CSM

Reform, Resistance, Resiliance

Eric Accardi November 6, 2014 0 Comments

By Eric Accardi // “Distinguished ministers, honorable delegates and observers, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen” announced Gerda Verburg, CFS chair, as the commencement of the forty first Plenary Session of the Committee on World Food Security began at the FAO here in Rome, Italy 2014. I was sitting in the middle of an international meeting, and became overwhelmed with the representation...

Lessons from Language: CFS41 in Hindsight

khristian November 1, 2014 0 Comments

by Khristian Méndez // Two weeks ago, Chairperson Gerda Verburg was wrapping up CFS41 in a room that had perhaps a third of the people who were there on opening day. An exhausting experience, this plenary session of the CFS planted several ideas in me about language. If you like numbers, ghosts, or interpretation, keep reading. Numerical Language Days of negotiations: 8. Average number of...

The Hidden Value of Words

khristian November 1, 2014 0 Comments

by Grace Burchard // When I first walked into the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, I was unsure of what to expect. I had never been to a formal policy debate, so my nerves were high, my heart frantically pounding blood through my system to allow my brain to take in the surroundings. The first thing I noticed about the Food and Agriculture Organization building was the...

Lost and Wasteful

khristian October 15, 2014 0 Comments

by Khristian Mendez // I spent most of the day yesterday with the Civil Society working group of Food Losses and Waste. We left the building at 11pm, carrying behind us the dread of a horrible round of negotiations. We lost a few battles, in favor of wasteful systems. Food Losses and Waste is one of those topics that sounds pretty: all we have to do is waste less food, right? That was my initial...

Let us walk out of the hunger map

khristian October 14, 2014 2 Comments

by khristian mendez // A world free from hunger and malnutrition. That is what we are here to imagine. Yesterday, the 41st Session of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS41) began. We heard introductions by Gerda Verbug, the Director-General of FAO José Graziano da Silva, and the heads of other Rome-based agencies. The State of Food Insecurity 2014, a report usually presented at this...