State of the World 2011 Symposium in Washington DC and Live Streaming Online

by Border Jumpers

Today is the Worldwatch Institute’s 15th Annual State of the World Symposium, hosted at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, DC. It is being live streamed on the Nourishing the Planet blog at 1:15PM (EST) for those unable to join the event in person. Bringing together leading thinkers in agricultural development, hunger, and poverty alleviation, the symposium takes place following the release of Worldwatch's flagship publication, State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet. Continued...

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A Hunger Conference with Canapés and Thinly Sliced Veal

by Janet Ritz

Cross-posted on The Huffington Post

A U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization hunger conference called to address skyrocketing food prices has opened with Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon's pronouncement that the world must increase food output by 50% before the year 2030 to avert a global catastrophe.

The three-day conference received press after Western representatives who'd protested the attendance by Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe -- whose people are said to be suffering from hunger through his mismanagement -- had stated they would not converse with him there.

That did not stop other attendees from kissing Mugabe on the cheek in welcome.

Another moment that stood out?

The gourmet repast the attendees dined upon while they all but ignored the speech given by Bangladesh's Foreign Minister describing the famine in his country.

The FAO luncheon was not the only food game in town for delegates. Premier Silvio Berlusconi was co-hosting a state dinner Tuesday evening with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at Villa Madama, a Renaissance villa. Berlusconi aides said they planned what they call a "Tricolore menu" — a meal that evokes the green, white and red of the Italian flag and has become a standard of formal dining under the patriotic premier. For the Tuesday dinner, guests were being served pasta with pesto, cheese and tomatoes, a beef steak with a tricolore side dish of vegetables and pistachio, and vanilla and strawberry ice cream.

NGO representatives have taken a pragmatic view in reaction to the conference's culinary delights in the hope that the attendees will part with the billions needed to avert the looming world food crisis.

"Leaders can eat what they want as long as they take decisive action to deliver the policies and the aid in agriculture that is needed to ensure that poor people who are suffering from high food prices are helped," said Alexander Woollcombe, a spokesman for the British aid group Oxfam.

Food riots have been increasing due to skyrocketing inflation, a problem that has been exacerbated by a world-wide rice shortage...

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