Agdes Tweeting

As you probably notice, I started Tweeting a couple weeks ago. I feel this is an excellent way to keep up with the volumes of interesting material coming out of the web. I added a Twitter fed so you can check out articles and random things I'm following. And just a couple days, Oxfam twitted about my article on local procurement!



RT @niawag2011: Sending Cash, Not Corn: A Smarter & Cheaper

Sending Cash, Not Corn

My piece advocating for food aid reform and urging the congress to switch to local and regional procurement just got published by The Morningside Post. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Four Years into Purchase for Progress

See below a good overview about the United Nations World Food Program approach to local procurement - the Purchase for Progress or P4F. This is an excellent model to replicate as the Congress considers reforming food aid in its 2012 farm bill negotiations. 

The End of Groundhog Day? Reforming American Food Aid

Washington DC, Th  Dec 5th,
2012  










Alternative content

Agdes now Tweets!

Follow this blog at @agdesblog. More updates coming soon.




"Can We Feed the World?" Looking forward to reading Sir Gordon Conway's latest book #AGRF2012http://t.co/WfmYCOzu32 minutes ago
Kofi Annan remind us about the importance of investing in agriculture - check out his wise remarks @KofiAnnanhttp://t.co/BDvb2mAH#AGRF2012 44 minutes ago

You’re on top of it: Land Rights in Mozambique

When you read about Mozambique’s agricultural potential it’s hard not to get a sense that the projections are too optimistic. You read about the Beira and the Nancala corridors and their vast swats unused land and wonder why haven’t those corridors become the bread basket of the region already? Why is it that with the growing urban demand, the increasing international commodity prices and the

NYT: Drought & the American Farmer

An excellent short video portraying the difficulties many American farmers are facing right now:

How to Make your Peanuts Unforgettable

Togolese Peanuts

Back in 2007 I had the opportunity to visit Togo - one of those countries in West Africa you don't hear much about. And there is a reason for that: Compared to its neighbors, Togo does not have much to offer.

There is, however, one thing that has stayed with me since that morning when I walked along the streets of Lome: the amazing taste of SAND-ROASTED PEANUTS. These 

Flood Tolerance Rice: Showcasing the IRRI's Vital Research

Communicating Nutrition: From London to Maputo

One of the things that went unnoticed about the London Olympics was a great event organized by DFID and the British government, showcasing the importance of tacking global chronic malnutrition. This was part of a larger effort coordinated by the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement.

Mozambique's agriculture minister attended the event and we helped draft his remarks arguing for a better

12 Innovations to Combat Drought, Improve Food Security, and Stabilize Food Prices

This post originally appeared on Worldwatch Institute Blog. 



Worldwatch Institute highlights 12 ways to make the U.S. agriculture system more resilient to drought and, in the long run, more sustainable.



Soaring temperatures and low precipitation could not occur at a worse time for many farmers in the United States. Intensifying drought conditions are affecting corn and soybean crops

Mozambique Thought Series: Sopa do Planos – (Strategies soup)

This is the first one of a series of reflections about my internship in Mozambique. I apologies to readers as the blog has been quite neglected in the past couple months. However, time permitting, I intend to get back to my normal posting habits. Tell me what you think!


Try the following: google ‘Mozambique government strategy’,
grab a shield, and hit enter. You will be bombarded with hundreds

No sustainable development without eradication of hunger and extreme poverty

Cheers from Mozambique. I've has been taking a break from blogging after a semester filled with term papers and other writing requirements that left me with little appetite for writing. However, i'm getting ready to report on my summer in Mozambique, working on issues of nutrition and food security. Stay tuned! In the mean time, enjoy this great piece by the heads of UN agencies working on food

Map of Global Food Retailers

Impressive graphic from the Convergence Alimentaire 

EARTH SUMMIT at Columbia University

For those readers in NY, make sure you sign up for a great event I'm helping organize:

Columbia Earth Summit: A Call to Action
April 25, 2012 12:30-6:00pm
Low Memorial Library

