Here’s great news straight from  José A. Osaba and our good friends at WRF. Thanks to all partners and friends and the Asiadhrra Network for actively participating in the IYFF campaign!

“We have got finally the good news that many of our organizations have been waiting for. Today, December 22nd 2011, at 4.55 pm, New York time, the UN General Assembly has declared 2014 the International Year of Family Farming-IYFF. Last October, the Permanent Mission of the Philippines  to the UN, introduced to the GA Second Committee a draft resolution about the IYFF declaration, co-sponsored afterwards  by many other countries and, eventually approved by consensus of all its members. We are extremely grateful to the Permanent Mission of the Philippines for its leadership and its commitment to the IYFF declaration procedure, and to all the countries that have co-sponsored the draft Resolution or given their final approval.

Thanks to the kidness of the Spanish Permanent Mission, I have been present during today´s GA plenary session in New York, keeping in mind with admiration during such historical moments, the more than 350 organizations from 60 countries that have been supporting the IYFF Campaign.

We have reached the main objective of our common Campaign in favour of the IYFF declaration,  started on February 2008, after the celebration of the II IFAD´s Farmers´s Forum in Rome.  For the first time in history, an International Year has been promoted by Civil Society. Many thanks to everybody!”

José A. Osaba

Asiadhrra will be joined by participants composed of Senior-level officials from Ministries of Agriculture and other related government institutions responsible for food security and nutrition; Regional economic communities; Civil society organizations and private sector representatives;  UN Agencies, donors and development partners; International and regional financial institutions and Academia and research institutions

“The main objective of the Forum is to broadly discuss issues associated with hunger and malnutrition with a particular emphasis on nutrition-sensitive agricultural development and food-based nutrition approaches, review past and ongoing interventions and policies, share experiences and lessons learned, and identify way forward to promote nutrition-sensitive agriculture for improving nutrition. The increased consultation among all actors involved in food and nutrition security will achieve greater complementary and coordination in strategic planning and action.”

We, 200 women and men, leaders of national, regional and international farmers’ organizations, civil society groups and social movements, and key academic and research institutions, from four continents of the world –Africa, Americas, Asia and Europe-, as well as representatives from national governments and inter-governmental organizations, have gathered in Bilbao, Spain, for the Family Farming World Conference with the theme “Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth.”

Continue reading the IYFF declaration here….

Read more about the campaign towards an International Year of Family Farming in 2014…

Food is a key driver of climate change. How our food gets produced and how it ends up on our tables accounts for around half of all human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. Chemical fertilizers, heavy machinery and other petroleum-dependant farm technologies contribute significantly.

The impact of the food industry as a whole is even greater: destroying forests and savannahs to produce animal feed and generating climate-damaging waste through excess packaging, processing, refrigeration and the transport of food over long distances, despite leaving millions of people hungry.
Continue reading “Food and climate change: the forgotten link” at Grain….

Here’s a new twist on urban farming -hydroponics basically. An article in FastCo describes a rising business venture that grows organic vegetables in shipping containers using hydroponic farming technology. Awesome!!!

Liotta decided to use recycled shipping containers as “grow pods,” which are outfitted with organic hydroponic nutrient solutions; computer-controlled environmental systems to regulate temperature, humidity, pH levels, and CO2; and lights that emit specific spectrums at different points in the day. The system provides the exact amount of water, lights, and nutrients that a crop requires–so there is no wasted energy (though the pods are still hooked up to the power grid). In a 320 square foot area, PodPonics can produce an acre’s worth of produce. The pods can be stacked on top of each other for more efficient use of space.

continue reading Localize It: PodPonics Grows High-Tech Organic Produce In Shipping Containers here….

Read the feature article in The Atlantic here…

Visit their website here….

“On Polyface, it’s the pigs that best embody Salatin’s ideas of creative disturbance, as well as his holistic, waste-not-want-not management approach. As Salatin sees it, pigs have a plough at the end of their noses and a sign on their foreheads that reads “will work for corn”

Participants come mainly from SOMRDPE focal agencies, other national agencies concerned with RDPE, and peoples’ organizations, CSOs and NGOs, resource agencies and other ASEAN national sectoral bodies.

The new RDPE FAP is subject to a regional SOMRDPE workshop at the ASEC HQ in August and for approval during the 7th AMRDPE in Nomber 2011 in Brunei Darussalam.

RDPE Consultation in Cambodia

RDPE Consultation in Malaysia

RDPE Consultation in Philippines

RDPE Consultation in Laos

RDPW Consultation in Thailand

Higher food prices have had a major impact in expanding the area devoted to cultivation in many countries, and have led to higher output levels worldwide. Brazil, Russia, and China, but also Algeria, Egypt, and South Africa – indeed, all African countries that have maintained functioning governments – have seen dramatic increases in food production over the past decade.

This should be a happy picture: the world is now better able to feed itself. But the same economic stimuli that underpin higher food output also lead to supply problems, a decline in living standards, and massive social strains, especially in urban centers.

read more on the food for revolution…

During the World Social Forum in Dakar, Senegal, in February 2011, social movements and organisations released a collective appeal against land grabbing. Over 150 organisations have already signed. If your organisation would also like to support this appeal, please do so before 15 June 2011.

The Dakar Appeal, together with the names of organisations endorsing it, will be presented during the mobilizations against the G20 Agriculture Ministers’ meeting in Paris on 22-23 June.

Read and sign the petition here: http://www.petitiononline.com/dakar/petition.html

Felicity Lawrence, special correspondent at the Guardian, joins the podcast to talk about the human cost of hunger following her visit to Central and Latin America.

To discuss strategies for the future, Bunting is joined in the studio by the chief executive of Oxfam GB, Barbara Stocking, the Oxford professor and chairman of the expert committee behind the Foresight Global Food and Farming report, Charles Godfray, and the economist and professor at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jayati Ghosh.”

listen or download this informative podcast here…