AsiaDHRRA Online

The CSO event statement highlights the adverse impact of the “loss of forest and agricultural land to monoculture plantations” to the  biodiversity, food security and human rights in the region and proposes to the ASEAN members states several measures to mitigate these effects. The agriculture and environment CSO stakeholders recommend that ASEAN and/or its member [...]

We consume a fair amount of tea here in the office and this newsbit from Greenpeace East Asia had us a bit worried. “A Greenpeace investigation has found pesticides banned for use on tea in the products marketed by some of China’s top tea companies. Some of the firms, which include China Tea, Tenfu Tea [...]

FrankenThursday is back with this bit from Wired.  The cause of the recent bee colony collapse disorder continues to generate heated debates. And this new study will further ratchet up the discussions as everyone tries to figure out the cause and identify solutions to save our friendly pollinators . A controversial new study of honeybee [...]

Interesting news about China pushing out new legislations “restricting research, field trials, production, sale, import and export of genetically engineered grain seeds. The draft stipulates that no organization or person can employ unauthorized GE technology in any major food product in China.” “This is actually a world-first initiative that deals with GE food legislation at [...]

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 [...]

FINAL DECLARATION Family Farming World Conference: Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth October 5-7, 2011 / Bilbao, Spain   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 [...]

From Grain 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 [...]

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, [...]

Ok this is not from Asia but this farm is amazing and we can get some ideas that can be applied to the asian farming context. Polyface Farms is a “grass-farming” operation in Swope, Virginia run by Mr. Joel Salatin and his family and a bunch of staff and interns. It has become the “mecca of [...]

OrganicSaturdays shares this tidbit from GlobalResearch.ca about how Philippine Farmers are reaping the benefits of going organic. MASIPAG-trained farmers have not used chemical pesticides for decades now, he said, with ducks for example an excellent natural control against golden snail; “it converts biomass into eggs and meat as well,” he observed. MASIPAG organic farms, he [...]

FrankenThursday wants you to study more about GM issues and this journal we got at Eldis is just perfect to arm you with insights and facts about the interplay of GM on the issues of food and farming. A good read most def. Download the PDF here…. Articles included: Diversity in international biosafety regulation: MacKenzie, [...]

HungerWednesday shares this interesting viewpoint on the issue of global hunger from Eldis Agriculture and Food Security News If, however, we look back over the past two decades, we can observe that except for the current downturn, hunger has been on the increase. Between the early 1990s and 2007, we had periods in which food [...]

Stumbled upon this newsbit in time for FrankenThursday at the Cornucopia Institute. Seems like american organic farmers and seed producers have filed a lawsuit against Monsanto to “prohibit  the biotechnology giant from suing organic farmers and seed growers if innocently contaminated by roundup ready genes.” NEW York: On behalf of 60 family farmers, seed businesses [...]

An interesting newsbit from The Telegraph about how the massive kill-off of these pollinators may severely impact the already critical levels of global food supply…. Almost a third of global farm output depends on animal pollination, largely by honey bees……  The bee crisis has been treated as a niche concern until now, but as the [...]

FrankenThursday brings this worrying article from NPR which says that “A survey of North Dakota has turned up hundreds of genetically modified canola plants growing along roads across the state.” Aint that scary? Apart from safety, health and ecological concerns this has legal ramifications as well, as GMO purveyors like Monsanto has  been known to [...]