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Make 2018 Your Year of Adventure. Save $150 when you Book Now - Learn More >
Ski surrounded by the Dolomites' jagged peaks
Our most popular cross-country skiing centre, Dobbiaco, is a charming town set at 1200m amid the unique scenery of the Dolomites, in the Alta Pusteria region. Days are spent following a variety of ski tracks deep in the heart of the mountains, with their towering limestone walls and jagged peaks of coloured stone. Our base for the week is the welcoming hotel run by the Tschurtschenthaler family, where warm hospitality and comfortable surroundings provide the perfect balance to an active itinerary.
Click on the button below for detailed Trip Notes containing all the particulars about this trip, including kit lists and practical information.
Note: these can vary by departure; you can check out the specific Trip Notes for your chosen adventure on the dates & prices page.
Holiday provided exactly what I wanted. Confidence to master the basics of a new and demanding...
Now, I realised pretty quickly that I am NOT the demographic that Exodus aims for. I am fat and...
Another good holiday with good company and extremely knowledgeable group leaders. Extremely good...
This was a really good week of my two weeks. A good mixture of skiing and valuable instruction...
A fantastic week of beginners skiing around the Dolomites. We had excellent tuition from Alex,...
Alex our tour leader was brilliant. He was bright, cheerful, knowledgeable, creative and above...
We had a brilliant week, cross country skiing in Italy. Unfortunately there was not much snow,...
A really well organised week of cross-country skiing with excellent leaders, a great group of...
Exodus employ some really great people to lead their trips , but those of us who booked a week in...
At Exodus we believe in the power of Responsible Travel.
Every time we travel, we are part of a global movement that creates jobs, builds more sustainable societies, encourages cultural understanding and safeguards common natural and cultural heritage. To learn more about what Responsible Travel means to Exodus click here…
Our trip starts in the lovely village of Dobbiaco, in South Tyrol, just over the border from Austria.
Each day our leader chooses routes according to the grade and snow conditions. Many kilometres of easy track along the valleys offer wonderful options for beginners and improvers. For the more advanced skiers, there are more challenging routes, such as the track that leads south to Cortina d'Ampezzo, a memorable route among spectacular mountains, passing under the triple rock buttresses of the imposing Tre Cime di Lavaredo.
Usually today is the free day to relax at the hotel or enjoy optional activities such as self-guided snowshoeing or perhaps a visit to one of the local museum.
The Sexten and Prags valleys offer a choice of undulating routes in typical Dolomites scenery and the high Plaetzwiese Plateau also offers superb routes at about 2000m.
Our trip ends in Dobbiaco.
No visa required for British passport holders.
Please note in Italy it is compulsory to carry ID with you at all times.
No visa required for British passport holders.
There are no specific health risks.
All breakfast and evening meals are included.
An ample buffet breakfast prepares us for the exertions of the day ahead. The excellent evening meals draw equally on Italian and Austrian traditions. They are usually made up of 4-courses, but it is always possible to skip one if you want a lighter dinner. For lunch our leaders will take us to a variety of cafes or huts where we can enjoy some traditional Tyrolean dishes as well as some international classics.
Dobbiaco is situated at 1200m and at this height snow can lie from December to mid-March, with fresh snowfalls at any time. Average daytime temperatures in winter are around -5ºC, though they can fall as low as -15ºC, with approximately 8 to 10 hours of daylight. At all times of the winter you can hope for periods of clear bright weather and in February and March it can become surprisingly warm in the sun. Equally, at all times you need to be ready for the occasional stormy day.
Snow conditions have been quite unpredictable across Europe for several years now and on occasions not all loipen (tracks) are open. The snow conditions may mean that at times we have to travel further away to find good tracks. While this has so far never been necessary in the region, we also recommend taking trekking boots in case conditons are simply not good enough for skiing.
Compared to those used for downhill, cross-country skis are longer, thinner and lighter with bindings that allow you to lift up your heel. Most cross-country skiing is undertaken on prepared tracks (loipe) covering flat and hillier terrain enabling you explore the winter landscapes away from the confines of the alpine pistes.
Exodus offers cross-country skiing holidays to suit a wide range of technical and physical levels. Our cross-country skiing grades reflect both the level of physical fitness required and the level of skiing experience required. They are comparable to the activity levels we use on our snowshoeing, cycling, activity and trekking holidays, however we believe a slightly different system is required, due to the tuition we provide on our holidays. This sets our cross-country skiing holidays apart, as we tend not to need to teach people how to ride a bike or walk. The aim remains to create groups of similar ability and fitness. Our descriptions are below, however feel free to call and speak to an expert if you are unsure which grade or type of holiday will suit you best.
At Dobbiaco, there are four grades of skiing offered, ranging from beginner to intermediate and advanced. Availability varies and depending on the dates there may be two leaders offering two different grades or one leader offering a single cross-country skiing grade. Please check the grade of skiing that applies to your selected week via our website: www.exodus.co.uk/holidays/cxd/dates-prices
Grade 1 - Beginners
A week for complete beginners. Inevitably we start with the basics, including how to stop using the snowplough technique and how to turn. You will be on skis for at least 5-6 hours a day with a focus on tuition, getting comfortable on skis and building towards longer tours through the winter landscape.In some centres there may also be some easy off track skiing. This involves heading off the pre-cut tracks, typically across frozen lakes or snow covered pastures.
Grade 2 - Improvers
These weeks are ideal for those who have enjoyed at least one grade 1 holiday and grasped the basics. They offer tuition to refresh and improve technique and typically will ski a little further than Grade 1 weeks, and over more varied terrain, i.e more ups and downs and therefore requiring a slightly higher level of fitness. In some cases these weeks are acceptable for newcomers to cross-country skiing. Beginners on these weeks should be very fit and proficient in sports that develop balance - ice-skating, roller-skating or roller skiing and will need to pick up the basic technique quickly. Please contact us if you wish to book a Grade 2 holiday but have not skied before.
Grade 3 - Intermediates
A grade 3 week is ideal for those looking to push on, tackle some slightly steeper terrain and cover more ground each day. Typical groups will have a few weeks skiing behind them, be very comfortable with the basics and happy on longer day tours. There will still be tuition on these weeks, at the required level.
Grade 4 - Advanced
Choose this level if you can tackle 'ups and downs' competently, manage a controlled snowplough descent, and if you want to ski at a lively pace. You should also be able to get up swiftly and easily by yourself after a fall. The mix of track and off-track skiing varies.
This fine hotel has been welcoming our groups for many years. The attractive building is traditionally styled, but with the advantages of a small swimming pool, sauna and beauty treatment room (treatments not included). An ample buffet breakfast prepares us for the exertions of the day ahead and evening meals draw equally on Italian and Austrian traditions. After dinner you can relax in the lounge or go through to the bar for a drink with the locals. All rooms have en suite facilities and are comfortably furnished.
UpgradesSuperior rooms offer more spacious accommodation and are available for a supplement, depending on departure. In order to guarantee availability, please inform Exodus when booking and note this is payable before departure.
Single Accommodation
Single accommodation available on request for a supplement.
Discover four new ways to see the world in winter!
A special type of magic descends over cities in winter.
The elusive, otherworldly glow of the Northern Lights is described by some as the greatest light show on earth.
Capturing a white, wintry landscape on camera can be a challenge.
Ski through the magnificent Norwegian wilderness
Guided Group
Walk in Italy's most spectacular mountain range


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California Auto Centers
ReScore Reviews™ (1)
98% Would Recommend
Latest Review about 6 hours ago
Review for California Auto Centers
KATHY C. on 03/02/2015
"Honest and friendly service and staff"
Had some major work on our car. Although they kept our car a week, the service was done right and we are happy with the way the car runs now.
Vehicle: Dodge Pickup
Service Date: 02/18/2015
Review Created: 03/02/2015 11:27 AM


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The Sledmate XT Men's Jacket has a weatherproof 400D outer shell and reliable insulation throughout. This jacket also has large Velcro waist adjustment and a low profile neck for comfortable helmet use. The jacket also has two front main zippers and a main zipper storm flap.
- Mens XT jacket
- Weatherproof 400D outer shell construction
- Reliable insulation throughout
- Large velcro wrist adjustments
- Low profile neck for comfortable helmet use
- Two front main pockets
- Main zipper storm flap
- D ring front
- Available in sizes S - 3XL


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Cell Phone Addiction
Constantly connected to your cell phone; you might be one screen swipe away from rehab.
Researchers at the University of Washington say they noticed an extreme increase on the frequency and amount of time people spend on their phones. So much so that they say cell phone use is becoming an addiction and can make you anti-social, stressed and anxious. Traits usually attributed to people addicted to drugs or alcohol.
According to the study there are four warning signs you should watch out for in yourself and friends and family. For example; anticipation. Researchers say it's a problem if you are constantly thinking about the calls or messages you might receive before they even happen.
Researchers say you should try to find ways to limit your cell phone time. For example when you go out with a group of friends put all your phones in the middle of the table; the first person to reach for their device has to pay the entire bill. Check out the other warning signs below; just maybe not on your phone.
Four Warning Signs of Cell Phone Addiction
From MSN Living
Anticipation: Frequently thinking about calls or messages you may receive.
Activity interference: Choosing to spend time on your phone rather than talk to friends or family or engage in other activities.
Emotional reaction: Becoming angry when someone interrupts your phone time, or feeling irritated when not on your phone.
Problem Recognition: Recognizing you spend too much time on your phone and trying to cut back.


