In the run up to the 2011 United Nations climate conference – hosted in Durban, South Africa, from 28 November to 1 December – Oxfam supported communities to speak out about the impact that climate change is having on their lives. In drought-prone areas of Kenya, Oxfam worked with communities to organise climate hearings. This document reports that at time of writing four million Kenyans faced hunger as a result of failed rains. The northern regions of Turkana and Wajir experienced chronic drought, leaving over half the population dependant on food aid. The hearings were seen as a vital opportunity for communities to speak out about the dramatic impact that climate change is having on their lives. Testimony from the hearings painted a devastating picture of lives and livelihoods that have been severely disrupted by what communities see as a changing climate. Feedback from the hearings indicate that cattle are crucially important to pastoralists, but with changing weather patterns, cattle-rearing is more and more difficult, and livestock are reduced to feeding on polythene paper and human waste. Women in particular were found to suffer from the consequences of a changing climate, with livestock death leading to food insecurity, falling household incomes and child school drop out. The findings of the hearings were taken to the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Durban in end November 2011.
Poverty and health
Farmers in Southern Africa are experiencing changes to their climate that are different in magnitude to what they have experienced in the past. Farmers interviewed for this report say that these changes are increasing the risk of poor yields or crop failure. The observations of farmers are largely borne out by meteorological data, particularly on rising temperatures – ongoing climate change, bringing increasing temperatures and changes to precipitation patterns, is projected to make food production more difficult. Southern African farmers are already actively experimenting with changing agricultural practices, and looking for ways to diversify their livelihoods in response climate and other stresses, within their resource constraints. But where large-scale farmers, in the main, can access the resources needed to adapt, small-scale farmers face major obstacles. The authors argue that policy makers need to identify the barriers for farmers, particularly smallholder farmers, as they attempt to adapt to the new climate and other environmental, economic and political pressures.
In this briefing note, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Food Security argues that existing World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules do include certain flexibilities for States to pursue food security-related measures but many of these modifications to the original Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) are relatively modest and even these are by no means assured with the outcome of the Doha Round highly uncertain. Many elements of the AoA and the draft modalities continue to fall short of offering a favourable policy framework for the realisation of the right to food, such as the narrow range of policy measures that could be used to potentially establish national and regional food reserves and domestic institutions to manage price and income volatility for poor rural households. The report sets out a number of recommendations, such as: ensuring that future criteria of the AoA do not impede the development of policies and programmes to support food security and that they are tailored to the specific national circumstances of developing countries; avoiding defining the establishment and management of food reserves as trade-distorting support; adapting the provisions of the AoA and other WTO agreements (in particular, in the area of public procurement) to ensure compatibility with the establishment of food reserves at national, regional and international level; and allowing marketing boards and supply management schemes to be established.
One of the lingering effects of the food price crisis of 2007–08 on the world food system is the proliferating acquisition of farmland in developing countries by other countries seeking to ensure their food supplies. Increased pressures on natural resources, water scarcity, export restrictions imposed by major producers when food prices were high, and growing distrust in the functioning of regional and global markets have pushed countries short in land and water to find alternative means of producing food. These land acquisitions have the potential to inject much-needed investment into agriculture and rural areas in poor developing countries, but they also raise concerns about the impacts on poor local people, who risk losing access to and control over land on which they depend. the authors argue that it is crucial to ensure that these land deals, and the environment within which they take place, are designed in ways that will reduce the threats and facilitate the opportunities for all parties involved.
In Africa, agricultural land covers less than 15% of the land area, yet demand from transnational companies is increasing for arable terrain, driven by the assumption that biofuels are a viable long-term solution to current energy and ecological challenges, combined with a decline in land allocated to agriculture in developed countries. The inclusion of biofuels as part of the green economy agenda jeopardises the immediate and long-term food security of many regions in the developing world, according to this paper. In sub-Saharan Africa, rising food prices, land grabs, and precarious and informal labour conditions are key social threats linked to the emphasis on biofuel production. In Africa, a region already under pressure from population growth, famine, drought and conflict, increases in biofuel production and concomitant land grabs can only contribute to weakening food security and keeping achievement of the Millennium Development Goals far beyond reach.
