Ascension Cafe

Swazi maize farmers are blaming World Food Programme (WFP) aid for their inability to sell their produce, despite evidence that record high maize prices coupled with increased poverty are undermining consumers’ ability to purchase the national staple food. “Local maize millers are now at one-third of normal milling capacity as a result of a sharp … Read more

FOOD security is the sine qua non of human existence. Without food nothing happens, no economic endeavour, no science or engineering, no music or literature, not even, in a year of famine, procreation.Since 1974, the year of the Henry Kissinger-sponsored World Food Conference, called at a time of catastrophic food shortages, there has been immense … Read more

Women achieve wonders as they turn their hand to carob molasses productionThe creation and development of the Ain Ebel Agricultural Products Manufacturing Cooperative (APMC) in southern Lebanon is an ideal example of hardship and need giving rise to ingenuity and unexpected results. “During the occupation we were cut off from the outside world for two … Read more

Just a little bit below the top 6 feet of ground – an area ecologists have studied extensively – is a large layer of naturally occurring nitrate. Nobody knew it was there. Nobody knows why it has stayed in the ground, instead of being taken up by plants as a key nutrient. “We were drilling … Read more

Farmers and peasant groups around the world are pressing the concept of ‘food sovereignty’ as a challenge to the World Trade Organisation’s agriculture policies, which they say push millions of small farmers off their land and lead to food insecurity. Described by the international farmers network Via Campesina as ”the right of peoples to define … Read more

Action by Churches Together (ACT) – SwitzerlandACT Appeal: Famine Recovery & Mitigation, REVISION 1, MalawiGeneva – The Malawi appeal has been revised to include a proposal for the Churches Action in Relief and Development (CARD) which was meant to form part of the original appeal issued on 23 September, 2003. However, CARD were still working … Read more

This time of year, most of the Western world is focusing on holiday indulgences: how many presents to buy, how many lights and candles to festoon the home, and how many sweets and feasts to offer family and friends. However, for many people in drought-stricken Africa, food and water will be in perilously short supply … Read more

The government of Pakistan is getting ready to lift the ban on Indian wheat import as the country faces a shortfall of one million tons this year. “Islamabad will allow purchase of 0.1 million tons wheat from India to meet the country’s requirements and offset the adverse impact of anticipated crisis due to less than … Read more

During the last 32 years since Bangladesh became an independent nation in 1971 production of rice, the main staple food, has exceeded 19 million tons per year, whereas it was only about 8 million tons in 1971. In spite of the fact that population has increased steadily, the availability of rice today for every man, … Read more

“I think that if a product on the supermarket shelf has a label, ‘Proudly brought to you by the international pirates plundering the toothfish of the Southern Ocean’, it wouldn’t sell terribly well. Conversely, if the label said, ‘This comes from a sustainable fishery’, that does have an impact.”More than a decade ago Dr Keith … Read more