Eco-farming can double food output by poor: U.N.

Reuters, March 8, 2011

Many farmers in developing nations can double food production within a decade by shifting to ecological agriculture from use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, a U.N. report says.
Insect-trapping plants in Kenya and Bangladesh's use of ducks to eat weeds in rice paddies are among examples of steps taken to increase food for a world population that the United Nations says will be 7 billion this year and 9 billion by 2050. "Agriculture is at a crossroads," according to the study by Olivier de Schutter, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the right to food, in a drive to depress record food prices and avoid the costly oil-dependent model of industrial farming. Read more...

Study suggests pesticides 'crucial' for EU food supply

EurActiv, February 6, 2008

Overly stringent EU rules on pesticides will lead to a decline in European agricultural self-sufficiency resulting in ever-increasing food prices and job losses in the agri-food sector, warns a recent industry-funded study. The findings were immediately rejected by environmental activists, who derided the study as "professional scaremongering" by "lobbyists behaving like a posse of corporate cowboys.". Read more...