FAO Delegation

Biofuels Industry strong arms Governments at UN Food Security conference

FAO Delegation October 11, 2013 0 Comments

By the Civil Society Mechanism for international food security and nutrition ROME, Italy – Today Civil Society movements blamed Governments negotiating on biofuels at the Committee on World Food security for defending the interests of the biofuels industry rather than the interests of people pushed into hunger by biofuel policies. They refused to endorse the recommendations on biofuels as...

The Argonauts of the Western Region of Lazio: A Study on the FAO and CFS

FAO Delegation October 11, 2013 0 Comments

By Pablo Aguilera Del Castillo The Food Security conference in Rome is mainly about food security. In fact in other blog posts, the various topics for international discussions could be read on this same website. Indeed, outlining the topics discussed here is critical to understand the current concerns on food security internationally. However, I would like to argue that there is a more...

Beyond a ‘talk shop’ in Rome

FAO Delegation October 9, 2013 0 Comments

By Nimisha Bastedo How can we make sure that the decisions that are made here actually have an impact? This was the central question during the side event yesterday morning that was called “Towards the Innovative monitoring mechanism of the CFS”. The special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier de Schutter, talked about the risk of reducing the CFS into a “talk shop” if there aren’t...

Fuel before food: The U.S. position on biofuels

FAO Delegation October 8, 2013 1 Comment

By Stevie DuFrense, Becca Haydu, and Cara Weber The issue of biofuels and their impacts on world food security is a contested topic here at CFS 40 in Rome. The text is up for negotiation as civil society works to influence the voting member governments of the CFS. Students from the United States, Becca, Cara and Stevie, have been following U.S. biofuels policy and its impacts on world food...

Day 1: Policy Convergence?

FAO Delegation October 8, 2013 0 Comments

By Nimisha Bastedo It’s hard to know how to begin articulating all that’s going on, but I’ll try and get some of the cloud that’s taking over my brain onto this page. The contrast between the weekend’s civil society forum and today’s official proceedings is huge. The morning was filled with the formalities of introduction speeches all quoting the most recent reports on the state of...