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DESCRIPTION: These ferocious fish average from 25 inches to 36 inches in length, with many being caught at 40+ inches. Locally known as a "jackfish", this species is somewhat torpedo shaped and green in colour with white spots along its sides. As a distinct predator, its large eyes sit high on its broad head, and has a large mouth with many razor sharp teeth. This fish has a row of tiny pores under its lower jaw which usually amounts to 5 on each side, never exceeding 11. This is the most definite key characteristic to use in differentiating between a Northern Pike and a Muskie.
DISTRIBUTION: Northern Pike are found on all 9 lakes that we fish, but greater numbers exist on Lac Seul, Abram, Pelican, and Minnitaki Lakes. They spawn in early spring when water temperatures are 40° F to 52° F, usually immediately after ice-out. As the weed beds grow in shallow bays, the Northern Pike settle into them where they find cover and abundant prey. They are also caught in deep waters (often while jigging for Walleyes) and on sand bars where they like to sun themselves. Fall initiates these fish to move from the weed beds to rocky points and deeper waters where they forage heavily for the coming winter months.
ANGLING METHOD: Being well known for its voracious appetite, this fish will go after anything! The most productive method of fishing for this species is to cast for them using various types of spoons. A description of the most common baits used can be seen below. In early spring and late fall, trolling crankbaits is also very productive in luring these fish onto your line.
TROPHY NORTHERN PIKE FISHING: Lac Seul, Minnitaki, Abram and Pelican Lakes all produce trophy Northern Pike fishing in Ontario. Most of our trophy Northern Pike do come from Lac Seul due to the fact that Lac Seul is a larger body of water and we fish it more extensively than some of the other lakes because of the tremendous trophy Walleye fishing opportunities. All 9 lakes we fish have very good Northern Pike populations. Like our Lac Seul Walleye fishing, many of our trophy Northern Pike are caught by guests staying in our Lac Seul Fly-in Outposts. Our Tully Lake Outpost offers you spectacular Northern Pike fishing where catching 50-75 Northern Pike (per fisherman) in one day is not uncommon.
|Angling Experience
|Suggested Tackle
|All Experience Levels
|1/2 oz. to 3/4 oz. spoons are the common baits. Spoons include: Little Cleos, Dare Devils, Silver Minnows, Doctor Spoons – all of which are available in various colours. The key here is to have a variety of baits, some of which are shiny and put off a flash on a sunny day (silver gold, copper – all of which can be accented with a second colour), others that are bright for the darker days ( five of diamonds, chartreuse, red and white, black and white, florescent colours). Also, try some Mepps Spinners (#4's), Spinner baits, and Crankbaits for early spring and late fall.* It is strongly suggested to use a wire leader when fishing for pike. 9-12 inch lengths are most common.
|Angling Experience
|Suggested Equipment
|ROD: 6′ to 6'6 in length, one or two piece, heavy action, Spinning rod
REEL: Spinning reel with the capacity for approximately 200 yards of 10 lb. test of 165 yards of 12 lb. Test
LINE: Trilene (or similar) 14 lb. to 17 lb. Test
|ROD: 6′ to 7′ in length, one or two piece, medium-heavy to heavy action, Spinning or Casting rod.
REEL: spinning or baitcasting reel with the capacity for approximately 165 yards of 12 lb. test or 130 yards of 17 lb. Test
LINE: Trilene XL (or similar) 12 lb. to 15 lb. test.
|ROD: 6′ to 7′ in length, one or two piece, medium to heavy action, Spinning or Casting rod.
REEL: Spinning or Baitcasting reel with the capacity for approximately 165 yards of 12 lb. test or 130 yards of 17 lb. Test
LINE: Trilene XL (or similar) 8 lb. to 12 lb. test.


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Our success is based on a 2-fold strategy of 1) integrated execution of customer research, PR, Social Media, digital marketing, paid search, ecommerce, data analytics, and creative development, and 2) rapid optimization based on data.
So we offer fully integrated teams focused on quick and sustained results, an approach that has been especially effective for our clients in Wine, Luxury and Technology.
We are looking for an Account Manager to lead the day-to-day operation of our PR Dept. You will be part of a 3-person team that currently consists of a Press Bureau Manager, Project Manager, and Social Media Director. You will report to the Account Director for Wine & Spirits. In this role, you will become an expert in crafting, presenting and managing the integration of PR, Social Media, Paid Media and Digital Marketing for extraordinary brands in wine, spirits and luxury.
Requirements for success:
You will wear many hats – from day-to-day manager of the client relationship to client representative/advocate and proactive organizer and supervisor of our work for clients.
Your responsibilities will include:
Successful candidates will personally live a fully digital life. You can look forward to a stimulating role with a supportive and fast moving team, developing relationships with senior clients and expertise managing large multi-faceted client accounts.
Research us; write us; call us; send your convincing cover letter and resume to email@example.com. Resumes without cover letters will be deleted unopened.


text: On Thu, Apr 07, 2005 at 04:01:00PM +0000, Joe wrote: > Newbie question. I am running a system where users have various > directories in a tree structue which at some levels is predetermined > and at other levels is not . What I need to do is work out how much > users are using thIs system. I am not an adminstrator, but I run > this part of the system. The tree structure is: > > /fix1/user1/fix2/user2/fix3 > > where fix1 and fix3 are the same for all users, and fix2 can take 2 > predetermined fixed values. User1 is the user name and user2 is a > name the user determines (there can be unlimited numbers of these). > > I want to write some sort of a script that will work out the number > of user2 directories each user has, and the number of files each user > has. Files are only stored at the lowest directory level, ie, fix3. > > Can someone advise me where to start? Shell script? Awk?perl? > Etc. And point me to useful documentation (and where to find it). > Many thanks! I've had a look at manual pages for awk and perl but I > need more of a beginners overview... And preferably some examples > reasonably close to the kind of thing I'm after. This piece of code for i in /fix1/* do echo ${i#/fix1/} ls $i/fix2/|wc -l done gives you the number of files and directories in each /fix1/*/fix2. This another for i in /fix1/* do looser=${i#/fix1/} echo $looser find /fix1/ -t f -user $looser | wc -l done gives you how many regular files has each user in /fix1. You can also use find /fix1/$looser/fix2 -user $looser if you know every file belonging to user1 is in /fix1/user1/fix2 I advice you to read "Bash advanced scripting guide" and to google "Example scripts" or something like that. Man pages for awk, sed, find, grep and shell are perhaps not very easy to read. Or you can try http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-bash.html Have a funny scripting!! -- ----------------------- Alberto Cabello Sánchez email@example.com Servicio de Informática 924 289 318 -----------------------


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Hello All Lanette Here!
Today I am going to share a couple sweet little cards that can be used for almost anything!
Lets start by taking a look at my finished cards, then I will show you how I made them :)
Sin City Supplies Used: Baby Animals Art Rubber Stamps
Just look how cute they are!!!
Now lets look at my process......
I started by stamping my image on my two cards and the masking material.
Next I fussy cut my masked image.
My Next step was to add my verse stamp, that is also found in the Baby Animals Art Rubber stamp collection. I heat embossed my verse so it would resit the gelato background.
After placing my masked image over my stamped image I started created my background using Gelatos.
My last step was to remove my mask and color my zebras shirt using Distress Markers.
Lets take one more look at my cards just for fun! After all they are super cute!
Thank you so much for stopping by today!
I hope that I have inspired you to have some inky fun of your own!
Remember to like us on Facebook and stop by the store for all your stamping needs!!
As always feel free to stop by my blog Stacks of Scraps anytime!


