EU Parliament Agrees With a Report that’s Highly Critical of the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition

 

March 2014, World Development Movement(WDM) campaigners dressed as business people from Monsanto, Diageo, SABMiller and Unilever delivered a cake to the Department For International Development to “thank” the UK government for its support in allowing them to carve up Africa.

In early June the EU Parliament voted to accept a report put out by it’s development committee, in which The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, an initiative of the Obama administration and the G-8, including the Gates Foundation, was heavily criticized for being ineffective as a means for improving world development.

In their article, EU parliament slams aid scheme that uses big agribusiness to ‘feed Africa’, Global Justice Now applauded the decision, as does AGRA Watch, agreeing that the New Alliance is an initiative meant to benefit big agribusiness instead of helping small-scale farmers, and vulnerable communities. It’s past time that world governments are held responsible for the funding of such initiatives that serve their own business interests over those of farmers and local communities.

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Is Corporate Help Africa’s Best Option?

At the June 2012 G8 meeting, President Obama announced his New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, which promises to assist development of African agriculture with the help of large corporate backers. Critics, however, argue that bringing the world’s largest seed and agricultural chemical companies like Monsanto, Syngenta, and DuPont into the picture to help solve hunger in Africa is not the right approach. Disguised under the veil of philanthropy, these large corporations may be looking out more for the success of their businesses rather than the well-being of African farmers. The author of this article notes that while agricultural assistance is certainly needed in Africa, more thought should be put into who should control it.

Read the full story here:

http://www.sacsis.org.za/site/article/1346