Is it right to call opponents of GM crops ‘wicked’? In a recent interview, Owen Paterson denounced in starkly moralistic language people whom he sees as holding up progress on…
Good & evil: two articles on closing down the debate on GM crops
The GM debate should not be closed down to what is rational, but opened up to multiple rationalities…. A response to Chris Whitty and colleagues
By Stephen Whitfield, PhD student, Institute of Development Studies (Knowledge, Technology and Society Team) Genetically modified rice / BASF In a recent commentary published in Nature, Chris Whitty…
World Food Day: The State of Food Insecurity in the World and the Need for Coordinated Action
By John Thompson and Jim Sumberg The three Rome-based agencies of the United Nations – the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agriculture and Development (IFAD) and…
A NEW ALLIANCE FOR FOOD SECURITY, OR A TWO-TRACK AFRICA?
In a new post on the Future Agricultures Consortium blog, Ian Scoones examines the ‘New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition’, announced at a high-profile conference in Chicago last week…
LAND GRABS: CALL FOR NEW GRANT APPLICATIONS
By Julia Day, STEPS Centre Communications Manager Across the world, especially in the global South, there has been a dramatic rise in ‘land grabs’ – cross-border, transnational corporation-driven and, in…
A NEW LEADER AND A NEW BEGINNING FOR THE UN FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION?
By John Thompson, co-convenor, STEPS Centre food and agriculture domain and joint coordinator, Future Agricultures Consortium The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) chose Brazil’s José…
A MISSED OPPORTUNITY: THE G-20 ACTION PLAN ON FOOD PRICE VOLATILITY AND AGRICULTURE
By John Thompson, co-convenor, STEPS Centre food and agriculture domain and joint coordinator, Future Agricultures Consortium The Group of Twenty (G-20), comprised of the world’s 19 largest economies, plus the…
INEQUALITY AND FOOD: 10 TASKS FOR THE UK GOVERNMENT
by Erik Millstone, STEPS Centre Food and Agriculture co-convenor There are massive inequalities between industrialised and developing countries, and they have widened over the past 15 years, but there are…
FEEDING THE FUTURE? THE FORESIGHT REPORT ON FOOD AND FARMING
By John Thompson and Erik Millstone, STEPS Centre Food and Agriculture Co-Convenors A new report from the UK Government-commissioned study into Global Food and Farming Futures has called for urgent…
BEING “HEALTHILY SCEPTICAL” ABOUT BIOFORTIFICATION
Lawrence Haddad, IDS Director, has written about the future of biofortification (and mentioned the STEPS Centre’s work) on his blog, Development Horizons: “To date, biofortification has relied on conventional breeding…