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Medicare Pays More For Health Care
December 11, 1995
It is claimed that Medicare only pays 68 percent of what private insurers pay for health care, and that slowing the growth in Medicare payments will result in limiting Medicare patients' access to treatment.
However, in many cases Medicare actually pays more for many health care services than private insurers, according to Medirisk, Inc., a private firm that collects payment information. It surveyed 1,300 managed care plans and more than 450 million current insurance claims and found numerous instances in which managed care paid fees in local markets at or below Medicare's rates, some by as much as 40 percent. For example,
- In North Carolina, Medicare paid $273 for a colonoscopy, while a negotiated fee was $248.
- A cataract removal in Oklahoma cost Medicare $1,039, while a negotiated fee was $874.
- In Florida, a skin biopsy cost Medicare $54, while a negotiated fee was $40.
- In 10 states plus the District of Columbia, Medirisk found that private plans price some common office visits below Medicare.
Out of 1,000 "highly significant" medical procedures in 40 markets across the country, Medirisk found that 6,250, more than 15 percent, could be purchased at lower rates.
The claim that Medicare payments are lower than the private sector is based on estimates of the Physician Payment Review Commission (PPRC), the federal agency that compares Medicare payments to what the private sector pays. Until 1995, the PPRC only compared Medicare payments to traditional fee-for-service insurance.
But private employers and insurers have been able to slow the rise in health care costs -- and in many cases reduce them -- by negotiating deep discounts for the 50 million people covered by managed care. Furthermore, the sample of HMOs the PPRC uses now is not representative, and the data are three to six years old.
Source: Matthew Miller, "The Medicare Boom," New Republic, December 11, 1995.
Browse more articles on Health Issues


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Long Description: Ice Siula Grande Ascent, Electronic Music, Psybient, download music, flash music loops and film music
Keywords: In 1985, British climbers Joe Simpson and Simon Yates set out to climb the forbidding 21, 000-foot Siula Grande in the Peruvian Andes - the only mountain in the Peruvian range yet conquered. Following a successful three-and-a-half-day ascent, disaster struck. Simpson found himself deserted in an ice cave, broken leg with little to no hope for survival... This is the inspiration for the feeling of this song. Dark, deep waters also come to mind, with cave formations, and the beauty of never before reached places of nature, Ice, Loneliness, Ocean, Sleeping, Waiting,


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CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple launched two new iPhones today, and we got some quality time with both of 'em.
Of these two devices, we actually found the cheaper 5C a greater pleasure to handle. Its gorgeously smooth plastic surface made us feel like we were caressing some mythical sea creature, silky and cool.
And this reporter isn't even an iPhone fan.
The iPhone 5S, on the other hand, felt like … just another iPhone. The biometric features, graphics rendering for games, and new camera will have to be the big selling features for current iPhone users, but we doubt this will be enough to woo current Android/Windows users over to the dark side.
Here's a close-up look. You can also check out our video of the iPhone 5S and the 5S side-by-side with a Windows Phone.


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Caitlyn Build Guide by Jiglebilly
Not Updated For Current Season
This guide has not yet been updated for the current season. Please keep this in mind while reading. You can see the most recently updated guides on the browse guides page.
Thank You!
Your votes and comments encourage our guide authors to continue
creating helpful guides for the League of Legends community.
Caitlyn Build
Ability Sequence
Not Updated For Current Season
The masteries shown here are not yet updated for the current season, the guide author needs to set up the new masteries. As such, they will be different than the masteries you see in-game.
So I toyed around with builds for awhile, and this build actually seems to work well, granted you at least need to know what your doing and when you're doing it. Now let us begin....
I like to get raw attack speed/attack damage runes for that extra bit of help early game. The move speed quints also help for catch-ups and quick getaways once you get you PD (Phantom Dancer.) Do what you will with your marks, attack damage or armor pen, but it's just my opinion.
So I put points in Good Hand, big whoop want to fight about it? This is great for if your in a pickle and you need to either a turret or become a little back dooring *****. Either way, you'll be a monster of a carry once you hit your full build. Cooldown reduction is nice too for those sneaky yordles hidden in the bush with your traps everywhere. The exhaust and ghost are really helpful too for winning 1v1's or desperate escapes/tower dives. Flash is for *******. Quit your ****.
I like to get the vamp scepter, so you don't really have to leave the lane to heal, because your auto attacks do so much damage at earlier levels, plus the head shot bonus damage heals for that much more. Boots are 2nd priority since you kind of need to move and the attack speed makes you that much more of a jerk when it comes to harassing the enemy lane.
Skill Sequence
Maxing out your Q is top priority as well as your ult and W. Your E is kind of useless as a slow unless you are a position machine. It's more for an "oh ****" button, so that's why I like to max it out last. Your W just decreases the cooldown, so that really useful for last second getaways as long as you know where they're going and how fast it'll set up. Once you master the timing you'll be so annoying to catch and hardly ever die...
Summoner Spells
Ghost and Exhaust have to be my 2 favorite summoner spells, because they're great for kiting and mobility. The exhaust is good for those pesky runners/melee champs that'll usually punch you in the face. This is like telling them "I'm Caitlyn, and I am not taking **** from you." And the ghost is for me usually a "HEY GET BACK HERE I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU" kind of thing, rarely a "Oh my God get away!" button.
Pros / Cons
+You're king/queen of solo lanes and harassing.
+Lots of damage output and armor pen
+You WILL carry a team if fed, no questions asked.
+Not a single champ will get away from your Ace in the Hole
-Total Glass Cannon
-A bit tricky to master trap timing
-Can be a pain if you don't know what you're doing/mess up the build.
Harass harass harass! Being aggressive can be your best friend, or your mortal enemy. Be cautious of who you are being aggressive too, if they can counter-harass, just play defensive and get last hits.
(While doing so, you're last hitting minions because I just know you're using your Peacemaker to harass with the occasional headshot proc on the enemy. ;) )


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Online 9 months ago
Rent budget
Preferred stay length
Move date
Hi future flatmate.
I'm currently moving to Canberra from Melbourne.
In a bit of rush need accomodation by the 22nd August when I start work.
I'm a friendly outgoing social person. I love cafes, bike riding, running, movies, netflix, reading and am an okay cook at home.
I don't own any pets and currently my partner and I live in Melbourne.
I'm originally from Brisbane, Queensland but have lived in Melbourne for 4 years. My partner is not moving with me to Canberra (until possibly next year).
I would ideally like a room in a share house with large kitchen, open and outdoor area, nice house and clean floors, preferably heating and cooling all year round.
I don't hold any preference for male or female flatmates as long as they hare easy to get along with and help out around the house not lazy. I'm clean and a usually a pretty quiet person at night.


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Reet Hendrikson is ranked number 24,460 in the overall artist rankings with a total rank score of 2.
|Sorry, no matches on eBay for " Reet Hendrikson".
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Back to the list of courses
International Training Week - OneMind Dogs Seminar Online
There's no easier way to attend a OneMind Dogs seminar than sitting on your couch and watching one online!
Leading OneMind Dogs Coaches Janita Leinonen, Jaakko Suoknuuti and Tuulia Liuhto coach an international group of handlers in the new video series that has been filmed during the International Training Weeks that took place in Finland.
The coaches speak English on the videos, and with printable course maps, it is easy for you to do the same exercises at home!
As a OneMind Dogs premium member you will get to view a new seminar video every week! Come back next week!


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Online Legal Documents and Services
All documents and services included on this page include legal advice from a licensed and insured lawyer and are offered at affordable fixed prices.
How It Works
1. Click on a document or service.
2. Complete a simple and secure online intake form and submit it to me via this website.
3. I will prepare the document that specifically meets your needs and objectives.
Legal Documents and Services (click on a document or service)
A. Incorporation and Start-Ups
1. Incorporation - Alberta
2. Extra-provincial registration - Alberta
3. Unanimous Shareholders Agreement
B. Contracts
1. Legal Document Review
2. Purchase and Sale Agreement - Shares
3. Purchase and Sale Agreement - Assets
4. Independent Contractor Agreement
C. Trade-marks
1. Canadian Trade-mark Application
D. Succession Planning
1. Planning Questionnaire
E. E-Commerce
1. Website Terms and Conditions
F. Need Something Else
Please come back to this page often as I add more business documents and services to my list of online legal services. If you are in need of any other legal service for your small business, tell me what you need HERE.


