The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that Setton Farms of California, which grows pistachio nuts for Kraft Foods, Inc.,  has announced a recall of its crop from the previous year after finding salmonella contamination in tested batches.  There have been reported cases of illness related to the contamination which are being investigated.  However, the combination of the recall and the investigation are considered “ahead of the curve” compared with the peanut contamination recall from a few months ago.

Kraft Foods has a press release on their website about the recall of its products containing pistachios.  For more overall information about the recall and the dangers of salmonella contamination, read the FDA’s website.

Although the two recent incidents of salmonella contamination are unrelated, it does raise important questions.  How was the pistachio contamination handled compared to the peanut contamination?  Did the producers of the contaminated products respond properly?  Is the U.S. government taking the necessary steps to inform people of this latest incident?

Following UN Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jacques Diouf’s appeal to G-20 leaders to discuss agricultural initiatives for alleviating the global food crisis while meeting in London this week, the Fairtrade Foundation has repeated that call and said a fresh approach to trade was greatly needed to address the issue.

The group called on the hosting UK Government to stop pushing developing countries to liberalize their economies and not to rush through a completion of the WTO Doha trade round, claiming a global trade agreement is not in the interests of the world’s poorest countries.

The Fairtrade Foundation warned that the combination effects of the current food and financial crises are having a ‘devastating’ impact on farmers in the third world and called on the G-20 leaders to install measures to ensure food supplies and refrain from moving forward with trade negotiations.

Barbara Crowther, the Fairtrade Foundation’s director of communications and policy, said:

“The current crisis poses many new threats to the livelihoods of the poorest people on the planet.

“But they also offer an unprecedented opportunity for world leaders to develop a fresh approach to the global trading system, prioritizing justice and equity, including social and environmental standards, and build new trade relationships, fit to deal with the current financial, food and climate crises we now face.

“A new approach to global trade must put poor people and the planet first, strengthening local and regional supply chains, and ensuring cooperation in fairer global trade at an international level.”

The small African island nation of Seychelles  has been forced to make a tough choice to improve its food security.  The government announced that it will abandon a planned hotel project in order to preserve the land for growing food.  Seychelles imports a large amount of its food because it has a dearth of arable land.  Public outcry over the land’s use prompted the government to cancel the hotel project, despite the fact that Seychelles relies heavily on tourism revenue and is sinking deeper into debt.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization director-general, Jacques Diouf, called for restraint in tightening credit as a response to the global financial crisis while speaking at the biennial UN food policy conference in Bangkok, Thailand.  In another example of the tie between the global food crisis and the economic downturn, Diouf voiced concern that the tightening of credit could lead to a repeat spike in food prices, as farmers would find it more difficult to expand production.

After the  2007 and 2008 surges in the price of corn, rice, and other grains, prices have fallen by a third.  However, grains prices are still 27% higher than in 2005, and global stocks remain low.  And although several countries have invested more heavily in agriculture as part of their respective economic stimulus initiatives, food policy analysts are wary that a constriction of credit could negate any progress made.

Diouf also appealed to the leaders of the Group of 20 (G-20), the collection of heads of government and state from the 20 largest industrialized countries, to address agriculture initiatives during the group’s summit this week in London.  Diouf pushed for the inclusion of a food crisis discussion to alleviate the effects of the global economic slowdown on the developing world.

How do you think the G-20 might address the global food crisis?  Leave your reactions and questions in the comments section of this post.

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Do you have a question about food security you would like to hear addressed at the Town Hall?  Click on the “Town Hall Questions” link to the right to submit a question and learn about this special event.  Posted questions may be presented to the panelists at the Town Hall on April 4th.

A coalition of 183 social justice and civil society groups, including 76 U.S.-based organizations and 107 international groups from 29 countries, signed a letter appealing to President Obama and the U.S. Congress to re-regulate the commodities market as a means of preventing continued food price speculation - a practice food poliocy experts claim was a factor in the development of the food crisis, and continues to complicate the cost of foodstuffs.

Speculation in commodity markets occurs when businesses– such as hedge funds and investment banks — buy or sell raw or primary products in international markets in hope of making profits down the road.

The letter’s signatories were largely from farm, food, hunger, faith-based and international development groups, collectively railed against financial institutions for taking such risks and the issue’s lack of oversight:

“A significant part of last year’s food price fluctuations were the result of excessive speculation in the commodities markets by the very hedge funds and investment banks that helped create the current economic meltdown….and could have been stopped with sensible rules that, if enforced, would have staved off the malnutrition and starvation that was caused by excessive gambling of food prices. Important reforms are needed now to prevent mega-investors from viewing the futures market like a casino where they can gamble on hunger.”

