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Lessons from Language: CFS41 in Hindsight

khristian November 1, 2014 0 Comments
by Khristian Méndez // Two weeks ago, Chairperson Gerda Verburg was wrapping up CFS41 in a room that had perhaps a third of the people who were there on opening day. An exhausting experience, this plenary session of the CFS planted several ideas in me about language. If you like numbers, ghosts, or interpretation, keep reading. Numerical Language Days of negotiations: 8.  Average number of...

The Hidden Value of Words

khristian November 1, 2014 0 Comments
by Grace Burchard // When I first walked into the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, I was unsure of what to expect. I had never been to a formal policy debate, so my nerves were high, my heart frantically pounding blood through my system to allow my brain to take in the surroundings. The first thing I noticed about the Food and Agriculture Organization building was the...

Sustainability: A First World Problem

khristian October 21, 2014 0 Comments
Due to my old-school version of note taking---by hand and chronologically, in a little notebook---I unfortunately cannot recall the full context in which session staffer Stephanie Hanson of the One Acre Fund talked about sustainability, but I’ll give it the good old college try.  Ms. Hanson stated that the question of sustainability – with regard to agricultural development in developing...

The CFS + Nutrition: A Sticky Situation

khristian October 17, 2014 0 Comments
by Jace Viner // The time had finally come, and before I knew it, I found myself tucked away on a seat on a massive jet plane. I’m squeezed in between the window and a director of food for some swanky hotel in Boston. We talk about why I’m going to Rome and his job, and the way the CFS and his company interact in certain aspects. Most of the conversation I was nodding my head in...

Words and Power: Language on Human Rights

khristian October 17, 2014 0 Comments
by Kristen Dunphey // Being a first time observer of the Civil Society Mechanism and the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Committee on World Food Security (CFS) has been a mind boggling experience. After about twenty minutes in a CSM plenary I came to the conclusion that very little would be accomplished.  And I couldn’t imagine how anything could be accomplished when CSM was thrown...