Agriculture And Food Security Publications and Resources

Communities and the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety
February 7, 2025 - Antonio La VIna, World Resources Institute
This working paper provides an overview of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety, an international agreement expected to come into force by the end of 2003, with an emphasis on its implications and significance for poor communities worldwide. Because of its subject matter – the regulation of the transboundary movement (export and import) of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) from one country to another, the Protocol could have an enormous impact on the food, livelihood and environmental security of communities in both developed and developing countries. This working paper analyzes the key challenges raised by modern biotechnology, the benefits and risks the technology poses to communities, and the opportunities for maximizing benefits and minimizing risks that are provided by the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety.  Read publication...

Water Justice for All
March 31, 2025 - Friends of the Earth International
Major new publication from Friends of the Earth International, in pdf format.  Read publication...

Africa Policy for a new Era: Ending Segregation in U.S. Foreign Relations
January 29, 2025 - Africa Action
Founded in xxxAfrica Action is the oldest advocacy organization on African affairs in the U.S. This document, produced by defines an agenda for U.S. Africa policy for a new era. It provides an overview of current challenges and offers recommendations for U.S. policy on priority issues and areas. It affirms Africa ’s importance to the U.S. and outlines what is required of the U.S. to engage collaboratively and effectively with its African partners.  Read publication...

From Doha to Cancun: The WTO Trade Negotiations and Communties
August 31, 2024 - Antonio la Vina and Vicente Paolo Yu III, World Resources Institute
This working paper gives an overview of the results of the Fourth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Meeting in Doha, Qatar, held 9 to 14 November 2001. It looks at the political context of the ministerial meeting, identifies the key actors and stakeholders in the WTO processes, and provides an analysis of the issues being negotiated under the so-called “Doha Development Round”.  Read publication...

The Emerging Global Regime on Genetic Resources and Local Communities
August 31, 2024 - Antonio La VIna, World Resources Institute
This briefing paper gives an overview of the emerging global regime on genetic resources, with a special emphasis on its implications for local and impoverished communities worldwide.  Read publication...

Porto Alegre & Beyond: Following up on the World Social Forum
November 22, 2024 - Interhemispheric Resource Center
The growing profile of citizen-based agendas in global affairs represents one of the most promising developments in the international arena. This "Citizen Action in the Americas Discussion Paper" reports on an annual gathering that has become a prominent space for citizens' movements to meet and develop strategies for a more hopeful future: the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre.  Read publication...

The National Security Strategy of the United States of America
September 1, 2024 - U.S. Government
The National Security Strategy was issued by the White House in September.  Read publication...

Global Backlash: Citizen Initiatives for a Just World Economy
October 10, 2024 - Edited by Robin Broad, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Global Backlash is the first book to move beyond the monolithic portrayal of the globalization protests that have escalated since Seattle and are not likely to abate soon.  Read publication...

Giving Away the Farm: The 2002 Farm Bill
September 25, 2024 - Anuradha Mittal, Institute for Food and Development Policy
The bill's potential for good pales in comparison to the damage it will do. Overall, the new bill fails the nation's family farmers, consumers, taxpayers, and environment. It further destabilizes family farmers and rural communities around the world.  Read publication...

Living Economies
August 29, 2024 - YES! magazine
The fall issue of YES! magazine brings alive alternatives to what lead author David Korten calls the global suicide economy. This issue of YES! features stories on how communities from Brazil to Appalachia, from Argentina to Vermont are building living economies that value life and community.  Read publication...

African Civil Society Declaration on NEPAD
July 8, 2025
African civil society organizations declare their resistance to the "New Economic Partnership for Africa's Development" (Nepad), and push for demands that they think better address development, democracy, human rights and peace in Africa.  Read publication...

Update on Citizens’ Campaigns on the FTAA
July 3, 2025 - Karen Hansen-Kuhn, ART/DGAP
Representatives of the Hemispheric Social Alliance (HSA) and other social movements met recently in Quito, Ecuador for the purpose of exchanging information on their respective popular-education campaigns on the potential impacts of and alternatives to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). They also discussed the coordination of those campaigns at the hemispheric level and developed plans around a major civil-society forum to be held parallel to the official meeting of trade ministers on the FTAA in late October.  Read publication...

Social Movements and Regional Integration in the Americas
June 18, 2025 - Beverly Bell, Center for Economic Justice
This paper explores the status of cross-border social movements in the Americas in an era of globalization.  Read publication...

The Policy Roots of Economic Crisis and Poverty
May 21, 2025 - Structural Adjustment Participatory Review International Network (SAPRIN)
A multi-country participatory assessment based on the results of a joint World Bank/Civil Society/Government Structural Adjustment Participatory Review Initaitive (SAPRI) and the Citizen's Assessment of Structural Adjustment (CASA)  Read publication...

Managing the Invisible Hand - Markets, Farmers and International Trade
April 1, 2025 - Sophia Murphy, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
The current global agriculture trade agreement will not succeed in helping farmers and broad-based economic development until it addresses market power by transnational corporations, finds a new report released today by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.  Read publication...