Category Archives: Policy

How viable are schemes to give poor people making and selling ‘informal’ milk greater market access?
A4NH / AHH / Buffalo / Cattle / Consumption / Dairying / East Africa / Food Safety / Food Security / Human Health / ILRI / India / Kenya / Livelihoods / Markets / Nutrition / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Report / South Asia / Tanzania / Trade / Value Chains

How viable are schemes to give poor people making and selling ‘informal’ milk greater market access?

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A new report from ILRI and IIED reviews the effectiveness of training and certification schemes designed to give small-scale ‘informal’ sellers of ‘raw’ and/or boiled or informally pasteurized milk and (in India) milk sweets greater market access in East Africa and South Asia. The report reviews such schemes in Kenya and Tanzania and in the state of Assam, in northwestern India. In all three countries, the informal sector dominates dairy marketing and trade and informal milk production and trade contribute significantly to the employment, livelihoods and nutrition of many millions of poor people. Continue reading →

More on why outright banning of ‘wet markets’ (while ‘giving virologists the heebie-jeebies’) won’t work
Advocacy / Africa / Agri-Health / AHH / Animal Products / Asia / China / Consumption / COVID19 / Food Safety / Human Health / ILRI / Markets / News clipping / OneHealth / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Uganda / Zoonotic Diseases

More on why outright banning of ‘wet markets’ (while ‘giving virologists the heebie-jeebies’) won’t work

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Many virologists do not want to see a blanket ban on wet markets. Rather, they prefer a more nuanced approach and more narrow regulation to control their most dangerous aspects. To understand why, it helps to unpick what wet markets are, and their role in the feeding of billions of people. Continue reading →

Wildlife markets in the pandemic: Prohibit or preserve them? Ban or promote them?
Advocacy / Agri-Health / AHH / AMR / Animal Products / Consumption / COVID19 / Directorate / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Environment / Food Safety / Food Security / Human Health / ILRI / Markets / Nutrition / OneHealth / Opinion piece / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Wildlife / Zoonotic Diseases

Wildlife markets in the pandemic: Prohibit or preserve them? Ban or promote them?

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ILRI and UN experts say preserve and protect the world’s ‘informal markets’ AND invest and enhance these markets, which provide billions of people
with food and incomes. Continue reading →

Getting beyond ’empty signifiers’—Food policy expert Corinna Hawkes asks: What are food systems for?
Advocacy / Agri-Health / Agriculture / Article / Diet / Opinion piece / Policy

Getting beyond ’empty signifiers’—Food policy expert Corinna Hawkes asks: What are food systems for?

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Corinna Hawkes, director of the Centre for Food Policy at City, University of London, UK, asks all of us concerned with ‘food systems’ of one kind or another to think beyond ’empty signifiers’, even beyond visions for better food systems, and to get back to a fundamental question—what should be the purpose of food systems? If we can reach agreement on that, she argues, we can then set about creating diverse visions and actions, suiting diverse circumstances, for fulfilling that agreed-upon purpose. Continue reading →

Australian body calls for RENEWABLE FOOD (aka ‘regenerative agriculture’ or ‘circular food economies’) as well as renewable energy
Advocacy / Agri-Health / Agriculture / Australia / Consumption / Event report / Food Security / Human Health / Nutrition / Policy

Australian body calls for RENEWABLE FOOD (aka ‘regenerative agriculture’ or ‘circular food economies’) as well as renewable energy

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The Commission for the Human Future’s second round table conference on global threats and solutions has called for a worldwide effort to transform global food production to a system that is renewable, healthy and fair to all. Continue reading →

Scientists stress need, amid COVID-19, to maintain focus on everyday zoonotic diseases of the world’s poor
Africa / Agri-Health / AHH / Brucellosis / COVID19 / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Human Health / ILRI / News clipping / OneHealth / Opinion piece / Policy / Pro-Poor Livestock / Trypanosomiasis / Zoonotic Diseases

Scientists stress need, amid COVID-19, to maintain focus on everyday zoonotic diseases of the world’s poor

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Most diseases that transmit from animals to humans (zoonoses) are not of the headline-grabbing, world-stopping variety write Eric Fèvre and Naomi Marks. They are an everyday reality for millions of people whose lives are quietly blighted or prematurely ended by diseases transmitted through farming and food systems. Continue reading →

FOOD SAFETY: In support the traditional—and essential—food markets of low-income countries
A4NH / Advocacy / Agri-Health / AHH / Article / Disease Control / Event / Food Safety / Human Health / ILRI / Markets / Policy / Southeast Asia / Vietnam

FOOD SAFETY: In support the traditional—and essential—food markets of low-income countries

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On this World Food Safety Day (7 June 2020), staff of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) make the case for supporting traditional markets to improve food safety. Continue reading →

Disease outbreaks linked to degraded ecosystems: A problem ALL of us are driving and ALL of us need to solve
Agri-Health / Article / Biodiversity / COVID19 / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Environment / Food Security / Human Health / Intensification / Policy / Wildlife / Zoonotic Diseases

Disease outbreaks linked to degraded ecosystems: A problem ALL of us are driving and ALL of us need to solve

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While the world’s attention is focused on controlling COVID-19, evidence points at the biodiversity crisis as a leading factor in its emergence. At first glance, the two issues might seem unrelated, but disease outbreaks and degraded ecosystems are deeply connected. Continue reading →

Food—a ‘hyper-local issue’—needs to keep MOVING, ‘from farm to fork’, says the World Bank’s Juergen Voegele
Article / CGIAR / Consumption / COVID19 / Food Security / Policy / Trade / Value Chains

Food—a ‘hyper-local issue’—needs to keep MOVING, ‘from farm to fork’, says the World Bank’s Juergen Voegele

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On a recent World Bank ‘Voices’ blog, German agricultural economist Juergen Voegele, World Bank vice president for sustainable development, said that with the emptying of supermarket shelves and the sweeping travel bans being put in place to try to stem the spread of COVID-19, one might deduce that global food supplies were low. That’s not the case, he says. Continue reading →