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O aumento da população mundial confronta-se actualmente com uma grande instabilidade dos preços agrícolas, estimando-se que cerca de 50% dos picos recentemente verificados nos preços tenham sido causados pela especulação dos mercados agrícolas.

O Parlamento Europeu debateu ontem um relatório que apresenta soluções para o problema e procura dar resposta às inquietações resultantes do envelhecimento dos agricultores.

Os mercados agrícolas atravessam um período particularmente instável, com a especulação a desempenhar um papel decisivo no processo.

"Temos de resolver os problemas causados pela especulação financeira", afirma a eurodeputada romena Daciana Octavia Särbu (S&D), autora do relatório parlamentar, "o que implica regulamentar de forma a restringir a especulação e a evitar os aumentos desproporcionais registados num passado recente".

O texto parlamentar defende a revisão da legislação existente sobre instrumentos financeiros, de forma a garantir um comércio mais transparente. "Instamos a Comissão Europeia a introduzir, com carácter urgente, medidas permanentes e consistentes que permitam resolver a volatilidade dos mercados agrícolas", acrescentou a eurodeputada romena.

A próxima geração de agricultores
Um dos principais desafios com que a agricultura europeia se depara está relacionado com o envelhecimento dos agricultores. O relatório refere que apenas 7% dos agricultores europeus têm uma idade inferior a 35 anos e que ao longo dos próximos dez anos deverão atingir a idade da reforma cerca de 4,5 milhões de agricultores. Para resolver a situação, o texto defende a adopção de medidas que facilitem a gestão da actividade para os jovens agricultores.

Política Agrícola Comum: os desafios globais
O texto relembra igualmente que a segurança alimentar é uma questão global. "Propomos um sistema global de reservas alimentares, para facilitar o comércio mundial aquando da ocorrência de picos de preços, prevenir o proteccionismo recorrente e aliviar a pressão sobre os mercados mundiais de alimentos", acrescenta Daciana Octavia Särbu.

"A questão principal consiste em saber como poderemos aumentar em 40% a produção alimentar, para fazer face às necessidades de uma população mundial que atingirá rapidamente os 9 mil milhões de pessoas, utilizando menos terra, menos água e menos químicos no futuro", sublinha a eurodeputada sueca Marit Paulsen (ADLE).

