Reading Time: 2 minutes Toronto / Thomson Reuters Foundation – In Canada’s far north, the government of Yukon Territory wants to attract small farmers to the frigid region with a simple pitch: free land. And as global warming makes Canada’s northern regions more hospitable to agriculture by opening once frozen land to farming, the opportunities are growing. Bordering on Alaska […] Read more
Want free farmland? Grab your parka and head North
Burger King pledges to end deforestation by 2030
Reading Time: 2 minutes Rio de Janeiro | Thomson Reuters Foundation — The owner of Burger King has pledged to eliminate deforestation from its supply chains by 2030 but scientists say the company is not moving fast enough to stop its hamburgers from destroying rainforests and the communities who depend on them. Restaurant Brands International, one of the world’s […] Read more
Brazil’s female farmers occupy government offices
Reading Time: 2 minutes Rio de Janeiro | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Hundreds of female farmers in Brazil occupied rural government offices on Wednesday in protest against austerity plans which they say disproportionately impact poor women. Protesters who marched across several cities on International Women’s Day said pension reforms and other changes to social security will make it harder […] Read more
Scotland moves against wealthy gentry dominating land
Reading Time: 3 minutes Rio de Janeiro | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Centuries-old traditions that led to 430 people owning half of Scotland’s privately held land are soon to become history, as local communities seek to double their ownership in the nation known for its rugged landscape, sheep and fine whisky. While inequality of land ownership is more often […] Read more
Number of hungry people worldwide drops below 800M, U.N. says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Rome | Thomson Reuters Foundation –– The number of people in the world still going to bed hungry 15 years after the U.N. placed eradicating hunger and extreme poverty at the top of its Millennium Development Goals has dropped to 795 million, according to a report released on Wednesday. The report by three U.N. agencies […] Read more
Food diversity under siege from global warming, UN says
Reading Time: 2 minutes Rome | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Climate change threatens the genetic diversity of the world’s food supply, and saving crops and animals at risk will be crucial for preserving yields and adapting to wild weather patterns, a United Nations policy paper said on Monday. Certain wild crops — varieties not often cultivated by today’s farmers […] Read more
Herders with machine guns intensify South Sudan land, food woes
Reading Time: 2 minutes Rome | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Tensions are rising in South Sudan as displaced pastoralists migrate onto lands occupied by farming communities, stoking a new series of conflicts in the war-torn nation and threatening food supplies, a United Nations official said Friday. Due to changes in migration patterns because of violence, the world’s youngest country […] Read more
Foreign ‘land grabs’ seeing redrawing global farmland ownership map
Reading Time: 2 minutes Rome | Thomson Reuters Foundation — A handful of wealthy countries are responsible for most international farmland acquisitions — what some critics term “land grabs” — in a trend that is redrawing the global map of land ownership, a new study has found. China, the U.S., Britain, Germany, Singapore and a small group of other […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
