World Development Movement blog

DFID's technical fixes won't address the root causes of hunger.

Cameron's approach risks entrenching the root causes of hunger.

The recent plight of British dairy farmers has sparked a debate in some circles about the creation of a fair trade mark for UK products. Yet should we be considering more radical solutions to our global food crisis? 

Arriving in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, the first thing you notice is the extensive swathes of mountainside covered with poorly built, crowded, ad-hoc homes – known locally as the barrios. Caracas’ shanty-town barrios were built in response to the influx of migrants from the countryside during the twentieth century. As Venezuela struck oil in the 1920s, it became easier and cheaper to use oil money to import foodstuffs and so many small farmers lost their livelihoods and poured into the capital in search of work.

Last week, the Scottish government published the results of its first annual target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  It was not good news. The target was missed. In fact greenhouse gas emissions in Scotland had increased by 2%.  

As I approached the registration desk and collected my identity badge I was glad I’d followed my better senses. Blending in as I seated myself and took in the lavish corporate backdrop, it was clear that upholding sartorial conventions is taken seriously. As the Libor scandal envelops the financial world perhaps I wasn’t alone in quipping to myself that these conventions seem to be taken rather more seriously than following financial regulations or, dare I say it, any ethical code.