PE, 2011.01.18

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by admin on January 12, 2011
Report provides a roadmap for food security and agricultural investment, revealing
15 high- and low-tech solutions that are helping to reduce hunger and poverty in Africa
New York, New York (12 January 2011)--Worldwatch Institute today released its report State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet, which spotlights successful agricultural innovations and unearths major successes in preventing food waste, building resilience to climate change, and strengthening farming in cities. The report provides a roadmap for increased agricultural investment and more-efficient ways to alleviate global hunger and poverty. Drawing from the world's leading agricultural experts and from hundreds of innovations that are already working on the ground, the report outlines 15 proven, environmentally sustainable prescriptions.
"The progress showcased through this report will inform governments, policymakers, NGOs, and donors that seek to curb hunger and poverty, providing a clear roadmap for expanding or replicating these successes elsewhere," said Worldwatch Institute President Christopher Flavin. "We need the world's influencers of agricultural development to commit to longstanding support for farmers, who make up 80 percent of the population in Africa."
State of the World 2011 comes at a time when many global hunger and food security initiatives--such as the Obama administration's Feed the Future program, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)--can benefit from new insight into environmentally sustainable projects that are already working to alleviate hunger and poverty.
Nearly a half-century after the Green Revolution, a large share of the human family is still chronically hungry. While investment in agricultural development by governments, international lenders, and foundations has escalated in recent years, it is still nowhere near what is needed to help the 925 million people who are undernourished. Since the mid-1980s when agricultural funding was at its height, agriculture's share of global development aid has fallen from over 16 percent to just 4 percent today.
In 2008, $1.7 billion in official development assistance was provided to support agricultural projects in Africa, based on statistics from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)--a miniscule amount given the vital return on investment. Given the current global economic conditions, investments are not likely to increase in the coming year. Much of the more recently pledged funding has yet to be raised, and existing funding is not being targeted efficiently to reach the poor farmers of Africa.
"The international community has been neglecting entire segments of the food system in its efforts to reduce hunger and poverty," said Danielle Nierenberg, co-director of Worldwatch's Nourishing the Planet project. "The solutions won't necessarily come from producing more food, but from changing what children eat in schools, how foods are processed and marketed, and what sorts of food businesses we are investing in."
Serving locally raised crops to school children, for example, has proven to be an effective hunger- and poverty-reducing strategy in many African nations, and has strong parallels to successful farm-to-cafeteria programs in the United States and Europe. Moreover, "roughly 40 percent of the food currently produced worldwide is wasted before it is consumed, creating large opportunities for farmers and households to save both money and resources by reducing this waste," according to Brian Halweil, Nourishing the Planet co-director.
State of the World 2011 draws from hundreds of case studies and first-person examples to offer solutions to reducing hunger and poverty. These include:
  • In 2007, some 6,000 women in The Gambia organized into the TRY Women's Oyster Harvesting producer association, creating a sustainable co-management plan for the local oyster fishery to prevent overharvesting and exploitation. Oysters and fish are an important, low-cost source of protein for the population, but current production levels have led to environmental degradation and to changes in land use over the last 30 years. The government is working with groups like TRY to promote less-destructive methods and to expand credit facilities to low-income producers to stimulate investment in more-sustainable production.
  • In Kibera, Nairobi, the largest slum in Kenya, more than 1,000 women farmers are growing "vertical" gardens in sacks full of dirt poked with holes, feeding their families and communities. These sacks have the potential to feed thousands of city dwellers while also providing a sustainable and easy-to-maintain source of income for urban farmers. With more than 60 percent of Africa's population projected to live in urban areas by 2050, such methods may be crucial to creating future food security. Currently, some 33 percent of Africans live in cities, and 14 million more migrate to urban areas each year. Worldwide, some 800 million people engage in urban agriculture, producing 15–20 percent of all food.
  • Pastoralists in South Africa and Kenya are preserving indigenous varieties of livestock that are adapted to the heat and drought of local conditions--traits that will be crucial as climate extremes on the continent worsen. Africa has the world's largest area of permanent pasture and the largest number of pastoralists, with 15–25 million people dependent on livestock.
  • The Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) is using interactive community plays to engage women farmers, community leaders, and policymakers in an open dialogue about gender equity, food security, land tenure, and access to resources.  Women in sub-Saharan Africa make up at least 75 percent of agricultural workers and provide 60–80 percent of the labor to produce food for household consumption and sale, so it is crucial that they have opportunities to express their needs in local governance and decision-making. This entertaining and amicable forum makes it easier for them to speak openly.
  • Uganda's Developing Innovations in School Cultivation (DISC) program is integrating indigenous vegetable gardens, nutrition information, and food preparation into school curriculums to teach children how to grow local crop varieties that will help combat food shortages and revitalize the country's culinary traditions. An estimated 33 percent of African children currently face hunger and malnutrition, which could affect some 42 million children by 2025. School nutrition programs that don't simply feed children, but also inspire and teach them to become the farmers of the future, are a huge step toward improving food security.
The State of the World 2011 report is accompanied by other informational materials including briefing documents, summaries, an innovations database, videos, and podcasts, all of which are available at www.NourishingthePlanet.org. The project's findings are being disseminated to a wide range of agricultural stakeholders, including government ministries, agricultural policymakers, farmer and community networks, and the increasingly influential non-governmental environmental and development communities.
In conducting this research, Worldwatch's Nourishing the Planet project received unprecedented access to major international research institutions, including those in the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research(CGIAR) system. The team also interacted extensively with farmers and farmers' unions as well as with the banking and investment communities.
The Worldwatch Institute and the Nourishing the Planet project are gratefully supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and additional foundations, governments, and institutions including the Rockefeller and Surdna Foundations, the United Nations Foundation, the Goldman Environmental Prize, the Shared Earth Foundation, the Wallace Global Fund, the Winslow Foundation, and many more.

