The EcoFair Trade Project is funded by the EU Commission * EuropeAid Program. 
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Discussion paper by Sophia Murphy
Grain reserves are an important part of a food security strategy. Reserves are an obvious and practical tool that has been in use for thousands of years. They are proven to be effective. They are not on their own sufficient to ensure food security, and, like any tool, they can be counter-productive if they are not properly established and managed. But they are worth the effort. Agricultural trade, too, is important, including trade in regional and global markets. Trade, too, has also been important for thousands of years, and it remains central to food security. Globally, the total volume of food that crosses international borders is relatively small, but it is none the less critically important, especially for particular countries and regions, among them some of the poorest regions in the world. When it comes to protecting food security, even relatively tiny volumes of food (whether in a reserve or in trade) can come to have disproportionately large importance.
Discussion paper by Rajeswari S. Raina
The objective of this discussion paper is to offer decision-makers and citizens a synthesis of existing information on likely changes in the agri-food systems once oil becomes expensive and scarce. The paper highlights the fossil-fuel dependence in existing agricultural production and distribution systems as part of a larger and highly unsustainable structural problem in the global economy. Peak oil portends a world that will aggressively increase current levels of fossil-fuel consumption, unemployment, hunger, and environmental degradation – all in the name of producing more food to feed hungry populations in developing countries. This dependence is part of a larger structural problem, of a comparative advantage in access and use of cheap energy (oil). In agriculture, this structural problem manifests itself in the increasing homogenization of agriculture as well as in the industrial substitution and appropriation of the sector, most specifically its chemical- and mechanical-energy components.
Fighting hunger – towards an EcoFair approach on trade and agricultural policies
International conference
The EcoFair Trade Dialogue has entered a new project phase and we warmly welcome our new project partner – the Prague Global Policy Institute, Glopolis – who has been on board with the project since March 2010.
EcoFair rules! Conference organized by Heinrich Böll Stiftung in cooperation with Misereor Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Since it is time to reconsider and redefine the regulation and flow of international agricultural trade against the backdrop of severe global crises (such as the climate, food and economic crises) the conference seeks to bring together expertise to address these issues. » Conference Report
Conference Programme / Konferenzprogramm
Global Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows rose in 2007, after four consecutive years of growth, by 30%. Especially in developing countries FDI inflows reached their highest level ever. This development causes the attention of economists, scientist, governments, international organizations and the civil society wanting to know what drives this high increases in FDI inflows, whether this is a lasting trend and what the consequences might be. The discussion paper "Foreign Direct Investment in the Agricultural Sector in Ethiopia" explains why this country has arouse the attention of foreign investors.
Creating an Opportunity for Fairer and More Sustainable Food and Agriculture Systems Worldwide
The abridged version is based on the report Slow Trade – Sound Farming- by Wolfgang Sachs and Tilman Santarius
In April 2007, the report Slow Trade – Sound Farming was published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and MISEREOR. This report, which was the result of a process of several years of worldwide dialogue – the EcoFair Trade Dialogue –, calls for a fundamental reform of the world agricultural trade system. Here you can download the summary in various languages!
The EU funded The EcoFair Trade Dialogue. It is a project carried out by the Heinrich Böll Foundation and Misereor in cooperation with the Wuppertal Institute. The overall aim of the project is to enrich and influence the debate on the reform of the current multilateral regime of international agricultural trade through the development and advancement of forward looking guidelines and instruments which respond to the 21st century’s social and ecological challenges to global agriculture. [More…]
>> Find some backround articles published by the organizers
The dialogue process involves selected experts, representatives of a broad range of civil society organizations, as well as policy makers. The project started in 2005 as a dialogue within a core group of experts from different regions of the world, the so-called “Expert Panel“. These experts developed reform proposals to be recorded in a set of policy papers. In addition views from policy makers are fed into this dialogue through an “International Consultative Board”. [More…]
>> Expert Panel
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