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Policy & Research
We take a rights-based approach to our development, humanitarian and campaign work. We believe that all people are entitled to decent work and income security and to essential services such as health and education, and that everyone should have gender equality, security from conflict and disasters, and be able to participate in social and political life. Here you'll find a wide selection of reports and papers on the programming, advocacy and research that we undertake in order to achieve these aims. Please also read our Humanitarian Policy Notes.
You can filter the policy papers by subject and/or by date.
2.2 The sustainable production challenge
Agriculture faces a daunting challenge. It must dramatically increase food production while completely transforming the way in which food is produced. On current trends, demand for food may increase by 70 per cent by 205010 due to population growth and economic development. The Earth's population is expected to grow from around 6.9 billion today to 9.1 billion in 2050 – an increase of one-third11 – by which time an estimated seven out of ten people worldwide will live in Low-Income Food Deficit Countries (LIFDCs).12
These are forecasts with big margins of error. Greater investment in solutions that increase women's empowerment and security – by improving access to education and healthcare in particular – will slow population growth and achieve stabilization at a lower level.
But the Malthusian instinct to blame resource pressures on growing numbers of poor people misses the point, because people living in poverty contribute little to world demand. Skewed power relations and unequal consumption patterns are the real problem.
The global economy is forecast to be three times bigger by 2050, with emerging economies' share of output rising from one-fifth to well over a half.13 This is a good thing, and fundamental to addressing the challenges of equity and resilience. But for this level of development to be viable, an unprecedented shift to more sustainable consumption trends must take place in both industrialized and emerging economies.
At present, higher incomes and increasing urbanization leads people to eat less grains and more meat, dairy, fish, fruit, and vegetables. Such a 'Western' diet uses far more scarce resources: land, water, atmospheric space (see Figure 3).
In the meantime, in more than half of industrialized countries, 50 per cent or more of the population is overweight,14 and the amount of food wasted by consumers is enormous – quite possibly as much 25 per cent.15
Yield increases drying up
In the past, rising demand has been met and surpassed by increasing crop yields, but the dramatic achievements of the past century are running out of steam. Global aggregate growth in yields averaged 2 per cent per year between 1970 and 1990, but plummeted to just over 1 per cent between 1990 and 2007. This decline is projected to continue over the next decade to a fraction of one per cent.16
The US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service observed in 2008 that global consumption of grain and oilseeds outstripped production for seven of the eight years between 2001 and 2008.17
Modern agro-industrial farming is running faster and faster just to stand still. Put simply, increasing irrigation and fertilizer use can only get us so far, and we're nearly there. With the exception of parts of the developing world, the scope for increasing the area under irrigation is disappearing.18 Increasing fertilizer use offers ever diminishing returns and serious environmental consequences.
But it is not like this everywhere. Throughout the developing world, there is huge untapped potential for yield growth in small-scale agriculture.19 With the right kind of investment this potential can be realised – helping to meet the sustainable production challenge while delivering agricultural development for people in poverty.
Policy making captured by the few
Sadly, investment in developing country agriculture, despite the huge potential benefits, has been pitiful. Between 1983 and 2006, the share of agriculture in official development assistance (ODA) fell from 20.4 per cent to 3.7 per cent, representing an absolute decline of 77 per cent in real terms.20 During this time rich country governments did not neglect their own agricultural sectors. Annual support spiralled to over $250bn a year21 – 79 times agricultural aid22 – making it impossible for farmers in poor countries to compete. Confronted with these odds, many developing country governments chose not to invest in agriculture, further compounding the trend.
The costs of rich country support are borne not only by poor farmers in the developing world, but also by people in rich countries, who pay twice – first through higher tax bills, and second through higher food prices. It is estimated that in 2009, the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) added €79.5bn to tax bills and another €36.2bn to food bills.23 According to one calculation, it costs a typical European family of four almost €1,000 a year. The real irony is that the CAP purports to help Europe's small farmers, but it is the rich few that benefit the most, with about 80 per cent of direct income support going into the pockets of the wealthiest 20 per cent – mainly big landowners and agribusiness companies.24 Never, in the field of farming, has so much, been taken from so many, by so few.
In the aftermath of the 2008 food price crisis, rich countries at the G8 Summit announced the l'Aquila Food Security Initiative: a commitment to mobilize $20bn over three years for investment in developing countries. If this was an attempt to atone for past sins, it was, at best, underwhelming. The pledge amounted to a derisory fraction of the subsidies that rich countries were lavishing on their biofuels industries at the time – one of the key drivers of the 2008 price hike.25 Incredibly, a large portion of this figure has turned out to be recycled from past promises or double-counted against other commitments. In the case of Italy, the l'Aquila commitment actually represented a reduction in aid.26
Rich country governments have spectacularly failed to resist the capture of agricultural policy making by their farm lobbies. The results? Drastically reduced agricultural productivity and increased poverty in the South, and the plunder of hundreds of billions of dollars a year from taxpayers in the North.
2.4 The resilience challenge
The creaking global food system has come under increasingly dramatic stress, with disastrous consequences for the most vulnerable. Volatile food prices have delivered two global crises in the space of three years, while in the background climate change relentlessly gathers pace.
Increasing fragility
Who bears the brunt of increasing fragility in the food system is no surprise. Most vulnerable are countries with large populations of women and men living in poverty, and which depend on international markets for much of their food needs. Their food import bills increased by 56 per cent in 2007–08 compared with the previous year, which itself saw a 36 per cent jump.91 The World Bank estimated that the 2008 price spike pushed over 100 million people into poverty, 30 million of them in Africa.92
The real costs are borne at the family level. Poor households spend up to three-quarters of their income on food,93 making them extremely vulnerable to sudden price changes. In addition to the expected impacts – cutting back on food, struggling to pay health and education costs, taking on debt, or selling off assets – research on the tragic consequences of the 2008 crisis found increases in the abandonment of children and elderly people, crime, and risky sexual behaviour.94
For poor farmers, the food price crisis brought an abrupt end to decades of artificially low prices, depressed by rich countries' agricultural dumping. Sadly, few could turn higher prices to their advantage because most were net consumers of food and nearly all lacked the resources to turn the threat into an opportunity. Price volatility and unpredictable weather discourage poor farmers from investing or taking risks, particularly since that may quite literally entail betting the farm.
Box 5: Profits from volatility and volatility from profits
Price volatility causes havoc for women and men living in poverty, but presents big opportunities for agribusiness firms, such as Cargill, Bunge, and ADM that according to one estimate control nearly 90 per cent of global grain trading between them.95 In times of price stability, trading margins are razor-thin, but instability allows the largest traders to exploit their unrivalled knowledge of reserve levels and expected movements in supply and demand.96 In the second quarter of 2008 Bunge saw its profits quadruple compared with the same period in 2007. The surge in crop prices during the second half of 2010 helped Cargill to its best results since 2008, which Chairman and CEO Greg Page attributed to a 'resurgence in volatility across agricultural markets'.97
Similarly, when the 2010 Russian wheat harvest failed, Bunge's profits ballooned and the company attributed the windfall to 'crop shortages related to the drought in Eastern Europe'. 'I hate to say we benefit,' said CEO Alberto Weisser in an interview.98
Some companies' activities create volatility in the first place, such as the diversion of food crops to biofuels. The biofuel lobby consists of an unlikely alliance of agribusiness, farmers' unions, energy companies, and input companies.99 Its successful push for mandates for biofuel content in gasoline and diesel introduced inelastic demand into food markets, while the subsidies and tax breaks won by the biofuels lobby help transmit price movements from oil markets. Both result in increased volatility.
Attention has also recently turned to pension funds and other institutional investors, because many now aim to have 3–5 per cent of their investments – representing trillions of dollars – invested in commodities, including food commodities. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food and others argue that this sudden flood of demand is destabilizing and has contributed to price surges. Concerned that increasing volatility in food markets may pose risks to their portfolios, some investors, such as the French state pension fund FRR, the Dutch state pension fund ABP, and the California teachers' fund CalSTRS, have chosen to limit investments in commodities.
Food prices gone wild
Certainly, the fundamentals that determine long-term food prices are shifting, especially rising demand in emerging economies, although it is not a convincing explanation for short-term price spikes. The dependency of the food system on oil for transport and fertilizers is a key factor in both, as oil prices are expected to rise in the long term and to become increasingly volatile (see Figure 20).
At the same time, food stocks have declined – in 2008 world stock-to-use ratios for wheat, maize and rice were at their lowest since the 1970s to early 1980s.100 Without reserves to smooth supply, any shock is transmitted directly to prices. Recently, countries have started to panic buy on open markets in an attempt to build up reserves, introducing even more demand into the market. Nervous anticipation of the next crisis is exacerbated by a lack of transparency about the levels of reserves countries hold – nobody really knows how big anyone else's buffers are.
Climate chaos
Supply shocks are already a problem, and will become a much bigger one as climate change gathers pace. Poor wheat harvests in 2006 and 2007 were identified by some as contributing factors to the last crisis. A record-breaking heatwave in Russia in 2010 reduced the country's wheat crop by 40 per cent,101 prompting the government to impose export restrictions. Nobody knows what the shock next will be, or when and where it will hit. What if the 2010 heatwave had been centred on the American Midwest – the world's breadbasket – instead of Moscow? Lester Brown estimates that this would have pushed world carryover stocks of grain to below 52 days of consumption – far below the 62 days of stocks that set the stage for the 2008 crisis.102 Other recent extreme weather – devastating floods in Pakistan and Australia, dry weather in Brazil, heavy rain in Indonesia – has pushed up international prices and disrupted national production.
3.1 Growing a better future
We know from experience that a more equitable and sustainable kind of human development is possible. Now, from the failing food system to wider social and ecological challenges, the dominant model of development is hitting its limits. The prospect of hundreds of millions more hungry people and billions forced closer to the breadline in the coming years are a wake-up call to us all: it is time to change course.
'More-of-the-same' development demands ever more of our small world's ultimately finite resources. It takes a laissez-faire approach to markets, expecting them to deliver social progress in a way they never can without big shifts in public incentives, regulation and investment. It permits global systems to spin out of control, and vested interests to privatize benefits and socialize costs.
More-of-the-same development obsesses about a narrow notion of economic activity, ignoring the stock of human, social and natural assets. It leans heavily on the false hope that corporations will somehow magically deliver technological fixes to all the challenges we confront. And it fails to see the practical and democratic promise of shared solutions with a human face.
Some elites will be the last to acknowledge the bankruptcy of a model whose benefits they have monopolised. But growing numbers are waking up to the challenge of our generation, and to the exciting opportunities of a transition to a new prosperity.
In this age of interdependence, more efficient, equitable and resilient forms of human development are for the first time not only desirable. They are essential.
We face three interlinked challenges in an age of growing crisis: feeding 9 billion people without wrecking the planet; finding equitable solutions to end disempowerment and injustice; and increasing our collective resilience to shocks and volatility. No 'silver bullet' technology or policy will make these challenges vanish.
The good news is that practical solutions are both urgent and available – from simple common sense acts we can all take, to bold shifts in how we manage shared resources and value social progress. They are good for producers, good for consumers, and good for the planet. Their benefits can be shared by the many, not just the few, and they are built to be resilient in the long run.
Growing a better future will take all the energy, ingenuity and political will that humankind can muster. If the best solutions are to win out, we must mount powerful campaigns to win significant reforms in how our societies manage common threats and resources and create platforms for opportunity. From global negotiations to national decision making, we must work for three big shifts:
- First, we must build a new global governance to avert food crises. Governments' top priority must be to tackle hunger and reduce vulnerability – creating jobs and investing in climate adaptation, disaster risk reduction, and social protection. International governance – of trade, food aid, financial markets, and climate finance – must be transformed to reduce the risks of future shocks and respond more effectively when they occur.
- Second, we must build a new agricultural future by prioritising the needs of small-scale food producers in developing countries – where the major gains in productivity and resilience can be achieved. Governments and businesses must adopt policies and practices that guarantee farmers' access to natural resources, technology and markets. And we must reverse the current gross misallocation of resources which sees the vast majority of public money for agriculture flow to agro-industrial farms in the North.
- Third, we must build the architecture of a new ecological future, mobilising investment and shifting the behaviours of businesses and consumers, while crafting global agreements for the equitable distribution of scarce resources. A global deal on climate change will be the litmus test of success.
3.4 Building the new ecological future
The one thing we know for sure about the future is that it will be different from the past. It better be. More-of–the-same development is unsustainable in every sense. It is undermining the long-term prospects for growth and prosperity, and harming the lives of the poorest people right now.
Over the next decade we need a very rapid transition to a new model of prosperity, which delivers growth, which respects planetary boundaries and has equity at its heart. The outlines of the new model are already clear, but our political leaders must overcome the inertia and vested interests that could strangle it at birth.
This transition will only be possible with clear global commitments and frameworks for action, and effective policy at national and regional levels that mobilises investment and shifts the behaviour of businesses and consumers.
Equitable distribution of scarce resources
