A great website about Food Security

All Year 13's studying Life on the Margins (unit 4) should make sure that they look at and bookmark The Guardian's section on Food Security - an absolutely fantastic site with lots of very recent stories.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/food-security

East Africa drought 'remains huge crisis'

Three months after famine was declared in Somalia, the scale of the crisis in the Horn of Africa remains huge, says a British official.

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said hundreds of people, mainly children, were dying every day.

According to new figures cited by Mr Mitchell, British aid is feeding more than 2.4m people across the region.

The coming rainy season is expected to bring disease to crowded refugee camps.

In Somalia alone, Mr Mitchell points out, more than 400,000 children remain at risk of death.

Health has had a high priority in British aid that has come to the region - 1.3m people being vaccinated against measles, for example, while 400,000 doses of anti-malarial medication are currently on their way to Somalia.

Click on the headline to read the full story from the BBC

Click on the map to read a report and see more images from The Independent

Useful website for Life on the Margins (Unit 4, Year 13)

World Disasters Report 2011- Focus on hunger and malnutrition



This year’s World Disasters Report focuses on the growing crisis of hunger and malnutrition. Smallholder farmers who produce half the world’s food are among the almost 1 billion people who go to bed hungry every night. Millions of children suffer the irreversible effects of undernutrition. Increasing food insecurity weakens people’s resilience to disasters and disease, and people everywhere are experiencing the increasing volatility of food prices.


“ Hunger and malnutrition are the worst enemies of humankind. They deny to children – even at birth – an opportunity for the full expression of their innate genetic potential for physical and mental development. Freedom from hunger is the first requisite for sustainable human security. This will depend upon the productivity, profitability and sustainability of agriculture, as this edition of the World Disasters Report points out. Therefore, if food and nutrition policies go wrong, nothing else will have a chance to go right."



– M. S. Swaminathan, an Indian MP

Click on the titleto be taken to the website where you can find the report

Food security in the news - again

The famine in Somalia and East Africa has been in the news and situation looks pretty dire. If you're in Year 13 and studying "Life on the margins" for unit 4 then you need to keep up to date with what is happening - there's plenty of information out there. What you may not be aware of is Oxfam's "GROW" campaign. Click on the title to be taken to their website where they explain the cause of hunger around the world and you can sign up to do your bit to help as well

Rising food prices affects the poor- useful for Year 13, Unit 4

A report in June 2011 showed that the poor of the world are being affected much more seriously by rising food costs than any other group. Women appear to be harder hit then men as well.

The report says the world is being divided into "losers" and "winners":
"The losers – those already struggling in low-paid, informal sector occupations such as petty trading, street vending, casual construction work, sex work, laundry, portering and transport – are clearly worse off than last year."

Click on the title for further information and look at the links on that webpage for more about food price increases and the effects on people

Click on the photo to be taken to a graph and data about the rising costs of food around the world.

Year 13 - LIfe on the margins (unit 4)

The Foresight group published a report today about food and farming. It may well be looking at bits of it (the executive summary is a sensible starting point). If there's some useful bits in there (maybe a simple quote to add to your exam answer?) it will look good to the examiner as it so current.

Foresight Report (published 24th Jan 2011)

Guardian article on the Foresight report

Telegraph article about the report and warning of food price rises/GM crops

Qatar attempt to solve food security problems

Click on the title to watch a 4 minute BBC video report on attempts to sort out the issue of food security in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar.

With a rapidly-growing population and more than 90% of its food needs met through imports, the island state of Qatar has begun investing heavily in improving its food security. While working to improve and maintain relationships with its providers, Qatar is also setting several challenges for its own agricultural industry to help address the imbalance.

United Nations calls for united front against hunger on World Food Day

With nearly one billion people still suffering from food shortages around the globe, the world must take a united stand against hunger, the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said.

World Food Day is celebrated every year around the world on October the 16th  in honour of the date of the founding of the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) in 1945.


The Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the proportion of hungry people in the world is a pillar for achieving all eight of the globally-agreed targets with a 2015 deadline, Ban said.
"When people are hungry, they cannot break the crippling chains of poverty, and are vulnerable to infectious diseases," the secretary-general said. "When children are hungry, they cannot grow, learn and develop."
This year alone, Ban said, millions have been pushed into hunger by the earthquake in Haiti, the drought in the Sahel and floods in Pakistan, while the twin food and financial crises continue to affect the world's most vulnerable.
He highlighted the need for global cooperation -- bringing together governments, intergovernmental organizations, regional and sub-regional bodies, business and civil society groups -- to combat hunger.
"Increasingly, their approach is comprehensive," Ban said, covering all aspects of food security, ranging from small farms to feeding schoolchildren.

For more information follow the links below:

Some progress made and some suggestions for the future - including an audio report on the issue

Hunger in Focus: India's Hungry Women and Children Remain a Major Problem

Report Says Hunger Costing Poor Countries Billions

UN Says Global Hunger Remains 'Unacceptably High'

Google news search results about hunger on world Food Day 2010 (search dated Oct 16th)

Ban Ki-Moon speech on World Food Day 2008