###
Notes to Editors:
To interview Christopher Flavin, Brian Halweil, Danielle Nierenberg, or other State of the World 2011 contributors, please contact:
Amanda Stone, Communications Assistant, Worldwatch Institute
(+1) 202-452-1999 x514; astone@worldwatch.org
For review copies of State of the World 2011:
In the United States, Canada, and India, contact Amanda Stone at astone@worldwatch.org.
Outside of these three countries, contact gudrun.freese@earthscan.co.uk  or +44 (0)20 7841 1930.
Purchasing information:
State of the World 2011 sells for $19.95 plus shipping & handling / £14.99 + P&P.
  • It can be purchased via the Worldwatch website at http://www.worldwatch.org/sow11, by e-mailing wwpub@worldwatch.org, by calling toll-free (+1) 877-539-9946 (in the U.S.) or (+1) 301-747-2340 (from overseas), or by faxing (+1) 301-567-9553 with ISBN number 9780393338805.
  • The book is published outside of the U.S., Canada, and India by Earthscan and can be purchased at www.earthscan.co.uk/sow2011 or by calling +44(0)12 5630 2699 with ISBN number 9781849713528.
About the Worldwatch Institute:
Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. The Institute's State of the World report is published annually in more than 20 languages. For more information, visit www.worldwatch.org.

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Não há pequenos-almoços grátis

por papinto, em 11.12.10
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Um produtor alentejano vende hoje uma saca de trigo mais barata do que há 20 anos. Mas um papo-seco custa várias vezes mais. Como? Sim, come. São os mercados, pá.
As praças que hoje ditam os preços dos alimentos que comemos não são as do Bolhão ou da Ribeira, mas as de Londres ou Chicago. É nessas bolsas que se transaccionam títulos, futuros, opções sobre grãos de café, barrigas de porco ou sumo de laranja. A globalização fez do planeta uma imensa mercearia - com cada vez mais clientela à porta. E, como sempre, onde há lucro há intermediários, cambistas e até golpistas.

A alimentação é um dos grandes sectores económicos do século XXI. O mundo não está apenas a exaurir os seus recursos financeiros e ambientais - mas também os alimentares. Porque somos cada vez mais. Porque os alimentos estão mal distribuídos, entre países e entre classes sociais. Mas, sobretudo, por causa do crescimento das classes médias nos países emergentes (centenas de milhões de chineses, brasileiros, etc. saíram da pobreza nos últimos anos). As suas dietas tornam-se mais exigentes, em quantidade e em proteínas. A carne, os cereais, tudo está mais caro.

Este fenómeno de procura e oferta global é viabilizado pelos mercados e faz dos países produtores grandes "empresas" com políticas agrícolas nunca vistas. O Brasil, o maior produtor de "commodities" mundial, multiplicou a sua produção de soja para vender para a China, quadruplicou a produtividade no açúcar com a mecanização e tem uma das maiores empresas do mundo (a Vale do Rio Doce) nos minerais ferrosos. Os Estados Unidos são hoje um dos países mais proteccionistas, com tarifas que protegem os produtores de milho (o famoso "corn belt") e que usam a sua rede de satélites para observar as plantações mundiais - e decidir que solos hão-de ser cultivados em cada ano em função da sua fertilidade (subsidiando os pousios).

É destes fenómenos globais de oferta, procura e proteccionismo que vive hoje a formação de preços de matérias-primas. Os incêndios da Rússia de há meses fecharam as fronteiras às exportações de trigo. A carência de arroz em 2008 levou ao mesmo no Bangladesh.