The journey to the future has begun. But we must change gear now if there is to be a happy ending. The soaring rhetoric from global summits on climate change, biodiversity and the green economy is not enough to fuel this transition. Our success or failure in making the transition to the new prosperity will depend on whether our political leaders set clear global targets on climate change, biodiversity, water and other issues, and adopt global frameworks for action that ensure a speedy and equitable transition.
The UNFCCC remains the forum to set the global framework for action on climate change, the most pressing challenge to the new prosperity. An ambitious and binding deal there will confirm that the transition is underway. The G20 can develop a consensus and use its economic and financial might to shift investment and mobilise the necessary finance. But it does not have the global membership or the structures to deliver the transition alone. The 'Rio plus 20' Summit in Brazil in June 2012 may provide just the opportunity required.
In the aftermath of Copenhagen, a fair, ambitious and binding global framework to tackle climate change looked a very long way off. But as climate change continues to gather pace, the momentum for a deal is growing again. It is apparent in the breathtaking speed of Chinese investment in clean energy, the determination of major European countries to unilaterally increase the EU's greenhouse gas targets, and the important steps made to establish a global climate fund at the 2010 UNFCCC Summit in Cancun.
But the pace of the negotiations remains too slow, and their ambition too low. Many leaders in Europe, in particularly vulnerable countries, and in China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa, have acknowledged that an early shift to a low-carbon economy is the low-cost path to long-term international competitiveness and environmental sustainability. The 'Cartagena Dialogue',154 which brought together developed and developing countries to build bridges for the UNFCCC, has mobilised countries to move together to a low-emissions future. The EU and China are in close dialogue on low-carbon pathways, building on the ambition of China's five year plan.
Our challenge is to bring ever greater pressure to bear on these and other countries, to overcome the business lobbies that have stifled progress to date. On climate change and in other areas, we need clear global targets for action, and binding frameworks that give certainty and confidence to make these goals a reality.
3.5 The first steps: Oxfam's agenda
Achieving the three shifts outlined will take time. Oxfam, with others, proposes the following agenda in the immediate years.
1. In order to build a new global governance to avert food crises, Oxfam will campaign with others to:
- Reduce volatility and the likelihood of global food price crises through an increase in public pressure to fix the main problems, including opaque international markets, an inability to deal with export restrictions, damaging biofuel policies, and excessive speculation.
- The G20 and its members should agree specific measures to rein in and re-govern markets, including measures to increase transparency, deal with export bans, and regulate excessive financial speculation. In the medium term, the Committee on World Food Security should lead coordination mechanisms to address these issues more broadly.
- The EU and USA must dismantle support for biofuels
- Mitigate the impacts of food crises at different levels, working to:
- Establish local, national, and regional food reserves;
- Encourage national governments and donors to create and sustain safety net programmes in developing countries targeting food insecure people and women in particular;
- Encourage national governments and donors to invest in improved and more effective early warning systems, disaster risk reduction, and climate adaptation.
- Ensure a fast and fair response in the event of crises, including by international institutions (such as the World Bank) that supply balance of payments support; and those donors and institutions responsible for the provision and delivery of food aid.
- Stop investors and corporations undertaking irresponsible large-scale land investments which undermine vulnerable people's access to resources and food security:
- Naming and shaming investors or corporations whose value chains or direct investments are implicated in land and water grabs;
- Making sure that institutions and norms that influence investor behaviour are held to high standards in relation to land and natural resources;
- Helping ensure that agribusiness sectors or commodity chains, starting with food and beverage companies and traders, adopt responsible investment policies and practices in relation to land.
2. In order to build a new agricultural future, we will actively campaign to increase public and private investment in small-scale food production. We will seek change that guarantees:
- Donors and governments invest in the productivity, resilience, and sustainability of small-scale food producers. For that purpose:
- Major donors should adopt policies that promote sustainable, resilient and inclusive agriculture and adaptation. Donors will be held to account against their l'Aquila commitments to invest in agriculture and food security, and their Copenhagen commitments to invest in climate adaptation.
- National governments (and regional bodies) should agree adaptation strategies and agricultural development policies and frameworks that promote sustainable, resilient and inclusive agriculture. These should be backed by public investment, and ensure that small food producers and women producers participate in decision making.
- Companies invest in the productivity, resilience and sustainability of small food producers. We will contribute to this by:
- Advocating for major companies to invest in sustainable, resilient smallholder agriculture. This will include the design and development of a food justice index that will evaluate the progress of different private actors against this objective.
- Advocating for donors and financing bodies, such as the International Finance Corporation, to promote private sector investment that builds resilient, sustainable and inclusive agriculture.
- Encourage the implementation and enforcement of policies that strengthen the land and natural-resources rights of women and other small scale food producers through:
- Legislation to improve secure access to land and natural resources, and national campaigns to empower women and men to claim their rights of access.
- Strong voluntary guidelines on land and natural resources tenure agreed by the CFS that inform national action.
3. In order to build the architecture of a new ecological future, we will campaign for a global deal on climate change that stops excessive greenhouse-gas emissions from devastating food production. Oxfam will work with others to:
- Raise awareness of the human impact of climate change, particularly in rich and rapidly developing countries to underpin the urgency of action on climate change;
- Build a consensus among governments around their fair shares of the emissions cuts needed to prevent catastrophic levels of global warming;
- Press for further progress on climate finance, targeting in particular:
- The operationalization of a fair global climate fund, with specific provisions to meet the needs of women and other vulnerable groups, including: the creation of a dedicated adaptation window with guaranteed resources to address the adaptation funding gap; strong gender principles in the composition and programmes of the fund; and mechanisms to ensure the full participation of affected communities in the governance of the fund's resources;
- The establishment of new sources of reliable, long-term climate finance to ensure the fund is not an empty shell, including fair budgetary contributions by rich countries, alongside a financial transactions tax or measures to raise revenues from international transport.
3.2 A new governance for food crises
As we lurch uncertainly into the age of crisis, facing our second global food price spike in three years, more must be done to build resilience and manage the climatic and economic risks looming on the horizon.
International reform
As the global food system becomes increasingly volatile and unstable, the risk of a slide into a zero-sum world of resource nationalism – a contest that women and men living in poverty would be guaranteed to lose – becomes more real. Alternatively, the world could move decisively towards a more just, resilient, and sustainable globalization – but only if it tips decisively towards international co-operation rather than competition.
Today's international system – fragmented, ad hoc, low on legitimacy, and high on gaps and friction between governments and institutions – is not yet up to the task of co-ordinating and delivering this outcome. Reform can begin today, with a number of immediate measures to reduce risks, improve co-ordination, and build trust, setting into motion a process of evolution towards a new system of governance that can both mitigate against and manage the shocks coming down the line.
During the 2008 food price crisis, co-operation was nowhere to be seen. Governments were unable to agree on the causes of the price rises, let alone how to respond. Food reserves had been allowed to collapse to historic lows. Existing international institutions and forums were rendered impotent as more than 30 countries imposed export bans in a negative-sum game of beggar-thy-neighbour policy making.124
Now with food prices back at a new all-time high, a range of urgent actions is needed.
1. Manage trade to manage risk
Build a system of multilateral food reserves
One of the reasons that food prices hit such highs in 2008 is that markets were trading so thinly: because reserves were at all-time lows, changes in supply and demand were borne entirely by the price mechanism. Panic buying by governments on international markets, as import-dependent countries seek to build up national stocks, could all too easily worsen the very volatility that it is trying to defend against. Instead of acting unilaterally, governments should work collectively to establish regional food reserves and strategic cross-border trading systems with each other – an approach that creates resilience against volatility while reducing the risk of governments competing against each other.
Increase market transparency
The tendency of governments to panic buy and horde is in large part a consequence of poor market information: market participants have very little reliable information on the levels of stocks held by governments or private sector traders. Mandating the FAO, for example, to collect and disseminate aggregated data on stocks, reserves and anticipated supply and demand would help markets to function better.
Co-ordinate to tackle export restrictions
Current global rules on food export restrictions are at best modest. Prima facie, such restrictions are banned under the GATT and the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, but in practice vaguely worded and untested exemption clauses allow countries to impose them whenever they like. Revising international trade rules will take time, however, and given the recent resurgence in the use of export restrictions – for example, Russia's ban on wheat exports in summer 2010 – urgent action is needed. Major food exporters ought to publicly commit to refrain from imposing sudden export restrictions, and also commit to exempting humanitarian aid from any such restrictions. This option is already on the agenda for France's G8 and G20 chairmanship in 2011, and should be a top priority for member states.
Dismantle support for biofuels
Support measures for biofuel programmes currently cost about $20bn a year, and this is set to more than double by 2020.125 Dismantling support measures such as blending and consumption mandates, subsidies, tax breaks, and import tariffs would be good for taxpayers and great for food security.
Stop trade-distorting agricultural subsidies
As obscene as biofuel subsidies are, they pale in comparison with the vast sums of money spent in rich countries to support their agricultural sectors. Where these measures distort trade – by restricting market access or by incentivizing over-production and dumping – they directly undermine the development of resilient agricultural sectors in poor countries. Far from reducing the importance of OECD agricultural liberalization, soaring food prices make it more important than ever. At the same time, poor countries need the freedom to determine the extent and pace of their own agricultural market opening.
2. Reform food aid
The measures outlined above will help the international community build resilience and mitigate against and manage future crises. But crises will still happen, particularly as climate change continues to gather pace. Without reforms to the way in which food aid is raised and delivered, the strain on the humanitarian system risks becoming unbearable.
The provision of adequate, obligatory, and predictable funding in advance would free humanitarian agencies from frantic fundraising and allow them to be far better prepared. Adequate resources must be available in advance to cover emergency responses, rather than the current system of passing around the hat once a crisis is under way. The international community must move to a system of 100 per cent funding for humanitarian emergencies, via upfront 'assessed contributions'.126 Other mechanisms to insulate funding from food price rises through hedging or insurance should also be developed. Funding could even move onto a basis of calories rather than dollars – to match precise nutritional needs and to insulate it from price movements.
Breaking the stranglehold of the farm and shipping lobbies on the food aid system would massively increase efficiency and allow agencies the flexibility to pursue more appropriate relief strategies such as cash and voucher distributions, or local purchasing, such as the WFP's Purchase for Progress (see Box 8).127
Box 8: Building resilience and improving food aid in Ethiopia
In a region recently plagued by drought, sacks of maize stuffed to bursting and piled to the ceiling of a warehouse in Shashemene, Ethiopia, are a welcome sight. But what the blue World Food Programme logo on the sacks doesn't tell you – and which makes this stock of white corn even more remarkable – is where it comes from.
This corn was grown right here. By small farmers in the West Arsi Zone. The World Food Programme's Purchase for Progress Pilot Programme (P4P) was designed to source food aid in local markets in order to provide livelihood opportunities for poor farmers, while addressing the immediate food needs of hungry people. WFP plans to buy up to 126 tonnes of food from Ethiopian farmers over the next five years – to feed Ethiopians.
WFP sources some of this food from a union of 'grain banks' supported by Oxfam in West Arsi. A grain bank is owned and managed by its members, who pay a small fee to join. Following the harvest, banks buy grain from the members at a fair price, holding onto some of it for emergencies and selling the rest at the best rates they can get, including to WFP. Members can divide the profits among themselves or reinvest in the bank. The banks allow farmers to pool their resources to access better market opportunities, and to build up safety buffers for when times are hard.
'We have a stock in our bank and our members are not starving like other people,' said the bank's storekeeper at the time. 'Our experience in the past three years has shown us we can make progress in our lives.'
Oxfam America: 'Sowing the Seeds of Self-Reliance in Ethiopia'
Finally, in an age of crisis, it is essential that humanitarian operations must go beyond traditional reactive approaches and integrate longer-term programming and disaster risk reduction approaches to rebuild people's assets and address chronic vulnerability. In essence, donors and humanitarian agencies must get better at staying the course, rather than packing up and shipping out once the immediate crisis has receded.
3. Regulate commodity speculation
A precautionary approach to speculation in food commodities is needed. Governments can curb excessive speculation while still enabling the legitimate risk-mitigation and price-discovery role of futures markets. Options include requiring increased transparency to allow regulators to monitor speculators and limit their activities if necessary. Price limits can reduce short-term volatility, and position limits can prevent excessive bets on price movements. Limits could be set initially at modest levels and gradually tightened, allowing regulators to monitor for any adverse consequences such as poor liquidity.
Following on progress in the USA, proposals to regulate trading in commodity derivatives are on the agenda of the G20 in 2011, as well as the EU.
4. Operationalize and capitalize a new global climate fund
Adaptation is an urgent priority in developing countries, but the resources needed – Oxfam estimates $100bn a year by 2020 – are scant. Moreover, the institutional framework for delivering climate finance is a spaghetti bowl of multilateral and bilateral channels, massively increasing transaction costs for developing countries trying to access the meagre funds available. This has to change – the new global climate fund agreed at the international climate talks in Cancun in 2010 must be up and running as soon as possible. Agreement on a set of innovative mechanisms to raise money for the fund, such as a financial transactions tax or levies on international aviation and shipping, remains a critical priority and is on the agenda of the G20 in 2011.
