Tag: food

Biofuels were back in the spotlight in Brussels last week when the European Parliament and European Energy Ministers gathered to discuss a review of EU biofuels legislation. Oxfam is concerned that EU policy creates incentives for biofuels production which pushes up food prices, encourages land grabs and, in many cases, increases rather than reduces dangerous greenhouse gas emissions.

The challenges faced by biodiversity-based ecological agriculture are not primarily technical but political. Evidence from three countries shows farming without fossil fuels works. But such methods will only be adopted widely once we prevail over the political power of agribusiness.

By Sarojeni V. Rengam, Executive Director of the Pesticide Network Asia and the Pacific.

Last week I joined the Oxfam team in Turin (Italy) to attend Terra Madre & Salone del Gusto – one of the biggest international food fairs in the world. Terra Madre is organized by Slow Food, one of Oxfam’s partners on the GROW campaign.

The world‟s largest commodity traders are a powerful, unique and poorly understood sector. The major traders, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus, collectively known as the ABCD traders, share a significant presence in a range of basic commodities, controlling, for example, as much as 90 per cent of the global grain trade. Other emerging market trading companies such as Olam, Sinar Mas and Wilmar are also quickly establishing a global presence.