Congratulations, Mark!
 Mark Ritchie, IATP's founder and former president, was elected as Minnesota's new Secretary of State on November 7. Congratulations, Mark! A better world is possible.
Greater Water Efficiency
Important for Ethanol's Future
 As the ethanol boom hits the Midwest corn belt, states and local communities should improve monitoring and encourage greater efficiency of water use, finds a new paper by IATP Senior Fellow Dr. Dennis Keeney and Mark Muller, director of IATP's Environment and Agriculture program.
"Despite steady improvements in the efficiency of water use in ethanol plants, the sheer number of new ethanol plants being built has the potential to put a strain on the Corn Belt's water resources," said Dr. Keeney. "The good news is that much of ethanol's water demands can be met with appropriate planning."
The paper found that few states are monitoring water use at ethanol plants and public information is limited. The paper can be found at iatp.org.
Bioeconomy Needs Sustainability Safeguards, Survey Finds
 There is strong support for establishing international sustainability standards for the bioeconomy that ensure the environmental, economic and social benefits are reached, according to an informal survey of representatives from non-governmental organizations, government and businesses by IATP.
In early September, IATP conducted the survey of multiple networks it has developed over the years as part of its international trade, and domestic farm and environmental work. Nearly 300 people responded from over 50 countries. Respondents identified potential positive outcomes for the bioeconomy as less reliance on oil, more jobs for rural communities, and more opportunities for sustainable biomass. Potential negative outcomes included greater use of genetically engineered crops, increased power for multinational agribusiness and energy companies, and more intensive industrialized agriculture.
The full results of the survey are at iatp.org.
International Conference Tackles Sustainable Bioenergy
In October, the UN Foundation and the German NGO Forum hosted a conference on bioenergy in Bonn, Germany. Attendees heard from a broad range of speakers from the WTO, civil society groups and national governments from both the North and the South.
The conference included a number of interesting debates on international sustainable standards for bioenergy and the impact of bioenergy on poor countries. Poor countries pay more for oil imports than they receive in debt relief. The discussion highlighted the importance of displacing imported oil with domestic biofuels production first before considering biofuels for export.
IATP's Jim Kleinschmit, Dennis Olson and Alexandra Strickner attended the conference, and presented IATP's bioenergy survey. Presentations and other information from the conference.
Listen to the Latest Radio Sustain
The November 13 edition of IATP's podcast, Radio Sustain, features Rod Leonard on transfering health inspections from the USDA; Dr. Jiraporn Limananont of Chulalongkorn University on a free trade agreement between Thailand and the U.S.; and Peter Barnes on saving the commons.
Getting More Conservation
out of the Farm Bill
 The 2007 Farm Bill will set U.S. farm policy for the next five to seven years. With a new Congress, pressure from international trade rules, and tightening federal budgets, most policy experts admit they have little idea what direction the Farm Bill will take next year.
According to IATP's Mark Muller, the next farm bill is an important opportunity to reform commodity programs that have an enormous impact on environmental conservation. In a new commentary, Muller writes, "While some of our conservation goals can be met with acreage set-asides and better implementation of Best Management Practices on row crops and livestock, other conservation goals, such as meeting water quality standards and significantly reducing soil degradation, require significant shifts in cropping systems. Wholesale changes in agricultural production systems are not feasible without addressing the underlying commodity policies that inhibit these changes."
The full commentary can be found at iatp.org
Building Sustainable
Futures for Farmers Globally
In preparation for the 2007 U.S. Farm Bill, IATP is working with domestic and international partners on an alternative agricultural trade platform that would address the worldwide farm crisis. This alternative vision would reverse agricultural market deregulation, curtail costly and unsustainable overproduction, and end dumping of crops onto world markets at below the cost of production.
This collaboration, "Building Sustainable Futures for Farmers Globally," has developed a core set of principles based on three international farmers' exchanges held this past summer in Wisconsin, Alabama and Mexico City. Along with the core principles, more detailed policy planks and other background documents have been developed on commodities, sustainable biomass, small farms and diversity, and food aid. A draft legislative package will be released at a kick-off event in Washington, D.C. on December 6 and 7.
See the complete principles, policy options, highlights and photos from this summer's international farmers' exchanges.
Green Revolution for Africa
Risks Repeating Mistakes
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation announced last month that they would jointly invest $150 million to launch a new
"Green Revolution" to increase the productivity of African agriculture. But a new commentary by IATP Senior Advisor Sophia Murphy argues that by focusing narrowly on technological solutions, the initiative risks repeating many of the same mistakes of the last Green Revolution, which left Africa behind.
