Beyond a ‘talk shop’ in Rome

By Nimisha Bastedo How can we make sure that the decisions that are made here actually have an impact? This was the central question during the side event yesterday morning that was called “Towards the Innovative monitoring mechanism of the CFS”. The special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier de Schutter, talked about the risk of reducing the CFS into a “talk shop” if there aren’t...

Fuel before food: The U.S. position on biofuels

By Stevie DuFrense, Becca Haydu, and Cara Weber The issue of biofuels and their impacts on world food security is a contested topic here at CFS 40 in Rome. The text is up for negotiation as civil society works to influence the voting member governments of the CFS. Students from the United States, Becca, Cara and Stevie, have been following U.S. biofuels policy and its impacts on world food...

Hard and Fast Facts – Part 2

by Khristian Méndez The talks and negotiations going on at the FAO Headquarters in Room have changed rooms, have changed voices and have changed tones. After having a few days for Civil Society to try to come to consensus, the texts on the table are now being bracketed and picked apart by Member States, the Private Sector as well as other players. Before my peers carry on delivering a breakdown...

Finding [a][our] Voice?

 By Pablo Aguilera Del Castillo FAO, Rome Day One  Morning 6:30 am. I wake up and get ready for the first day at the conference with the other people in the civil society group, also called the Civil Society Mechanism for the CSF or the Committee on World Food Security. I start revising the background documents with a cappuccino in hand as I wait for the rest of the delegation to come to the...