CABI Blogs: hand picked... and carefully sorted

Climate change to cause more diet related deaths

A young man in drought conditions in Ethiopia (Author: USAID African Bureau)

We are all told to improve our diet; increasing our fruit and vegetable consumption and reducing our red meat intake. But a new study, ‘Global and regional health effects of future food production under climate change; a modelling study,’ published in The Lancet has revealed that climate change may make eating our 5 a day more challenging, and that subsequent dietary shifts and changes in body weight will lead to more than half a million additional deaths worldwide by 2050.

COP21: Major climate deal agreed in Paris

 

A landmark agreement to limit global temperature rises to below 2 °C has been announced

After two intensive weeks of debate the 21^st Conference of the Parties (COP21) drew to a close on 12^th December with a new climate deal on the table. The ambitious global agreement commits the 195 participating parties to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels, and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C. All but the smallest poorest countries are asked to play their part to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions peak and then begin declining as soon as possible to help achieve the long term temperature goal.

The farmers behind your coffee: what challenges do they face?

1 October 2015 is the very first International Coffee Day. Today, I’ll be swapping my usual cup of tea for coffee and encouraging colleagues to do the same. Many of us can’t start the morning without a coffee. But as you’re drinking your first cup, spare a thought for where this important commodity crop comes from and what it takes to get it from the farm to the cup.

There are an estimated 25 million coffee farmers in the world with more than 100 million people directly or indirectly dependant on the coffee trade for their income. But here’s something you may not know: more than 70% of the world’s coffee supply is produced by smallholder farmers – farmers, usually family farmers, growing a mix of crops to eat and sell, on a small plot of land. These people rely on growing and selling coffee for their livelihoods, using the cash from their coffee to pay for things like food, housing and schooling.

Stakeholders recommend solution to challenges in Ghana’s citrus industry

CABI recently attanded a workshop to avert the total collapse of the citrus industry in Ghana. Along with other organizations, the Ministry of Food and Agriculture is looking for CABI to create innovation platforms to help improve the country's citrus industry. Stakeholders are most concerned about 'angular leaf spot' disease on which CABI has been asked to create guides.