Archaic agricultural practices and erratic rainfall in the recent planting period is expected to lead to an increase in food insecurity for most of Swaziland's 1.1 million people in 2012, according to Thembumenzi Dube, a Swazi government agriculture official. He predicted that the country will soon need food assistance for most of its population. Rains failed during the October planting season in the usually productive central middleveld, as well as the generally drought-prone eastern and southern regions. The virtual absence of irrigation systems makes the country dependent on rainfall. Small-scale farmers, who depend on rain-fed agriculture, do not have title deeds, and so cannot use their land as collateral to secure loans for irrigation equipment or other improvements.
The objective of this study was to assess the status of food security in South Africa. The authors conducted a systematic search of national surveys that used the Community Childhood Hunger Identification Project (CCHIP) index to measure food security in South Africa over a period of 10 years (1999–2008). Anthropometric data for children aged 1–9 years were used to assess food utilisation, and household food inventory data were used to assess food availability. The authors found that only three national surveys had used the CCHIP index, namely, the 1999 and 2005 National Food Consumption Surveys (NFCS) and the 2008 South African Social Attitudes Survey. These surveys showed a relatively large decrease in food insecurity between 1999 and 2008. However, the consistent emerging trend indicated that in poorer households women were either feeding their children a poor diet or skipping meals so their children could eat. In terms of food access and availability, the 1999 NFCS showed that households that enjoyed food security consumed an average of 16 different food items over 24 hours, whereas poorer households spent less money on food and consumed fewer than 8 different food items. Moreover, children had low mean scores for dietary diversity and dietary variety scores. In terms of food utilisation, the NFCS showed that stunting in children decreased from 21.6% in 1999 to 18% in 2005. Despite these improvements, the authors conclude that the South African government still needs to implement measures to improve the undesirably high level of food insecurity in poorer households.
The vast majority (70%) of the world’s population is fed and nourished by local, ecological systems of food production, according to this paper. But these systems are severely threatened and undermined by industrial systems of agriculture that are controlled by corporations and promoted by governments. These industrial systems have exacerbated or even created the multiple crises of rising food prices, poverty, climate change and biodiversity loss. The Food Sovereignty movement prioritises the protection of domestic and local agricultural production. This will require a fundamental shift in global trade rules, resulting in less international trade. Long-distance trade in foods should focus on those things which cannot be produced in every region, such as traditional ‘cash crops’ of coffee and tea. And if international trade in goods such as coffee, tea and bananas is to continue, and to still contribute to food sovereignty through the rediversification of local economies and environmental protection, it must follow the principle of ‘Fair Trade Miles’. This involves a mixture of ‘fair trade’ and the limiting of ‘miles’ between producer and consumer in order to minimise fossil fuel contributions to climate change. The creation of national and regional common markets is crucial, as well as a changing the aim of international trade to favour localism, rather than global competitiveness.
According to this policy brief, significant gains for both health and climate can be attained by providing access to clean cookstoves and fuels for the 2.7 billion people still dependent on the use of rudimentary, traditional biomass and coal stoves. These stoves are estimated to directly cause about two million deaths annually, including over one million deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and almost another million deaths from pneumonia in children under the age of five. The World Health Organisation estimates that 11% of all chronic lung disease burden in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa among adults over 30 could be averted in less than a decade by the introduction of more advanced biomass or biogas stoves, in pace with United Nations targets for universal energy access, which would also help avoid 17% of all pneumonia deaths among children under five in the same regions. Recent evidence suggests that exposure to indoor air pollution is also associated with non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, cataract and cancers, notably lung cancer.
There is concern that increased consumption of palm oil could exacerbate mortality from ischemic heart disease (IHD) and stroke, particularly in developing countries where it represents a major nutritional source of saturated fat. The authors of this study analysed country-level data from 1980-1997 derived from the World Health Organisation's Mortality Database, United States Department of Agriculture international estimates, and the World Bank (234 annual observations; 23 countries). They found that, in developing countries, for every additional kilogram of palm oil consumed per-capita annually, IHD mortality rates increased by 68 deaths per 100,000, whereas, in similar settings, stroke mortality rates increased by 19 deaths per 100,000 but were not significant. Inclusion of other major saturated fat sources including beef, pork, chicken, coconut oil, milk cheese, and butter did not substantially change the differentially higher relationship between palm oil and IHD mortality in developing countries. The authors urge policy makers to consider palm oil consumption as a saturated fat source relevant for policies aimed at reducing cardiovascular disease burdens.