Video podcast, Science for the Public & WGBH Forum Network

Video interview on Eating Tomorrow and the battle for the future of food, from the failing Green Revolution for Africa to the Mexican government’s bold defense of its policies to restrict the use of genetically modified corn in the country’s tortillas.

Real Organic Project video podcast

Hourlong interview on Eating Tomorrow: “Tim Wise has pursued an inquiry into the lives of everyday people fighting the power of corporations and governments, both domestic and foreign. He sees their struggles through the lens of food. He has taken this study to Iowa, to Mexico, and to many countries in Africa….”

Ann Garrison, LA Progressive

Food production in Africa is complicated by climate change and the use of fertilizers which increase food production but which also create green house gases and create other environmental harm. Read this extended interview with Timothy A. Wise for a deep dive into synthetic fertilizer’s role in the climate crisis and the 2022 food crisis.

By Julius Sigei, The Elephant (Kenya)

Wise points out that since the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa was founded in 2006, hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa has not gone down by half but increased nearly 50%. “The Green Revolution is taking Africa in precisely the wrong direction.”

By Julius Sigei, Expressions Africa

“After 15 years and one billion dollars in outside funding, AGRA has failed to catalyze a productivity revolution in African agriculture. Farmers’ yields have not grown significantly,” Mr. Wise stated at the September 2 press conference.” It is time for donors to listen to African farmers and community leaders.”

By Jayati Ghosh, Social Europe

An independent academic study found almost no evidence of significant increases in small producers’ productivity, incomes or food security; instead, the number of hungry people in AGRA countries apparently increased by 30 per cent in the first 12 years of its operations. According to the UN, severe hunger has increased by 50 per cent in sub-Saharan Africa since AGRA was founded.

Interview with Timothy A. Wise, Yves Raisiere,Tchak! Magazine (Belgium)

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa... A platform funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Objective: increase agricultural productivity and farmers' income. The result ? A failure on all fronts, denounces Timothy Wise, author of the book Eating Tomorrow: the diversity of cultures is declining and the number of undernourished people is increasing. English translation of interview in French language Tchak! Magazine, Belgium.

Read the interview in English at IATP or French at Tchak!

By Jayati Ghosh, Project Syndicate

The COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing climate change should have taught us the importance of resilience. Unfortunately, well-intentioned efforts to improve food security in Africa are instead increasing small farmers’ dependence on global agribusinesses without raising their incomes, and making farming systems more fragile.

Sci.Dev.net

Large agricultural development programmes have done little to reduce hunger while pushing farmers into debt, food security experts say, as they warn that such schemes risk failure if they do not move away from industrial fertilisers and seeds.

By Stacy Malkan, The Ecologist

Billions of dollars spent promoting and subsidising commercial seeds and agrichemicals across Africa have failed to fulfill their promises to alleviate hunger and lift small-scale farmers out of poverty, according to a new white paper published by the Tufts University Global Development and Environment Institute.

Former UN Food and Agriculture Organization economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram, citing “False Promises” report on failures of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, calls out AGRA head Agnes Kalibata for downplaying nutritional diversity in fighting hunger. Extreme hunger has increased more than 40% in her home country of Rwanda.

“Even progress in addressing dietary energy undernourishment in the world has been uneven, with Africa projected to overtake South Asia in a decade as the region with the most hungry people, rising to 433 million in 2030 from a quarter billion. The report False Promises argues that despite improved understanding of malnutrition, a narrow focus on increasing caloric supply, at the expense of both crop and dietary diversity, is being promoted by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)….”

By Stacy Malkan, US Right to Know

Massive investments spent promoting and subsidizing commercial seeds and agrichemicals across Africa have failed to fulfill their purpose of alleviating hunger and lifting small-scale farmers out of poverty, according to a new white paper published by the Tufts University Global Development and Environment Institute. A report based largely on the research, “False Promises,” was published July 10 by African and German nonprofits that are calling for a shift in support to agroecological farming practices.

Ann Garrison interviews Timothy Wise on why US-style corporate agriculture pushed by billionaire Bill Gates has been disastrous for Africa.

My blog from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy summarizes the results of the report, “False Promises: The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa,” based on my research paper, “Failing Africa’s Farmers: An Impact Assessment of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.” The results: “We found no evidence that productivity, incomes or food security were increasing significantly for smallholder households.”

I was part of an engaging three-person Zoom panel on all that is undervalued in food and agriculture markets, with Paula Daniels of Good Food Purchasing and Barbara Gemmill-Herren of Prescott College. I cautioned us all to avoid commodifying everything by trying to put prices (costs) on things that are truly priceless, like agricultural biodiversity. You can watch it here, with the panel discussion starting around 16:00 (I come in around 22:00). May 22, 2020

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram, IPS News

Timothy A. Wise argues that many millions of dollars spent on fertilizers and seed subsidies in Africa – and favoured by African politicians seeking rural votes – have not delivered their promised outcomes.

Read full article.