Check out Food First's most recent edition of Alternatives to the Green Revolution in Africa newsletter (AAAGRrrr!). In a piece written by Richard Jonasse and Tanya Kerssen, Nourishing the Planet Advisory Group member, Professor Olivier De Schutter, is quoted about the threat of increasing corporate consolidation in the food system and how it puts small farmers at risk.

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Cross posted from BorderJumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

Check out Food First's most recent edition of Alternatives to the Green Revolution in Africa newsletter (AAAGRrrr!). In a piece written by Richard Jonasse and Tanya Kerssen, Nourishing the Planet Advisory Group member, Professor Olivier De Schutter, is quoted about the threat of increasing corporate consolidation in the food system and how it puts small farmers at risk. De Schutter calls on African nations to increase access for farmers to markets and strengthening local and public procurement systems. Food First points out "that the ability-and the willingness-of developing countries to carry out such policies, however, is constrained in part by the enormous influence of the multilateral Aid regime."

"In their struggles for land reform, democracy and food sovereignty, peasant movements must confront not only unaccountable governments and corporations, but powerful philanthropies and international aid institutions that are shaping every imaginable aspect of the political (and actual) landscape," according to the article.

Ultimately, what is needed, says Food First, is "strengthening smallholder agriculture and the social fabric through the promotion of cohesive farmer collectives and smallholder support mechanisms, local control over seed production and research, and stopping land grabs through secure land rights."

Stay tuned for more about innovations that put farmers in the driver's seat in State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet.

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Authors Bio:
BorderJumpers.org began in October 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia -- when Bernard Pollack and Danielle Nierenberg began a journey to visit nearly every country in Africa. At every stop they are meeting with farmers, community organizers, labor activists/leaders, non-governmental organization (NGOs), the funding and donor communities, and local, regional, and international press.

With a Sony handycam, a 8-year old laptop, and sporadic internet connections â€" their goal is to bring stories of hope from across the region to as large an audience as possible. They will tell the stories that aren't being told--from oil workers fighting to have a union in Nigeria to innovative ways farmers and pastoralists are coping with climate change.