Water Supply Attacks Next Weapon of Mass Destruction

Water supply sabotage is now the new mode of warfare and has the potential to become the next weapon of mass destruction that could kill millions.

Unapproved GM contaminated rice found in US exports to over 30 countries

A new report has revealed that the rice supply in at least 30 countries may have already been contaminated with genetically modified strains from US exports, thereby threatening worldwide contamination.

Fracking: High Methane contamination found in drinking water near shale gas well sites

Some homeowners living near shale gas wells appear to be at higher risk of drinking water contamination from stray gases, according to a new study. Shale gas extraction – a process that includes horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing – has fueled concerns in recent years about contamination of nearby drinking water supplies. The new study is the first to offer direct evidence of ethane and propane contamination.

Sudan Hosts Arab Food Security Conference, Aims to be “Food Basket’ to Arab World

by Staff Reporter May 20, 2013 (TSR) - An Investment and Arab Food Security Conference, organized by the Sudanese Businessmen and Employers Federation (SBOEF), in collaboration with the Arab Chambers...

Arabspring “Legacy” Briefing: Egypt rethinks its subsidy system for the poor

Most of Egyptian consumer goods are imported and with the collapsing pound driven up local inflation, it has put a strain on the Morsi administration. The pressure on the Egyptian currency and total subsidy spending of about $20 billion a year has put the central bank in dire straits. Foreign reserves that stood at $35 billion in January 2011 are now hovering close to $13 billion. Though spending on wheat subsidies has fallen due to the government's drawing on a strategic wheat reserve to keep the ovens on at government bakeries, the wheat reserve now holds enough to supply demand for three more months, down from six months in the middle of last year. Egypt is between a rock and hard place: It needs the $4.8 billion IMF loan to stay afloat, but the international lender is demanding tough subsidy cuts from an already-embattled government. To comply, the Egyptian government has taken tentative steps towards reducing its decades-old circa US$20 billion subsidy system that protects at least eight million Egyptians against poverty, which critics say is unsustainable and enriches the corrupt. Most of the subsidies do not go to the people who really need them already, but the government wants to reduce the budget deficit to 5.5 percent in the 2016-2017 budget from 10.7 percent in the 2012-2013 budget. Forget "democracy". The CIA-backed Arabspring's real and true intention is now unveiled, offering the Egyptians only two options: Bread riots or bankruptcy?

Nano-scientists develop new kind of portable water purification system

Access to clean drinking water is still a major worldwide problem and making it available to everyone would save approximately 2 million lives a year. To help reach the UN millennium development goal of doubling the number of people with sustainable access to safe drinking water by 2015, scientists have been applying nanoparticle technology to the problem.

Imported Water threatens Morocco’s oases farms

The practice of importing freshwater to irrigate crops is widespread throughout much of the world’s arid regions. Governments have invested billions of dollars to construct reservoirs, dams, pipelines, canals and other infrastructure to bring the vital resource from areas where it is plentiful to where it is scarce. For more than 40 years, snowmelt and runoff from Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains has been dammed and redirected hundreds of kilometers to the south to irrigate oases farms in the arid, sub-Saharan Draa Basin. However, these efforts have dramatically increased the natural saltiness of groundwater of the three southernmost farm oases that they endanger the long-term sustainability of date palm farming there as researchers found out.

The Seeds Of Suicide: How U.S. Company Monsanto Destroys Farming, Kills Farmers Around the...

Control over seed is the first link in the food chain because seed is the source of life. When a corporation controls seed, it controls life, especially the life of farmers. Through patents on seed, the American multinational agricultural biotechnology corporation headquartered in Creve Coeur, Missouri called Monsanto has become the “Life Lord” of our planet, collecting rents for life’s renewal from farmers, the original breeders, as Dr. Shiva in India, reports.

Export oil, import water: The Middle East’s risky economics

Trade may have reduced dependency on local water supplies, but it has shifted dependency to international markets and exposed people to fluctuating world prices. It has also hidden the gravity of the water scarcity situation in the Middle East and made it easier to neglect the development of other solutions to a problem that shows no sign of going away. Underground reserves can only last so long, and importing ever increasing amounts of food to feed a growing population is not an option for poorer countries.

Studies Find Wild Bees and Insects Essential to Food Security

Wild pollinators are just as important, and often more efficient, at pollinating crops than domestic honey bee colonies, but bumble bee colonies are vanishing according to Rutgers University research.

The use and abuse of humanitarian principle and the long history of aid manipulation

Feb. 19, 2013 (TSR) - Following the 9/11 attacks and the launch of the Global War on Terror, many humanitarian policy wonks spoke of a new era of heightened...

Five food issues to watch out for

February 19, 2013 (TSR) - Who or what do you blame when the price of maize seems to keep going through the roof? If you did not mention fuel...