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…
World Food Day: The State of Food Insecurity in the World and the Need for Coordinated Action
Herd it on the grapevine: how pastoralists get a raw deal in policy and the media
Mike Shanahan of IIED has written two great blog posts in two weeks on how pastoralism is viewed by politicians and by stories in the media. The first covers how…
Vive la révolution?
Photo: Garissa cattle market from USAID’s photostream on Flickr Revolution is in the air. As the 3-day African Green Revolution Forum kicks off officially today in Arusha, the talk…
The great green land grab
“Land grabbing” is rarely out of the headlines. But the practice of land being appropriated by the environmental agenda – so-called “green grabs” – is gaining more and more attention….
Agriculture as Assembly (or, what is the nature of the factory in ‘factory farming’?)
By Jim Sumberg and John Thompson When considering the nature and spatial distribution of economic activity, two fundamental contrasts take centre stage: ‘urban vs. rural’ and ‘industry vs. agriculture’. While…
Video: Pastoralism in Africa – doing things differently
Our new book Pastoralism and Development in Africa explores the booming livestock trade in the Horn of Africa, a region more often associated with conflict and famine. In this video,…
Pastoralism: the hidden story of development in the Horn of Africa
Our new book Pastoralism and Development in Africa: Dynamic Change at the Margins explores the hidden story of pastoralism in the Horn of Africa. The latest volume in our Pathways…
Green Grabs explained: radio interview with Melissa Leach
Last week, our director Melissa Leach was interviewed about green grabs – the appropriation of land for environmental ends – by Brent Bambury of the Canadian station CBC Radio. Here’s…
Press release: Green grabs: the dark side of the green economy
Green’ market initiatives are increasing poverty. Local ecosystem stewardship must be nurtured instead. ‘Green grabbing’ – the rapidly-growing appropriation of land and resources in the name of ‘green ’ biofuels,…
Colloquium on global land grabbing, 11 June
STEPS Centre researchers will be among the speakers at the Critical Agrarian Studies Colloquium No. 4, which takes place in The Hague on 11 June 2012. After a few years…