3.3 A new agricultural future
The simple question facing policy makers, especially in developing countries, is who will sustainably generate the agricultural surpluses needed to feed a growing population, and how?
There is no shortage of simple, off-the-shelf blueprints on offer. One group of protagonists maintains, in the words of a widely cited analysis in The Economist that, when it comes to farming, 'big is beautiful'. More specifically, that Africa should import the 'Brazilian model' of large-scale commercial agriculture and phase out smallholder farming. Once fashionable among colonial administrators, this camp maintains that large farms are more productive, more innovative, more adept at embracing new technologies, and – ultimately – better at feeding people.
Another set of advocates sees all large-scale agriculture as a threat to the peasant way of life, a source of inequality, and a vehicle for subordinating agriculture to commerce at the expense of human need. This group tends to view new technologies with deep suspicion and is equally sceptical of international trade, concerned that they lead inevitably to the exploitation of poor producers and labourers resulting in deeper poverty and hunger.
Such polarized debates are unhelpful. They continue a long tradition of 'expert opinion' directed towards small-scale food producers. Indeed, it is difficult to think of any constituency in international development that has been subjected to so much irrelevant, and in some cases, harmful advice.
The romanticization of 'the peasant' and rejection of new technologies and trade have the potential to lock farmers into poverty. International trade and new technologies are not magic bullets, but each has a major contribution to make, one which can be increased massively if governments direct them towards delivering public goods.
Large-scale agriculture also has a role to play in meeting the sustainable production challenge. It is better able to meet the exacting standards that have come to characterize the food supply chains that feed burgeoning cities. Moreover, as economic development takes place, and labour costs rise relative to capital costs, larger, more mechanized modes of production become more viable, in turn providing an exit from agriculture for poor rural people as long as sufficient jobs are created in industry.
It is certainly not the case that big is bad. Whether a farm is 'bad' or not depends upon the practices of the farmer or company running it – these can be exploitative and environmentally destructive whether the farm is two hectares or 20,000 hectares.
Nor is it a case of 'big is beautiful'. Exporting the Brazilian model to Africa combines bad economics with a detachment from social reality, and is a prescription for increased poverty and hunger.
A simple thought experiment demonstrates why. There are around 33 million small farmers in sub-Saharan Africa working plots with an average size of 1.6 hectares – about the size of 3 American football fields.136 In Brazil's Cerrado region, a not untypical farm is in excess of 20,000 hectares.137 Put differently, a single large-scale farm imported from Brazil into Tanzania could displace 12,500 smallholder farms. In the absence of an unprecedented and implausible level of job creation in urban centres, the transition to 'big' agriculture would be anything but 'beautiful' – it would deliver a dramatic increase in poverty, rural hunger, and urban slums.
Moreover, today's large farms tend to suffer from a heavy ecological footprint – due to profligate water use, pollution of groundwater, and reliance on oil-based agro-chemicals and diesel-burning machinery – thus undermining the human and natural resources on which food production must depend.
If we are to meet the three challenges set out in the previous section, then sustainable models of smallholder production must be where the lion's share of effort goes.
The huge untapped potential to increase yields among smallholder farmers is where the real opportunity lies. And while less input-intensive, more climate-friendly agricultural practices are not exclusive to small farmers, they are often well suited to this scale of production, and easily adopted (see Box 10).
Because vulnerability, poverty and hunger are concentrated among the rural poor, investing in smallholder agriculture will build resilience, and boost incomes and food availability in hunger hotspots, especially if the investment is sensitive to gender inequalities.138 Furthermore, history shows that investing in agriculture has provided a crucial 'growth spark' in the take-off of most successful developing economies.139
Box 10: 'Sustainable intensification'
Agriculture will have to become less input-intensive and wasteful if the resilience challenge is to be met. Clues as to how this can be achieved lie in a toolkit of practices known as 'sustainable intensification'.
Use of animal and green manure reduce dependency on expensive inorganic fertilizers, the price of which is linked to oil. Agro-forestry and intercropping with leguminous vegetables helps improve soils and diversify income. Integrated pest management techniques reduce the need for expensive chemical pesticides. Water harvesting reduces the need for irrigation and helps deal with unpredictable rainfall. Soil conservation techniques maintain soil nutrients and productivity.
Recent research into these practices has produced exciting results. The most comprehensive study examined 286 sustainable agriculture projects in 57 countries and found an average yield increase of 79 per cent.140 Another study reviewing 40 sustainable intensification projects in 20 African countries found that average yields more than doubled over a period of 3–10 years.141
Precisely because these practices were developed for farmers without access to inputs and machinery and for contexts where conservation of the natural resource base is critical, they have a much lighter ecological footprint. Use of fossil fuel-based agrochemicals and diesel-burning machinery is low; carbon stocks – above and below ground – can be conserved or even increased; and water and soils are used more efficiently and sensitively.
A good example is the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), a low external input approach widely adopted by farmers in India, Indonesia and Viet Nam. It was developed for small farmers to help them boost productivity and reduce reliance on inputs, and promoted by Oxfam and other NGOs in a growing number of countries around the world. The results are startling: studies across eight countries found average yield increases of 47 per cent and average reductions in water use of 40 per cent. This, coupled with reduced use of seeds, synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides, allowed farmers to increase their incomes by over 68 per cent on average, while significantly reducing methane emissions – one of the most powerful greenhouse gases.142
The equity challenge (2)
Selling a surplus allows poor farmers to earn an income, but rarely can they exercise any power in markets where middlemen, processors, aggregators, freighting companies and those controlling brands and distribution call the shots.
A few hundred companies – traders, processors, manufacturers, and retailers – control 70 per cent of the choices and decisions in the food system globally, including those concerning key resources such as land, water, seeds and technologies, and infrastructure.78 By setting the rules along the food chains they govern – for prices, costs, and standards – they determine where most costs fall and where most risks are borne. They extract much of the value along the chain, while costs and risks cascade down onto the weakest participants – generally the farmers and labourers at the bottom.
The responsibility of the private sector in setting the terms on which people engage in markets cannot be overstated. Responsible businesses will respect people's rights to land, water, and other scarce resources. They will create trading relationships that return value to poor women and men through fair and stable pricing arrangements and will facilitate access to the necessary skills, credit, and infrastructure. And they will expect these standards of all participants in the chains they govern. Oxfam is developing a food justice index, which will assess companies against this standard of responsibility.
The focus of the index will be the largest traders and food and beverage companies. These will be ranked according to their policies and practices with regard to use of land and water resources, climate change, small-scale food producers and gender. The index will provide a tool with which to hold companies to account on their policies and practices, and influence the regulatory frameworks within which they operate.
Access to technology
Corporations exercise enormous power at the 'input' end of the food chain: the production of seeds and agrochemicals. Globally, four firms – Dupont, Monsanto, Syngenta, and Limagrain – dominate over 50 per cent of seed industry sales,79 while six firms control 75 per cent of agrochemicals.80
The research agenda of these companies focuses on technologies geared toward their biggest customers, large industrial farms which can afford the expensive input bundles the companies sell. Such technologies rarely meet the needs of farmers in developing countries, who in any case cannot afford them. Small-scale farmers' technology needs are ignored, despite the fact that they represent the biggest opportunity to increase production and combat hunger. The market is failing, and – with a couple of notable exceptions such as China and Brazil81 – governments are failing to correct it.
Input companies invest in technology products, which can be bundled together and sold as a package – for example, Monsanto's Roundup herbicide and genetically modified Roundup Ready Soy. But what is really needed are technologies of practice – techniques not easily be packaged and sold, but which can deliver solutions to stagnating productivity and poor sustainability. Oxfam has seen this first hand in its work with farmers around the world. Recently in Azerbaijan, new sowing practices promise to double wheat yields and reduce seed usage by half.
The modus operandi of the companies also thwarts pro-poor, anti-hunger research by undermining the public institutions that serve a wider interest. Seed companies have amassed enormous 'patent banks' – claiming intellectual property rights over huge numbers of genetic traits and other 'innovations'. Public institutions, fearing litigation and lacking the resources to trace the web of patents or pay the licensing fees associated with them, are thus deprived of access to a key research tool.82
The misallocation of research and development (R&D) resources that results is mind-boggling. Monsanto's annual research budget is $1.2bn.83 By comparison, the Consultative Group on International Agriculture (CGIAR), the world-leading group of centres that carry out R&D for developing countries, has an annual budget of just $500m.84
Claiming rights
In the struggle to feed their families, people living in poverty are all too often exploited or marginalized by the huge power imbalances in the food system. But people can and do fight back, by joining together to claim their rights and increase their clout in markets. Labourers form unions to achieve more secure employment and better working conditions. Farmers form producer organizations and co-operatives to engage with markets and companies more assertively, reap economies of scale, and improve production standards. Female producers form women's organizations, as male-dominated producer organizations often fail to defend their interests or do not even allow them in. Consumers influence company behaviours through their purchasing decisions – such as through the Fair Trade, organic, or Slow Food movements – or more forcefully through consumer campaigns.
Such forms of organizing can quickly move from the economic and social spheres to the political. A new generation of producer organizations has taken off over the past two decades: in Burkina Faso between 1982 and 2002 the number of villages with such organizations rose from 21 per cent to 91 per cent,85 while between 1990 and 2005 in Nigeria the number of co-operatives increased from 29,000 to 50,000.86
In the Philippines, a national movement of rural organizations and NGOs formed a remarkable alliance with state reformers during the 1990s, resulting in the redistribution of over a quarter of the country's land in the space of six years.87 In Colombia, Oxfam supported a campaign by producer organizations that persuaded the Bogotá city council to start supplying city hospitals, schools, and other institutions with their produce – 2,000 small farmers are now benefiting.88
In India's impoverished Bundelkhand region, 45,000 fishing families in the Tikamgarh district fought back against the expropriation of their traditional fishing ponds by landlords and contractors, eventually winning legal rights to over 100 ponds.89 The protests of hungry people in 61 countries across the world in 2008,90 and the subsequent political changes that came about in a small number of these, demonstrate unequivocally the power of consumers, which governments ignore at their peril.
Women and men across the world are organizing to claim their rights and reform the broken food system from the bottom up – a global movement that is our best hope for meeting the equity challenge.
Demography, scarcity and climate change: a perfect storm scenarion for more hunger
Predicting the future is a hazardous endeavour. When it comes to agricultural production and nutrition, there are many unknowns. Yet detailed scenarios and projections developed for this report point unequivocally towards an overwhelming conclusion: the world faces a real and imminent risk of major setbacks in efforts to combat the scourge of hunger.57 That risk is not a remote future threat. It is emerging today, will intensify over the next decade, and evolve over the 21st century as ecology, demography and climate change interact to create a vicious circle of vulnerability and hunger in some of the world's poorest countries.
There are alternatives. But the central message to emerge from the scenario analysis is that the international community is sleepwalking into an unprecedented and avoidable human development reversal. Research carried out for this report explored a range of food price scenarios for 2020 and 2030 using international trade models.58 In the absence of urgent and aggressive action to tackle global warming, prices of basic staple foods are expected to skyrocket in the coming two decades. Using a different model that nevertheless forecasts a similar trend, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has recently calculated that 12 million more children would be consigned to hunger by 2050, compared with a scenario with no climate change.59
Headline figures such as this provide only a partial picture of the scale of threat. Over the lifetime of a single generation, the world is losing an opportunity to remove the spectre of hunger from an under-five population larger than all of the children in that age group living today in France, Germany and the United Kingdom combined. Standing by and failing to prevent that outcome would represent an abdication of responsibility and failure of international leadership without precedent; not least because this is an avoidable tragedy if – and only if – governments act decisively in the next few years to avert it.
Why the focus on food prices? First, because world food prices provide a useful barometer of how the tectonic shifts in demography, ecology and climate might play out within the food system. Rising prices signal imbalances in the supply response to rising demand. Second, food prices have a major bearing on hunger because they influence the capacity of poor people – and poor countries – to gain access to calories. Of course, prices cannot be viewed in isolation: purchasing power is also influenced by income. But in many of the developing regions facing the gravest challenges with malnutrition, food still accounts for around half of average household spending – and for an even greater share of spending by people living in poverty (see Figure 6).60
'Exploring Food Price Scenarios Towards 2030'
International price projections for the major traded food staples reflect the severe stresses under which the food system is buckling. Over the next two decades, prices for commodities such as rice, wheat and maize are forecast to rise by between 60 and 80 per cent (see Figure 7). This will hit the poorest people the hardest. For example, although food accounts for 46 per cent of an average West African household's spending, in the poorest 20 per cent of Malian households, food consumes 53 per cent of all household spending; and although in much of South Asia 40 per cent of all household spending goes on food, for the poorest 20 per cent of Sri Lankans, the figure is as high as 64 per cent. 61