Portugal é um dependente. Os preços das matérias-primas agravam o nosso défice externo e prejudicam a nossa competitividade. O aumento do preço do algodão (mais de 80% este ano!) afecta todas as nossas empresas de têxteis. O preço da cola prejudica o calçado. O petróleo encarece tudo. E esta financeirização, que aumenta a eficiência global, introduz também volatilidade e "bolhas" especulativas semelhantes às bolsas de empresas.

A economia agrícola é dos fenómenos mais fascinantes de estudar. Salazar doutorou-se nos fluxos do trigo, Cunhal especializou-se na questão agrária. Mas os parolos dos governantes portugueses de há 20 anos decidiram que não era "cool" investir em Agricultura. Depois do desinvestimento com a reforma agrária dos anos 70 e das políticas de rendimento dos anos 80, com Cavaco a aceitar a iniquidade da subsidiação europeia, ficámos sem agricultura. Hoje, não temos factor trabalho nem capital (a maquinaria está obsoleta), e a produção que sobrou liquidou-se perante a concentração da distribuição. E assim estamos de fora de um dos grandes negócios do século: a alimentação.

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Brazil's agricultural miracle

por papinto, em 26.08.10
How to feed the world

The emerging conventional wisdom about world farming is gloomy. There is an alternative

Aug 26th 2010

The Economist

THE world is planting a vigorous new crop: “agro-pessimism”, or fear that mankind will not be able to feed itself except by wrecking the environment. The current harvest of this variety of whine will be a bumper one. Natural disasters—fire in Russia and flood in Pakistan, which are the world’s fifth- and eighth-largest wheat producers respectively—have added a Biblical colouring to an unfolding fear of famine. By 2050 world grain output will have to rise by half and meat production must double to meet demand. And that cannot easily happen because growth in grain yields is flattening out, there is little extra farmland and renewable water is running short.

The world has been here before. In 1967 Paul Ehrlich, a Malthusian, wrote that “the battle to feed all of humanity is over… In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death.” Five years later, in “The Limits to Growth”, the Club of Rome (a group of business people and academics) argued that the world was running out of raw materials and that societies would probably collapse in the 21st century.

A year after “The Limits to Growth” appeared, however, and at a time when soaring oil prices seemed to confirm the Club of Rome’s worst fears, a country which was then a large net food importer decided to change the way it farmed. Driven partly by fear that it would not be able to import enough food, it decided to expand domestic production through scientific research, not subsidies. Instead of trying to protect farmers from international competition—as much of the world still does—it opened up to trade and let inefficient farms go to the wall. This was all the more remarkable because most of the country was then regarded as unfit for agricultural production.

The country was Brazil. In the four decades since, it has become the first tropical agricultural giant and the first to challenge the dominance of the “big five” food exporters (America, Canada, Australia, Argentina and the European Union).

Even more striking than the fact of its success has been the manner of it. Brazil has followed more or less the opposite of the agro-pessimists’ prescription. For them, sustainability is the greatest virtue and is best achieved by encouraging small farms and organic practices. They frown on monocultures and chemical fertilisers. They like agricultural research but loathe genetically modified (GM) plants. They think it is more important for food to be sold on local than on international markets. Brazil’s farms are sustainable, too, thanks to abundant land and water. But they are many times the size even of American ones. Farmers buy inputs and sell crops on a scale that makes sense only if there are world markets for them. And they depend critically on new technology. As the briefing explains, Brazil’s progress has been underpinned by the state agricultural-research company and pushed forward by GM crops. Brazil represents a clear alternative to the growing belief that, in farming, small and organic are beautiful.

That alternative commands respect for three reasons. First, it is magnificently productive. It is not too much to talk about a miracle, and one that has been achieved without the huge state subsidies that prop up farmers in Europe and America. Second, the Brazilian way of farming is more likely to do good in the poorest countries of Africa and Asia. Brazil’s climate is tropical, like theirs. Its success was built partly on improving grasses from Africa and cattle from India. Of course there are myriad reasons why its way of farming will not translate easily, notably that its success was achieved at a time when the climate was relatively stable whereas now uncertainty looms. Still, the basic ingredients of Brazil’s success—agricultural research, capital-intensive large farms, openness to trade and to new farming techniques—should work elsewhere.


