The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
One billion people go to bed hungry every night and two million children die from malnutrition every year. A high proportion of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change, land grabs, food price fixing, commodity trading and the financial crisis all play their part in the food crisis that the world is currently facing. On March 26, the Frontline Club in London hosted a panel of experts to engage with the problem. One thing they agreed on is that there is enough food being produced in the...
Section 27 of the South African Constitution guarantees the right to food. However, if one tracks the impact of inflation on the poor, one finds that their purchasing power is being eroded because the basket of goods on which the CPI is based is determined by the middle class and the elites, argues Isobel Frye, director of the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute (SPII).
Worse, poor South Africans face even greater prejudices. Her organisation's research has found that the goods...
Glenn Ashton -
Were you fortunate enough to have sufficient food to eat today? Do you know who grew it? How was it grown? Where? How was it packaged, labelled, processed and transported before ending up on your plate? Was it as good for you as it was for the people who sold it to you?
A generation ago we could easily answer these questions. Most of our food was grown by a small farmer down the road. Fruits and veggies were seasonal and fresh, and meat came from real, not factory farms. Food was prepared,...
Jos Martens -
Once again, Zimbabwe is experiencing a drought with famine affecting at least 1.4 of the 12.6 million people still living in the country. USAID estimates that the country produces just over half the two million metric tons (MT) of cereal needed to feed the entire population. Those most affected are the people in the rural areas located in the drier regions of the country, the estimated 350 000 farm workers and their families, most of whom lost their jobs under Zimbabwe’s “Fast...
With one billion people starving every day, what is the solution to rising food prices? Could heavier regulation of financial markets be a step forward? Or is it all about subsidies and tariff policies? How much are biofuels menacing food security? And how many more food riots will we see before we find a solution?
RT's Cross Talk engages Timothy Wise, Research Director at the Global Development and Environment Network, David Moberg, Senior Editor at In These Times and Ronald Bailey from...
Glenn Ashton -
Food prices are rapidly heading toward new record territory, with far more at play than a simple drought in the US Midwest. There are serious implications, especially for nations with high rates of inequality and poverty. We will almost certainly face a potentially catastrophic, global scale famine in the next couple of decades.
The main reason there are now over seven billion people on earth is largely due to the emergence of two separate technologies. Firstly, cheap fossil fuels have...
