Food and Agriculture Organization
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Bioenergy > International cooperation > Organizations > Food and Agriculture Organization
Information about biofuels and bioenergy and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Contents |
Activities
- Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) - FAO serves as the secretariat for the GBEP.
- Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) project - analyzes "linkages between bioenergy and food security"
Events
2008
- 10 November - 7 December 2008, online: FAO E-mail conference on agricultural biotechnologies and bioenergy. (Themes: agriculture, biotechnology, FAO)
- 3-5 June 2008, Rome, Italy: High-Level Conference on World Food Security and the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy - (Themes: food security, climate change). Organized by FAO. To be preceded by a series of expert meetings and stakeholder consultations; see meetings schedule.
News
June 2009
- OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2009 Analyzes Interactions between Food Prices, Energy Markets and Biofuel Policies, 22 June 2009 by Climate-L.org: "The 15th edition of the [OECD]-UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Agricultural Outlook addresses, among other issues, the interdependence between food and energy markets and the possible impacts of expanding demand for biofuels on agricultural commodity prices."
- "The summary notes that agricultural commodity prices will be influenced by energy prices, in particular prices for crude oil....Higher oil prices would also lead to higher demand for food crops as feedstocks for biofuels. The report suggests that biofuel demand will, however, depend on other factors such as government mandated use, changes in policy interventions and advances in second generation technology development. A projected rapid expansion of mandated biofuel use will continue to have inflating price impacts for feedstocks such as wheat, maize, oilseeds and sugar."[1]
- Food security and bio-fuels top G8 agriculture talks, 18 April 2009 by Earth Times: "Ensuring global food security, and the role played by bio-fuels in curbing harmful climate change, dominated talks Saturday during the first-ever meeting of agriculture ministers from the Group of Eight (G8)."
- "The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has warned that 2009 could witness price hikes similar to those in 2008 which triggered food riots in dozens of countries."
- "A policy document, prepared by the Italian presidency ahead of the talks had mentioned calls for 'immediate interventions' aimed at doubling by 2050 global agriculture production to ensure that the world's fast-growing population [will] have enough to eat."[2]
- World needs to rethink biofuels - U.N. food agency, 7 October 2008 by Reuters: "The Western world needs to rethink its rush to biofuels, which has done more harm pushing up food prices than it has good by reducing greenhouse gases, a United Nations report said on Tuesday."
- "The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said policies encouraging biofuel production and use in Europe and the United States was likely to maintain pressure on food prices but have little impact on weaning car users away from oil."
- "'The report finds that while biofuels will offset only a modest share of fossil energy use over the next decade they will have much bigger impacts on agriculture and food security,' it said in its annual State of Food and Agriculture report."
- "Biofuels' rise could provide an opportunity for farmers in developing countries to develop the new cash crops, the report said, but that would only happen if subsidy regimes were changed to favour poorer countries rather than richer ones."[3]
- FAO Calls for Information on Underutilized Bioenergy Crops, 21 August 2008 by Climate-L.org: "The Global Partnership Initiative for Plant Breeding Capacity Building (GIPB)...in collaboration with the FAO Inter-Departmental Working Group on Bioenergy, has called for expanded, up-to-date information on genetic resources and breeding of selected underutilized species, together with detailed analysis of their potential as bioenergy crops adaptable to sustainable smallholder production systems."
- "Letters of Intention may be submitted to GIPB by 1 September 2008." Guidelines available here.
- U.N. Report Seeks Action to Address Food Crisis, 29 May 2008 by New York Times: "In anticipation of a global summit on the food crisis, the United Nations called on world leaders Wednesday to agree to urgent measures to ease demand for grains and alleviate high food prices."
- "The report, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, suggests that countries might need to reconsider policies that encourage the production of ethanol and other biofuels."
- Read the FAO report: Soaring Food Prices: Facts, Perspectives, Impacts and Actions Required (PDF file)
- "The report, by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, suggests that countries might need to reconsider policies that encourage the production of ethanol and other biofuels."
- FAO unveils new bioenergy assessment tool - Weighs impact on food security, 8 February 2008, FAO press release: "A decision-support tool developed by FAO will help ensure that countries can enter the rapidly growing field of bioenergy industry to produce benefits for the poor without jeopardizing their food security....The tool, an “analytical framework” designed by a team of economists...was unveiled at a two-day experts’ meeting of FAO’s Bioenergy and Food Security (BEFS) project."
- "A prerequisite for running the framework is the establishment of a bioenergy development scenario....The analytical framework then makes it possible, through five steps, to assess: technical biomass potential; biomass production costs; the economic bioenergy potential; macro-economic consequences; national and household-level impact and consequences on food security."
- "The framework will be field-tested in three countries – Peru, Thailand and Tanzania – before the analytical framework methodology is made available to the international community at large."
Reports
- The State of Food and Agriculture - Biofuels: prospects, risks and opportunities; Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations (UN), Rome, 2008.
- OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2008-2017 (PDF file) - This report finds that the "energy security, environmental and economic benefits of biofuels production based on agricultural commodity feed stocks are at best modest, and sometimes even negative."[4]
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