Plant the plains, save the forests

Third, Brazil shows a different way of striking a balance between farming and the environment. The country is accused of promoting agriculture by razing the Amazon forest. And it is true that there has been too much destructive farming there. But most of the revolution of the past 40 years has taken place in the cerrado, hundreds of miles away. Norman Borlaug, who is often called the father of the Green Revolution, said the best way to save the world’s imperilled ecosystems would be to grow so much food elsewhere that nobody would need to touch the natural wonders. Brazil shows that can be done.

It also shows that change will not come about by itself. Four decades ago, the country faced a farm crisis and responded with decisive boldness. The world is facing a slow-motion food crisis now. It should learn from Brazil.

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ScienceDaily (June 9, 2010) — Earth is expected to be home to roughly 9 billion people by 2050 -- and everyone needs to eat. But a new report from the United Nations Environment Programme observes that growing and producing food make agriculture and food consumption among the most important drivers of environmental pressures, including climate change and habitat loss.

The report's lead author is Edgar Hertwich, a Professor of Energy and Process Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

The report, called "Assessing the Environmental Impacts of Consumption and Production: Priority Products and Materials" is the first-ever global-level assessment of the causes of different environmental pressures that result from economic activities. Professor Hertwich, who is director of NTNU's Industrial Ecology Programme, worked with colleagues for two years to develop detailed answers to three interrelated questions:

  • What are the most important industries that cause climate change?
  • How much energy do different consumption activities require when the production of the products is taken into account?
  • What are the materials that contribute most to environmental problems?

Agriculture causes major environmental impacts

Professor Hertwich said he was surprised to find that the environmental impacts of agriculture were greater than the production of materials such as cement and other manufactured goods. While the report does not make specific recommendations for change -- it is instead a detailed description of the problem -- Hertwich says, "it is clear that we can't all have a European average diet -- we just don't have the land and resources for that."

The report itself observes that "impacts from agriculture are expected to increase substantially due to population growth, increasing consumption of animal products. Unlike fossil fuels, it is difficult to look for alternatives: people have to eat. A substantial reduction of impacts would only be possible with a substantial worldwide diet change, away from animal products."

More income, more meat in our diets

Another surprise was the effect of increasing economic affluence on different environmental impacts. The report authors found that environmental impacts increase approximately 80 per cent with the doubling of an individual's income. This increase results in part from a shift to a more meat-intensive diet.

Another related problem -- and another surprise to Hertwich -- was the amount of food waste in both rich and poor countries. "Between 30 and 50 per cent of all food produced is spoiled or wasted," Hertwich said. "It's really quite surprising how much food waste there is." In poor countries, food is spoiled on the way to the market, while in rich countries, it spoils in people's refrigerators, he said.

Hope for the future?

Both Hertwich and international environmental officials say that people and policymakers must face the substantial environmental challenges facing all of humankind. In a press release from the UNEP, Ashok Khosla, co-chair of the Panel and President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), is quoted as saying: "Incremental efficiency gains in, for example, motor cars or home heating systems have provided some improvements but, faced with the scale of the challenge, far more transformational measures need to be taken-- currently we are fiddling--or fiddling around the edges--while Rome burns."

Hertwich agreed with Khosla's assessment. "There are fundamental challenges out there that I don't think that we as a society have woken up to yet," he said. "Somewhere in our rear-view mirror there is a big monster, and we are pretending it is not there. But I think if we really decide to tackle these challenges we will be able to do so."

Hertwich has also developed a website that enables individuals to look at the Carbon Footprint of Nations (http://carbonfootprintofnations.com/). The report was released to coincide with the UN's Environment Day on June 5.