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Continental drift created biologically diverse coral reefs
An international research team has studied the geographical pattern of the evolution of corals and reef fish. Their findings show that today's geographical distribution of tropical marine diversity is the result of 100 million years of Earth history and the continental drifts that shifted the position of shallow reef habitats.
|Coral reefs such as the Great Barrier Reef (shown here) are extremely species-rich habitats
[Credit: Simon Gingins]
For the first time ever, an international research team under his direction studied the geographical pattern by which new species of corals and reef fish evolved over the millions of years of evolutionary history using a computer model. The scientists were able to show that the drift of the continental plates was the likely driving force behind the emergence of new species.
Combination of different models
To arrive at this conclusion, the researchers combined different simulations and data. These included a simulation of geological changes to the seafloor during Earth history as well as information on the earlier expansion of the tropics based on fossil finds of tropical coral species. Thus, the scientists were able to create a dynamic spatial model that indicates where throughout the course of history shallow and warm waters were located, in which corals and other tropical organisms found a habitat.
Into this model, they integrated a well-known evolution mechanism in which two new species are formed out of an existing one. By way of illustration, take any fish species that lived in a tropical reef ecosystem 100 million years ago. If its home reef is divided into two separate reefs due to plate tectonics, for example, the two populations in each patch would continue to evolve independently and eventually, over the following hundreds of thousands of years, become two distinct species.
Simulation of the past 60 million years. Species richness of shallow tropical reefs is
highlighted in yellow to red. The more red, the more species were living there (according
to the simulations) [Credit: Patrice Descombes and Loïc Pellissier]
Hotspot in the prehistoric ocean
Such a fragmentation of tropical reef habitats actually took place, as Pellissier and his colleagues showed in their model calculations. Their simulation begins 140 million years ago, when present-day South America, Africa, India and Australia together formed the supercontinent Gondwana. A huge, contiguous body of shallow water ran along its equatorial coasts. In the millions of years to follow, the supercontinent broke up; there were massive continental drifts and fragmentation of the tropical reefs.
A particularly strong fragmentation took place about 50 to 60 million years ago, as Fabien Leprieur, Professor at the University of Montpellier and the study's first author, explains: "At that time in the western part of Tethys, the prehistoric ocean between Africa and Eurasia, there was a complex seafloor structure with many disconnected reefs - a bona fide patchwork." The plate tectonic processes at that time separated and merged these waters. It was an extremely dynamic system that strongly favoured the emergence of new species.
It was known from fossil finds that the Western Tethys region was a hotspot of species development back then. Fossil finds have also shown that this hotspot has shifted in the past 60 million years, from the Tethys to today's Southeast Asia. "Now, for the first time, our models provide an explanation for this movement," says Pellissier. "Because of the plate tectonic processes, new habitats emerged in different locations over the course of millions of years, while others merged or disappeared. These dynamic structures encouraged the relocation of the focal point of species diversity," says the landscape ecology professor.
Unification of Australian and Asian fauna
However, today's biodiversity in Southeast Asia cannot be explained solely by this relocation; rather, this was the region where, around 15 million years ago, the marine fauna of Tethys came together with that of Australia. This encounter was also the result of continental drift, in this case the shifting of the Australian continental plate in the direction of the equator, as Pellissier and his colleagues illustrate. "It was already known that this Australasian encounter took place with terrestrial animals and plants. We've now shown that it happened with tropical marine life too."
Coral reef ecosystems, which are the focus of this study, are sensitive to changes in temperature and are in danger worldwide due to global warming: the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is currently experiencing the largest coral bleaching in its history. Pellissier says: "In this context, it's important to understand that today's reef ecosystems have a very long history. It took 100 million years to build this extraordinarily large biodiversity, but it might take less than 100 years to destroy it."
The study is published in Nature Communications.
Author: Fabio Bergamin | Source: ETH Zurich [May 06, 2016]
Labels Biodiversity, Earth Science, Oceans, Palaeontology


