outbreak yet again underscores the immense importance in supporting agricultural initiatives and research innovation in the developing world.

Excerpts below, full piece here

Nobel Peace laureate Norman Borlaug, the world’s leading authority on the disease, said that once established, stem rust can explode to crisis proportions within a year under certain weather conditions.

“This is a dangerous problem because a good share of the world’s area sown to wheat is susceptible to it,” Borlaug said. “It has immense destructive potential.”

Coming on the heels of grain scarcity and food riots last year, the budding epidemic exposes the fragility of the food supply in poor countries. It is also a reminder of how vulnerable the ever-growing global population is to the pathogens that inevitably surface somewhere on the planet.

-Chris Scott

In an exciting step forward for U.S. support of agriculture and food security in the developing world, Senators Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and Robert Casey (D-Penn.) reintroduced their Global Food Security Act (S. 384) this week in the Senate. A similar version of the bill (S. 3529 in the 110th Congress) was introduced in September 2008, but was not considered by the Senate before the Congress adjourned.

The bill calls for $10 billion over five years to fund long-term agricultural initiatives in the developing world. In particular, the bill focuses on increasing funding for agricultural research and technological innovation. The bill also includes $500 million for emergency food assistance.

This legislation is especially important as it comes at a time when the world is struggling with the duel crises of higher than average food prices and a global recession. The developing world – where the majority of households already spend half of their income on food – is being hit particularly hard. In 2008, staple food prices reached record-highs, leaving families unable to afford food, or having to devote more monthly income to food rather than education and health care. Already 963 million people are hungry globally, an increase of 40 million people in just one year.

The Lugar-Casey bill is the beginning of what will hopefully become a trend: developed countries providing development assistance that specifically targets long-term agricultural initiatives that, historically, have been underfunded. In order to achieve food security, and enable the developing world to reap the economic benefits of increased agricultural productivity, we must invest in short-, medium-, and long-term solutions to the hunger crisis. Emergency food aid can provide food for people who are malnourished now, inputs like seeds and fertilizer can assist farmers in having a successful growing season, and safety-net programs like cash-for-work and school feeding programs can prevent further decent into hunger. However, long-term agricultural investments – like building roads and irrigation systems, opening global markets to agricultural products from the developing world, and training smallholder farmers in new agricultural technologies – are essential to stem the cycle of hunger and poverty.

Investing in agriculture could have a remarkable impact in Sub-Saharan Africa in particular, where over fifty percent of families rely on agriculture for both their food and their income, and agriculture contributes to one third of GDP. This legislation is a great advance towards addressing the food crisis, and ensuring that the developing world can prevent future crises through increased agricultural productivity. ONE also released a press statement endorsing the legislation.

-Beth Adler

Hey, if you’re already planning to buy any chocolate, flowers, or wine for Valentines Day, consider buying Fair Trade. Check out this note we got from TransFair USA below.

-Margaret McDonnell, ONE NGO Partnership Coordinator

This Valentine’s Day, it is easier than ever to show someone you care with gifts that benefit farming communities around the world. Fair Trade Certified flowers, chocolate and now wine are available in retailers nationwide and online.

Fair Trade Certified flowers are already helping ensure that flower workers like Nancy Segovia of Agrogandera, a flower plantation in southern Ecuador, receive fair wages, a safe work environment, paid vacation, maternity and sick leave and access to child care.

Fair Trade Certified cocoa is helping the farmers of the Kavokiva cooperative in the Ivory Coast to fund scholarships and school supplies for members children, build a healthcare center and establish a women’s literacy program.

Fair Trade Certified wine is helping wine producers like Marie Malan to move from her previous position as a domestic servant to the esteemed position of Farm Manager at Stellar Organics, an award winning organic vineyard in South Africa.

By choosing Fair Trade Certified products you are directly supporting a better life for farming families through fair prices and just labor conditions, direct trade, community development and environmentally sustainable farming practices.

This Valentine’s Day, pledge to make all of your purchases Fair Trade Certified and encourage your family and friends to do the same. As a special bonus, our friends at 1-800-Flowers are offering 15% off your next purchase of a Fair Trade Certified bouquet to everyone who takes the pledge. Forward this message to family and friends and they can receive the gift too. To take the Fair Trade Valentine’s Day pledge and forward a beautiful Valentine’s Day eCard to your loved ones, click here.

To find out more about where you can find Fair Trade Certified flowers, chocolate and wine in stores and online please visit our beautiful “Fall in Love with Fair Trade” website.

Thank you and Happy Valentine’s Day!

-James Guzzi, TransFair USA

The global food crisis that made headlines throughout 2008 has been eclipsed in recent months by news of the global financial crisis. Despite the lack of headlines, the food crisis is still in full swing. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently reported that additional 40 million people were pushed into hunger in 2008, increasing the number of hungry people around the world to 963 million, 907 million of whom live in the developing world. In Lesotho, for example, virtually 100% of families responding to a recent food security survey reported being effected by rising food prices, while fifty percent reported borrowing food to get by and more than forty percent have cut down on meals.

The precarious food situation in the developing world, coupled with the fact that approximately one half of people in the developing world rely on agriculture for their livelihood, make this an ideal time for the U.S. to increase support of agriculture in the developing world. We at ONE recently submitted a briefing to the presidential transition team advocating that the Obama administration increase funding levels for agriculture and development as it takes office.

We recommend a quick infusion of an additional $2 million in funding in fiscal year 2009 over the 2008 funding level of $413 million. This funding will provide developing countries that are facing food insecurity now with urgently needed inputs like seeds, fertilizer, food, and micronutrients that will help jumpstart their agricultural sectors and improve agricultural yields, in addition to providing necessary food aid. Secondly, we are calling for an initial investment of $850 million in fiscal year 2010, an increase of $437 million over fiscal year 2008 funding levels, to fund capacity building, access to improved seeds, tools, research, and improved agricultural methods and technology.

We at ONE also advocate that U.S. food aid and other inputs be flexible, allowing goods to be purchased locally rather than being shipped from the U.S., ensuring that local markets can benefit from the production and trade of these goods.

Often, funding for food security in the developing world translates into additional money for emergency food aid. While food aid is vital in emergency or conflict situations, it does not assist the developing world in strengthening their agricultural sectors and providing their own food. Agriculture is a tool that can both address the current food crisis, prevent future shortfalls, and can be the ticket out of poverty for many in the developing world. However, in order to successfully leverage agriculture as a tool for development, we need more than a short-term solution of food, seeds, and fertilizer – we need a global short-, medium-, and long-term plan.

In the long-term, we recommend that the administration develop a long-term funding approach to (more…)