AP: Federal regulators launch probe of big agriculture
The Associated Press recently reported that the first joint workshops on agriculture by regulators at the U.S. Justice and Agriculture Departments was expected to give farmers, lobbyists, executives and academics a strong indication of where the Obama administration stands on consolidation in agriculture. The administration’s biggest concern has been the concentration of power in rural America. According to the story, farmers felt it was the most attention paid in years to their long-standing complaints that big corporations are choking out smaller players while industry officials and farming groups saw the move as a possible step toward legal action.

The New Vision: Fruit farmers to reap from Coca-Cola, Gates project
A new partnership between Coca-Cola, TechnoServe and the Gates Foundation hopes to enable farmers increase their productivity and double their incomes by 2014. The project is aimed at creating market opportunities for local farmers whose fruit will be used in Coca-Cola’s locally-produced fruit juices, a representative from the company told The New Vision, a Ugandan news Web site. Many multinational corporations import fruit juice concentrate into the country because of the perceived lack of local fruit supply, according to the article. But this partnership could create an attractive long-term opportunity for farmers since there is now a compelling market need for domestically produced mango and passion fruit.

Africa is a Country: Playground Politics
Kids have the unique ability to take the most complex ideas and break them down into the most simple terms. Take, for example, this Funny or Die clip posted on one of the blogs we follow, Africa is a Country, in which children bring satire to an interpretation of the reasons behind the food crisis in sub-Saharan Africa.

New York Times: Threats Lead Food Agency to Curtail Aid in Somalia
The World Food Program announced Tuesday that it was suspending food aid to one million people in southern Somalia after receiving several threats and demands to pay a “security fee” to the Shabab, an Islamic extremist group.  Peter Smerdon, a spokesman for the program, said that the demands had been followed by a rise in intimidation, threats and harassment.  The Shabab pressed a demand that the agency not import food during the harvest season in order to encourage the development of local agriculture. Several previous Shabab statements accused the agency of undermining local agriculture, as well as importing poor quality food.  Smerdon said the agency tried to negotiate with the Shabab and community elders but ultimately made the decision to close several distribution centers.  The suspension is indefinite and will affect about a third of the 2.8 million people that the program anticipated feeding in January.

Farming Matters Magazine: What Is The Future of Family Farming
A debate between Rudy Rabbinge and Fabio Kessler Dal Soglio ensues about whether family farming can essentially compete with large-scale agriculture and feed the growing world population.  For Rabbinge “family farming should not be romanticised. Weeding and ploughing for a meagre crop is not romantic, but pure poverty.  Supporting existing structures and romanticising the poor life of farmers in fact consolidates poverty.”  He says that farmers’ children will move to cities to find other relevant work and farmers will therefore need to increase the scale of their farming.  Dal Soglio says “in general, technologies generated by family farmers are better suited to the local socio-economic and ecological conditions, and therefore are appropriate for sustainable development.”  He believes that family farming technologies adopted have essentially ensured the world’s food supply.

— ARP Staff