In its latest report on food insecurity, the FAO asserted that 915 million people were undernourished in 2008, and the figure is estimated to rise to 1.02 billion in 2009. The alarming numbers raise the twin questions of how the estimates are derived and how reliable they are.
Even when the price of rice doubled and trebled in international markets, growers in the Philippines barely felt the tidal wave of money sweeping into the commodity.
The acknowledgement of facts is the beginning of wisdom, a Finnish president once said. We already have enough facts about climate change. Now is the time not only to draw conclusions but to act.
The approval of a genetically modified potato for cultivation in EU territories has sparked strong reactions from all sides of the debate. Many member states and environmental groups are outraged, while the biotech industry sees promising signs of progress.
Defying predictions for a drawn-out battle, parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species rejected a bid to ban cross-border trade in Atlantic bluefin tuna, the Rolls Royce of the species, early at their meeting in Doha during the last two weeks of March.
While the WTO ministerial wound its way through pre-arranged motions, more than 400 experts, politicians, trade delegates, representatives of governmental and non-governmental organisations and academia, as well as the general public, flocked to ICTSD
In the lead-up to the Copenhagen climate change meeting, technology transfer was - with emissions reductions and finance - one of the key sticking points. It was hoped that the conference would, at least, spell out elements of a