Murphy writes, "The answer, it seems, is a technical fix: better seed, better distribution of inputs that seed requires, and better science to develop accompanying technologies. But it's important to remember that the achievements of the last Green Revolution came at enormous cost. At the core of last Green Revolution's thinking was the substitution of capital for labor. The focus on high-yielding seeds and imported inputs fostered monocultures, concentrated land holdings, and excluded smaller landowners. But most fundamentally the Green Revolution ignored the issue of market power: the companies who sell the inputs, and buy, process, distribute and retail the food produced were vastly more powerful than the farmers and in turn, extracted much of the economic benefit."
Read the full commentary at IATP's Trade Observatory.
Doha Talks Suspended,
But Delegates Still Busy
Brasília, Kuala Lumpur, Rio de Janeiro, Cairns, Batam, Geneva, Brussels, Washington, are only some of the places where high-level meetings aimed at restarting the stalled Doha trade negotiations have taken place since the de facto suspension of negotiations on July 27. With different groups of countries involved in various discussions with changing priorities, interested groups and citizens around the world are having a hard time following what negotiators are offering.
In the latest Geneva Update, IATP's Trade Information Project outlines what has happened over the last two months at the WTO.
Fair Trade And Hurricane Stan
 Twelve months ago, Hurricane Stan ravaged southwest Guatemala, including the community of La Asociación Maya de Pequeños Agricultores in Santa Anita la Unión, a small coffee producer cooperative and community comprised of 38 families. Their subsistence-level livelihood depends primarily on their coffee production.
Hurricane Stan not only wiped out 25,000 of the 35,000 new coffee plants planted by the community, it also reduced the community's coffee yield by more than 50 percent, leaving its members with neither sufficient income to meet their basic needs nor the resources they need to harvest this year's crop.
IATP's 100 percent fair trade coffee company, Peace Coffee, buys its Guatemalan beans from Santa Anita la Union. Learn more about what Peace Coffee is doing to help the cooperative.
Makeover for
Community Forestry Resource Center
IATP's Forestry program has updated their Community Forestry Resource Center Web site. Check it out at forestrycenter.org.
Promoting Sustainable
Wood Products in the Coulee Region
Consumers express different values when they purchase a product. Value is sometimes defined by price. But some consumers evaluate not only price, but also social and environmental features. Many even seek out products that are ecologically and environmentally sound and support local communities.
IATP's Community Forestry Resource Center (CFRC) has joined with Ray Cox of Northfield Construction to bring together stakeholders to expand the market for sustainable wood products in the Upper Mississippi Coulee Region.
To find out more, read the latest CFRC newsletter (PDF).
Wal-Mart Comes Calling
Wal-Mart announced plans this summer to start selling more organic food at lower prices. IATP's Senior Fellow Richard Levins writes in the latest issue of OFARM Quarterly about what Wal-Mart's entry into the organic market could mean for farmers and consumers.
Levins writes, "With Wal-Mart already the King of Importers, we have to expect this challenge to fair organic prices will involve more organic foods from other countries where the standards are more difficult to check and enforce. The other part of this challenge will no doubt be a direct assault on the organic standards."
Read Levins' full commentary at IATP's Ag Observatory.
Regulating Nanotechnology
 Nanotechnology, manipulating materials on an atomic or molecular scale to build microscopic devices, has made its way into food production. In September, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration requested public comments on how to best regulate nanotechnology in food. In a comment to the FDA, IATP expressed concern that "Nanotechnologies can potentially cause harm at the cellular level, are largely unregulated, and are being introduced into commerce largely without safety testing. Moreover, the broad commercial uses being proposed inevitably will result in nanoparticulate contamination of the human environment."
You can read IATP's full comment to the FDA at IATP's Ag Observatory.
Bioneers in the Midwest
The First North Land Bioneers conference held in Minneapolis in October, featured a keynote speech from IATP's David Wallinga, MD on the role of toxic chemicals in food and children's health. Also, IATP along with the Minnesota Water Alliance and Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (MN chapter) organized an interactive workshop titled "Is Bottled Water Better" to explore the reasons behind increased bottled water consumption and the implications for public water systems.
The North Land conference was one of 16 occurring simultaneously around the country. Read more about the conference.
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Check out what the Star Tribune had to say about IATP's award-winning, 100% organic and fair trade coffee company, Peace Coffee.
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