As we face a growing number of environmental challenges, we believe that the solutions will come from partnerships between public, private and academic sectors. On April 25, 2012 at Columbia University experts, thought

Grains and Leaves: Weekly Ag-Related News, Events, and Others

My piece on Earth Institute blog State of the Planet: Growing Food, Protecting the Land in Africa
From Science Daily: Feeding the World While Protecting the Planet: Global Plan for Sustainable Agriculture
Great piece by Roger Thurow: Outrage and Inspire - "Food Aid's Evolution: Landing a One-Two Punch Against Hunger"



EcoAgriculture blog also has a list of things about how to feed the world:

PBS's New Hour on Program to Help African Farmers Reach New Markets

Watch Business Fund Puts African Farmers on Road to Market on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

HIghlights from The Economist "Feeding the World" Conference

Find out more information about this great even HERE

Clemens' False Dichotomy about Debates in Development

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend  NYU's conference “Debates in Development.”
The agenda included Yaw Nyarko and William Easterly from NYU's Development Research Institute, Stewart Paperin, Open Society Foundations, Bernadette Wanjala, Tilburg University Development Research Institute; Andrew Rugasira, Founder and Chairman, Good African Coffee; Abhijit Banerjee, MIT's Poverty

Grains and Leaves: Weekly Ag-Related News, Events, and Others

Check out Farming First's excellent guide to understand global Food Security Initiatives and tell me what you think about their Food Security Statement
Gordon
Conway argues about the importance of continued support for agriculture
development in Africa and presents the latest  Montpelier Report Growth with Resilience: Opportunities in African Agriculture
Read the The Guardian's coverage of the

Focus on Farmers to Feed the World by 2050

The Female Face of Farming

Check out this cool initiative started by FAO and Farming First about the role of women in food production.

Also, IFPRI just published a great book, Reshaping Agriculture for Nutrition and Health, about the linkages that exist between these sectors. 

Grains and Leaves: Weekly Ag-Related News, Events, and Others

The Economist The Guardian and FT write about nutrition after Save the Children publishes A Life Free From Hunger: Tackling Child Malnutrition  
“Just because we can produce more on less doesn’t mean people will stop expanding (land for crops)” Says Ruth Defries from The Earth Institute referring to a common misconception about increases in productivity lead to less deforestation.
Gates

A História da Agricultura e a Economia Verde

Check out the English version HERE of this great video

Brazil's Most Valuable Export: Fome Zero and its Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos da Agricultura Familiar (PAA)

With funding from Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), the country's foreign aid agency,  WFP and FAO are rolling out a new food security program modeled after the successful Programa de  Aquisição de Alimentos da Agricultura Familiar (PAA). PAA, Family Agriculture Food Procurement Program, connects smallholder farmers with school feeding programs by purchasing their products at a subsidized

Mozambique's Soybean Potential

As some of you know, I'll be traveling to Mozambique over the summer to work on a new UN initiative named REACH - Renew Efforts Against Child Hunger. The overall goal of REACH is to facilitate better governance and management of nutrition programs and ensure that UN agencies (FAO, WFP, UNICEF, and WHO) are coordinating their nutrition interventions.

With more than 40% of children under five

Grains and Leaves: Weekly Ag-Related News, Events, and Others

As my semester keeps getting busier Agdes has suffered from serious neglect. However, I'll try to continue blogging about some cool things happening this year: I'll be starting an internship at the Earth Institute's Tropical Agriculture and Rural Environment Program. Over the summer, I'll also be going to Rome and Mozambique as part of a internship placement with the UN's Renewed Efforts Against

After the Hiatus

The break is over and I'm back in NYC after a wonderful time in Milwaukee and Nicaragua. So after this winter break Agdes has a lot of catching up to do. I'll be writing about my visit to Growing Power in Milwaukee; some of the work I did in Nicaragua; and a paper I wrote about the new push for integrated rural development.

I will also continue compiling the Grains and Leaves series: a