This is a summary of the Oxfam report ‘Growing a Better Future: Food justice in a resource- constrained world’, which outlines the basis for Oxfam’s Grow campaign. The report and supporting research, case studies, and information about the Grow campaign are available at www.oxfam.org/grow
The CGIAR – world-leading group of agricultural research centres for developing countries – has an annual budget of $500m, less than half the $1.2bn spent on R&D by the multinational company Monsanto.
Worldwide support for biofuels costs $20bn a year.
It is estimated that three agribusiness firms – Cargill, Bunge and ADM – control nearly 90% of grain trading between them.
Only 40 cents of every US taxpayer dollar spent on food aid actually goes to buying food. Procuring freighting of US food aid on the open market could help feed an additional 3.2 million people in emergencies.
Between 1983 and 2006, the share of agriculture in aid fell from 20.4% to 3.7%. During this time rich country governments’ support to their own agricultural sectors spiraled to over $250bn a year – 79 times their agricultural aid.
The amount of arable land per head has almost halved since 1960.
Agriculture accounts for up to 30% of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions.
Consumers in rich countries may waste as much as a quarter of the food they buy.
In more than half of industrialized countries, 50% or more of the population is overweight.
80% of recent land investments remain undeveloped.
Providing women farmers with the same access to resources as men could increase their yields by 20–30%.
40% of the US corn crop ends up in gas tanks instead of stomachs.
4 people in every 5 lack access to social protection of any kind.
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