The report is available at: http://www.unep.org/resourcepanel/documents/pdf/PriorityProductsAndMaterials_Report_Full.pdf

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by The Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

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O futuro da agricultura e da água

por papinto, em 04.06.10
Miguel Monjardino (www.expresso.pt)
Expresso on-line Sexta-feira, 4 de Junho de 2010

Lembrei-me disto ao ver o índice de matérias-primas agrícolas do "Economist" e as previsões do crescimento económico da Organização para a Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Económico (OCDE) publicadas esta semana. O índice do "Economist" mostra um aumento dos preços agrícolas de uma base de 100 em 2000 para 199 em 2010.

A OCDE prevê que a economia dos EUA cresça 3,2% este ano. A zona euro crescerá uns tímidos 1,2%. Se olharmos para a China, Índia e Brasil, os números serão muito diferentes - Pequim crescerá 11%, Nova Deli, 8,3% e Brasília 6,5%.

Os dados da OCDE indicam que mais de 50% do produto mundial são actualmente gerados fora do mundo euroatlântico. A manter-se a tendência da última década, a Europa, EUA e Canadá verão o seu produto duplicar nos próximos 40 anos. No resto do mundo, quintuplicam. Como Jack Goldstone chama a atenção na "Foreign Affairs" de Janeiro/Fevereiro, em 2050 o mundo euroatlântico produzirá apenas cerca de 30% da riqueza mundial. É preciso recuar até 1820 para encontramos um número semelhante.

O que mostram mais os números do "Economist" e da OCDE? O que me chamou a atenção foram as implicações para a agricultura e para o consumo de água nas próximas décadas.

O aumento dos preços das matérias-primas agrícolas deve muito ao crescimento económico na Ásia, América Latina e África. Tal como aconteceu na Europa, EUA, Canadá e Japão, as populações dos países com maiores taxas de crescimento económico querem comer mais e melhor. O crescimento da classe média mundial e a urbanização exigem uma agricultura muito mais produtiva do que aquela que temos.

Nos últimos anos, não pensámos muito neste assunto. Os aumentos da produtividade agrícola transformaram-se numa espécie de direito adquirido das sociedades mais prósperas do mundo. Malthus e as suas preocupações sobre a tensão entre os níveis de produção agrícola e o aumento da população tornaram-se uma curiosidade para alguns economistas e historiadores. Mas, como estamos a descobrir muito rapidamente, os direitos adquiridos podem ser uma coisa efémera. Poderá acontecer o mesmo na agricultura?

Os números sugerem que os investimentos na investigação agrícola a nível internacional têm baixado nas últimas décadas e que os níveis de produtividade não estão a acompanhar o aumento da procura; mostram também que a agricultura exige cada vez mais água. O aumento da população mundial dos actuais 7 para 9 milhares de milhões de pessoas em 2050 complica ainda mais as coisas.

Como John Grimond argumenta no "Economist" da semana passada, o problema da água é a sua distribuição geográfica. O Brasil, o Canadá, a Colômbia, o Congo, a Indonésia e a Rússia têm imensa água. No lado oposto estão a China e a Índia, países com mais de um terço da população mundial mas com pouca água nos seus territórios. A evolução do clima sugere que haverá mais secas na Europa do Sul, no Médio Oriente, na Patagónia, no norte de África e no sudoeste dos EUA. Outras zonas terão mais água e mais cheias.

A agricultura e a água são hoje em dia quase sinónimo de guerra para muitos académicos, decisores políticos e responsáveis de instituições. O que estas pessoas vêem quando olham para as próximas décadas é uma tempestade perfeita causada pela fome e por falta de água crónica. Confesso que tenho muitas dúvidas. Do que não tenho dúvidas é da necessidade de gerir com muito mais cuidado tudo o que esteja relacionado com a agricultura e a água.

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Agricultura: monótona e diversa

por papinto, em 18.05.10
Agriculturamonotonaediversa

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