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Despite Kobe Bryant's team-high 35 points, the Los Angeles Lakers came up short of getting back to .500 this season, losing to the Oklahoma City Thunder 114-108.
The Lakers have not won consecutive games under Mike D'Antoni who falls to 4-6 since taking over the team.
They are 1-8 this season when Bryant scores at least 30 points and have lost six straight games.
It was the Thunder's 11th straight game scoring at least 100 points, the longest streak by the franchise since Jan.-Feb. 1995 when they had 19 straight.
Russell Westbrook was a big reason why the Lakers fell to 2-6 on the road this season as he scored 27 of his 33 points in the first half including five 3-pointers. It was the most first-half points in his career.
Russell Westbrook's hot hand in the first half helped the Thunder beat the Lakers.Westbrook made eight of his 14 field goals from at least 15 feet Friday, his most made shots from that distance in a game this season.
Westbrook entered Friday shooting 32.9 percent from 15+ feet and 49.7 percent inside 15 feet, but reversed that trend against the Lakers.
The Thunder used their transition game to outscore the Lakers by 15 points in the second quarter Friday and build a lead they never relinquished.
Eighteen of Oklahoma City's season-high 41 second-quarter points came in transition and the Thunder continue to be the most efficient transition team in the NBA this season, averaging 1.32 points per play.
Jodie Meeks scored 17 of the Lakers 19 points off the bench.
The Lakers' bench entered Friday next-to-last in scoring averaging 23.4 points. The Lakers fall to just 1-10 this season when recording 20 or fewer points off the bench.
Games Decided By 10-or-Fewer Points
Lakers Since 2007-08
The Lakers fall to 1-11 this season in games decided by 10-or-fewer points, the worst in the NBA.
They won more than 66 percent of such games in the previous five seasons, the highest percentage in the NBA.