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is holding a hearing today aimed at asking what the U.S. can do to address the current global food crisis.  A bill co-sponsored by Sen. Bob Casey, Jr. (PA) and Senator Richard Lugar (IN) has been introduced to Congress to improve US and global efforts to increase crop yields, create rural economic opportunities, broaden trade relations, and improve scientific cooperation.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Senator John Kerry (MA) stressed the impact of soaring food costs during a beleaguered economy, climate change, and the off-course progress of the UN Millennium Development Goals on food security during his opening statement.  His full remarks can be found within the body of the Boston Globe article linked above.

The Committee will hear from two panels of experts. The first includes Catherine Bertini, former Executive Director of the World Food Program;  Reverend David Beckmann, President of Bread for the World; and Dr. Robert Paarlberg, professor at Wellesley College and a world-renowned expert on agriculture, particularly in Africa.

Town Hall panelist Bettina Luescher is the chief spokesperson for the World Food Program in North America, and will be talking about the organization’s role in the global food crisis.  Her bio can be found here.

The second panel consists of scientists including, Dr. Edwin C. Price, Associate Vice Chancellor and Director of the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and Dr. Gebisa Ejeta, a professor of International Agriculture at Purdue University who recently assisted the Rockefeller and Gates Foundations with the launch of their new joint initiative, the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa.

On Monday, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) announced plans for a summit on the global food crisis at the 36th Session of the Conference of the Organization in Rome this November.  The proposal for the meeting had already received support from the heads of State and Government of the League of Arab States at the Arab Economic and Social Development Summit in Kuwait last January, the African Union (AU) at its assembly in Addis Ababa in February this year, and the heads of state and governments of several other States.

After the announcement, FAO Director-General Jaques Diouf said this of the food security summit:

“The Summit should lead to greater coherence in the global governance of world food security. It will define how we can improve policies and the structural aspects of the international agricultural system by putting forward lasting political, financial and technical solutions to the problem of food insecurity in the world”

The announcement was made after the leaders of the countries of the Caribbean Economic Community (CARICOM) announced their support for the food summit.  President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil was among the supporters.  Town Hall panelist Guilherme de Aguiar Patriota is minister counselor of the Brazilian Mission to the UN, and will be speaking about the impact of the food crisis on Brazil.  Mr. Patriota’s bio can be found here.

The Kenya Food Security Steering Group - a consortium of Kenyan government officials, UN agencies, foreign aid officials, and NGOs - stated in a new report that the food security of 2.5 million Kenyans is threatened by an extended drought period in certain parts of the country.  There are also more than 7 million Kenyans who must compete for a smaller food supply because of the high prices brought on by last year’s global food crisis and post-election unrest.

The report also cited how Kenyans with HIV/AIDS face added challenges to food security and health:

“[The h]ousehold’s ability to produce and buy food is compromised due reduced labor that would otherwise be engaged in agricultural production or in earning an income. In addition, HIV disease increases health expenditure. Therefore, the household capacity to obtain an adequate amount and variety of food, and to adopt appropriate health and nutritional responses to HIV/AIDs, especially for the already vulnerable ones, is grossly reduced.”

The Kenya Food Security Steering Group made several recommendations to confront the immediate food shortages and to create conditions for long-term food security.

The United Kingdom government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, John Beddington,  predicted that the year 2030 will witness a “perfect storm of food, energy and water shortages“  across the globe.  Speaking at the Sustainable Development UK 09 conference in London,  Beddington cited a growing global population as the driving factor behind the anticipated shortages.  Beddington predicts that demand for food alone will spike by 50%, but that the crisis can be confronted now by adopting better farming methods and genetically modified crops that can survive ongoing damage to the climate.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met for a two-day summit in Nigeria to review the impact of the food crisis in the region, especially over the last year, and devise a plan for countering the crisis ahead of the new farming season. ECOWAS principle programme officer Dr. Ernest Aubee said after the meetings that ECOWAS will be taking an active role to boost food production in West Africa, as well as develop mechanisms through which to secure that production.

The discussions seemed to draw optimism from its attendees, with Nigerian Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources Dr. Sayyadi Abba Ruma claiming programs to stimulate the food supply and reduce hunger would be successful for the future. Dr. Aubee said increased cultivation and government investment in agriculture has, in turn, increased the food supply in West Africa. He encouraged allowing these programs to sustain.