Today (June 11, 2009) the World Food Prize announced their 2009 Laureate - Dr. Gebisa Ejeta of Ethiopia and Purdue University. He was chosen for "his monumental contributions in the production of sorghum, one of the world’s five principal cereal grains, which have dramatically enhanced the food supply of hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa."...
PG Economics from the United Kingdom put out a press release today (June 8, 2009) about a new study on GM maize (corn) in the European Union . According to the work they've done GM insect resistant maize "has delivered important economic and environmental benefits but only a small part of the potential benefit is currently being realized."
The Global Farmer to Farmer Roundtable hosted by TATT is scheduled for this coming October. The 2009 edition will be the fourth gathering of farmers from around the world, and as before will be held during the same week as the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa USA (the week of October 12th). This gives participants a chance to also take unique advantage of the symposium events...
Three members of the TATT Global Farmer Network are panelists next week at the BIO International Convention in Atlanta, Georgia. Rosalie Ellasus (Philippines), Maria Gabriela Cruz (Portugal), and Terry Wanzek (Board member, North Dakota) will talk about how they personally have benefitted from utilizing biotechnology. They're on the panel Ag Biotech – Improving Farmers Lives, part of the Food & Ag track on Wednesday, May 20th.
They will also give their first-hand perspective at a press conference that same day with Graham Brookes, Director of PG Economics Ltd. (UK) when he presents some of the key findings in their latest global impact study...
International trade and economics can easily confuse experts at times. The sometimes Byzantine-like appearance of agreement structures, legalities, and micro and macroeconomic arguments is enough to make your head spin. The complexities can also make it difficult to get ordinary citizens to support what can be hard to understand. So it was refreshing to see an expert say that to him "the issue boils down to issues such as roses and potato chips..."
This flu or any other health epidemic is bad enough without having to deal with the misinformation and misunderstanding that has spread faster than the flu itself. Approximately 30,000 people die in the US every year from influenza, and a lot more die from all sorts of other diseases. Yes, actions need to be taken. But chalk this extra hysteria up in part to more bad journalism that continues to incessantly hammer out pieces using the name 'swine flu' instead of the correct H1N1 designation…
The word 'sustainability' is everywhere over recent months regarding energy and agriculture issues. If you haven't seen it used, then you probably haven't been reading much. While some simply throw the term about just to use it, others definitely talk about it correctly. Today's Earth Day Newsletter from Growers for Biotechnology ("Biotech should get recognition on Earth Day") is right on the mark as is a piece by Ronald Bailey at Reason Online and a guest blog by Fred Yoder at What Can Biotech Do For You?…
While piracy off the East African coast has caught all the recent media attention, two other news items regarding the area have gone largely unnoticed. Both stories come out of Kenya where it was announced that efforts have been agreed on to help strengthen international shipping and trade...
Timing is everything. Forbes posted the commentary 'Great Expectations For Obama' authored by Maria Gabriela Cruz from Portugal on behalf of Truth About Trade & Technology while the G20 is meeting in Europe.
Reuters reported today (March 31, 2009 – World Bank offers trade boost ahead of G20) that the World Bank is spurring a $50 billion program to help perk up trade flows after credit dried up in recent months. Couple that with British PM Gordon Brown stating that "Leaders meeting in London must supply the oxygen of confidence to today's global economy and give people in all of our countries renewed hope for the future" and just maybe we can have a positive one-two punch coming out of the G20 meeting.
Norman Ernest Borlaug was born on a farm near Cresco, Iowa on March 25, 1914. Often referred to as the father of the 'Green Revolution' that helped save countless lives from starvation, Dr. Borlaugh is one of only five people in history to have won the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. The least we at Truth About Trade & Technology can do for a man who has done so much for so many is to wish him a very happy 95th birthday ...
The issue might seem arcane to most people. But judging from the amount of international news coverage and commentary, the world is watching intently as the US Congress said it will cancel a NAFTA program that allowed some Mexican trucks to make long-haul deliveries north of the border. It's another case of "do as I say, not as I do" while at the same time global leaders denounce protectionism. Newly appointed USTR Ron Kirk and team had better get this issue fixed promptly, because right now the US is sending the exact wrong message to the rest of the world by backtracking on an established agreement (the US Senate voted 92-5 today to confirm Kirk)...
George Will is a conservative political columnist who doesn't often get a lot of attention in agricultural circles. That may have changed this week following his most recent column in the Washington Post (Sunday, March 8, 2009). He appears to have fallen ‘hook, line and sinker’ for the persuasions of "food activist" Michael Pollan...
Kenya is involved in what experts term as an ambitious scientific effort to
find solutions for farmers. Scientists have set in motion a futuristic
project to analyze soil samples from remote areas across Sub-Sahara Africa.
The project is aimed at providing solutions to farmers who suffer from
chronically low-yielding crops due to degraded soils.
There is a lot of talk these days about the legacy we will leave our children and our grandchildren. When I stare into the immediate future, I see a frightening legacy caked in darkness and famine. Instead of intelligently preparing, we find ourselves whittling away this precious time chasing fraudulent theories. We have a decade to prepare, but have a misguided sense of direction and urgency.
During the Cold War the US and its allies were concerned about the "domino effect" - if one country fell to communist control then it would set off a series where other countries would also fall. An editorial in the Feb. 10 Business Daily from Kenya ('We should protect our industries from collapse') shows that the "buy American" clause threatens to start tipping over the dominos of international trade when or if other nations respond in similar fashion. The editorial states..."The paragons of free trade have become protectionists. As a nation, we cannot afford to sit back and assume that all is well. With all the protectionism going round, we need to look back and reassess our position."
Walter Mondale spent many years involved at high levels of the US government - the '84 Democratic nominee for President, former Vice President to Jimmy Carter, former Senator from Minnesota... but it is his time as Ambassador to Japan during President Clinton's Administration that best explains his keen insight and first reaction to the 'Buy American' provisions in the stimulus package.
Notice a trend here? US Senator Mike Johanns (Republican-Nebraska) and former Secretary of Agriculture, said that President Obama should have 'fast track' trade negotiating authority. Give credit where credit is due with a couple of prominent former Bush Administration officials emphatically stating this recently in public. Last week the TATT blog highlighted then outgoing USTR Susan Schwab's similar statement.
It doesn’t matter whether you call it ‘fast track’, ‘trade promotion authority’ or by the acronym TPA. In his October 3 column, TATT Chairman Dean Kleckner said perhaps it should be ‘Free Trade Fair Vote’ or FTFV just to give it a better name. Regardless, over recent years TATT has advocated Congress having the final say in an up-or-down vote on trade deals after negotiated by the administration. Evidently, outgoing USTR Susan Schwab agrees because in her final news conference she said it’s important that Congress give President-Elect Obama ‘fast track’ authority.
Several days ago USA Today ran a story U.S. harvests Afghan ties by Tom Vanden Brook (12.30.2008) about the National Guard’s Agribusiness Development Team. It’s a group comprised of farmer-soldiers from middle America teaching Afghans how to improve their yields from crops and livestock. They began deploying in Afghanistan last year, based on similar work done in Central and South America over the past few decades.
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