Presentations

• Toronto and Ottawa University Presentation – March 2009: A presentation prepared by Executive Director Susan Walsh on the work of USC Canada.
• The Global Politics of Food – August 2009: This was the theme of the August 2009 conference of the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs. For the closing forum – a look at the future of food – USC Executive Director Susan Walsh delivered a clear and compelling case for a vision of a transformed global food system: Watch her presentation, or read it here (pdf).

Reports and Publications

• A Viable Food Future, September 2010, the Development Fund of Norway – USC Canada is part of a group of international organizations that contributed to the research of this valuable new report. which makes the case for ecological agriculture. Download it now in English or in French.
• Pathways to Resilience, November 2008, Canadian Food Security Policy Group - this document is the result of our efforts to collectively examine how the work of our partners in the South might inform Canada’s response to the Global Food Crisis in a way that acknowledges the central role of smallholder agriculture and its long-term sustainability and resilience. Read the six accompanying case studies as well.
• Svalbard’s Doomsday Vault: The Global Seed Vault Raises Political/Conservation Debate, February 2008, ETC Group
• Food’s Failed Estates = Paris’s Hot Cuisine… Food Sovereignty – à la Cartel?, January 2008, ETC Group
• Extreme Genetic Engineering: An Introduction to Synthetic Biology, January 2007, ETC Group
• Down on the Farm: The Impact of Nano-scale Technologies on Food and Agriculture, November 2004, ETC Group
• Crop Research to Benefit Poor Farmers in Marginal Areas of the Developing World: A Review of Technical Challenges and Tools, December 2006. By Mauricio R. Bellon, Bioversity International.
• Genetic Resource Policies: What is Diversity Worth to Farmers?, November 2005, By Melinda Smale and Amanda King, IFPRI.
• World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development, November 2008, World Bank.
• The Future of Small Farms for Poverty Reduction and Growth. May 2007. By IFPRI.
• Agrobiodiversity Jargon Buster. By GRAIN.
• Transformation of Agriculture – Reflexive Governance for Agrobiodiversity, 2006. By Franziska Wolff, Reflexive Governance for Sustainable Development.
• Sowing Autonomy: Gender And Seed Politics In Semi Arid India, 2005. By Carine Pionetti, International Institute for Environment and Development.
• Agricultural Production and Soil Nutrient Mining in Africa: Implications for Resource Conservation and Policy Development March 2005, By Julio Henao and Carlos Baanante
• Sustainability and Social Justice in the Global Food System: Linking Conservation, Agroecology, and Food Security. 2005, By Kathleen McAfee

Books

• Shattering: Food, Politics, and the Loss of Genetic Diversity. By Cary Fowler and Pat Mooney (University of Arizona Press, 1990)\
• Rural Development: Putting the Last First. By Robert Chambers (Pearson, 1983)
• Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture
• Hungry Planet: What The World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio (Ten Speed Press, 2005).
• Development Economics on Trial: The Case for a Prosecution by Poly Hill (Cambridge, 1986)
• Achieving Food Security Through Food System Resilience by Jean-Charles Le Vallée (VDM publishing, 2008)devises a framework to reconnect food, people and ecosystems to guard all three.
• My Life Among the Paniyas of the Nilgiri Hills by Hans-Henning Mündel, is an account of the author’s early days as a CUDO cooperant working in India.

Terminator Technology

• Introduction to Terminator, Ban Terminator Campaign.
• Terminator Seeds: Terminating Farmers’ Rights?, 2005. By Paul Borja, SEARICE

Farmers Rights, Seed Laws, and Intellectual Property Rights

• GRAIN’s Biodiversity Rights section
• Special issue of Seedling magazine on Seed Laws
• Index of Seed Laws from around the world, by GRAIN
• The Future Control of Food: A Guide to International Negotiations and Rules on Intellectual Property, Biodiversity and Food Security. February 2008. By Geoff Tansey, the Quaker International Affairs Programme (QIAP) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
• Resource Book on TRIPS and Development. By ICTSD, February 2005.
• A Simple Guide to Intellectual Property Rights, Biodiversity and Traditional Knowledge. By Tejaswini Apt
• UPOV Report On The Impact Of Plant Variety Protection, December 2005. UPOV Publication 353(E)
• Intellectual Property Rights-Designing Regimes to Support Plant Breeding in Developing Countries, Agriculture and Rural Development Department. 2006. By the World Bank.
• Building on Gender, Agrobiodiversity and Local Knowledge. 2005 By the Food and Agriculture Organisation, Rome
• Protecting Traditional Knowledge: Pathways to the Future. 2006. By Graham Dutfield

Agricultural Biotechnology

• Biotechnology: Addressing Key Trade and Sustainability Issues, ICTSD, December 2006
• A Brave New World: Where Biotechnology and Human Rights Intersect. By the Canadian Biotechnology Secretariat, October 2005.
• Tackling GMO Contamination: Making Segregation and Identity Preservation a Reality, June 2005. By Friends of the Earth.
• Considerations regarding the Co-existence of GMO, non-GMO and organic farming, 2003. By Greenpeace.
• Third World Network Biosafety Briefings, February 2006. By Third World Network.
• The State of Food and Agriculture 2003-2004, 2004. By the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
• Preserving Biodiversity and Promoting Biosafety, May 2005. By the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
• The Role of Biotechnology in the Conservation, Sustainable Use and Genetic Enhancement of Bioresources in Fragile Ecosystems, March 2005. By Prashanth S. Raghavan and Ajay Parida, M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation.
• Private Research And Public Goods: Implications Of Biotechnology For Biodiversity, April 2004. By T. Raney and P. Pingali, FAO’s Agricultural and Development Economics Division (ESA).
• Who Decides? GM Crops in the Developing World, June 2005. By Ehsan Masood, Panos Institute.
• Public Participation in the Implementation of the Biosafety Protocol, February 2005. By Chee Yoke Ling and Lim Li Lin (Third World Network).
• Who Benefits from GM Crops? Monsanto and the Corporate-Driven Genetically Modified Crop Revolution, January 2006. By Friends of the Earth International.

Climate Change

See the USC Climate Change and Agriculture Resource List for a comprehensive list of useful resources on Climate Change and Agriculture.

Agrofuels

• The Water Footprint of Biofuels: A Drink or Drive Issue? – Published in May 2009, this document examines the issue of water in the agrofuels debate and questions how the agrofuel push will impact water resources.
• GRAIN’s Seedling Magazine – Agrofuels Special Issue, July 2007. GRAIN agrofuels page provides a continuing resource.
• A Special Grist Series on Biofuels. 2006. Online US Magazine Grist provides an overview of the issues.
• The Factory Farming – Ethanol Connection. By the Beyond Factory Farming Coalition (Canada).
• Biofuels – An Energy, Environmental or Agricultural Policy? – Canadian Parliamentary Information and Research Service of the Library of Parliament
• The Challenge of Sustainable Bioenergy: Balancing climate protection, biodiversity and development policy – OneSky Canada et al
• Biofuels: Is the cure worse than than disease? Round Table on Sustainable Development, OECD
• Biofuels – At What Cost? International Institute for Sustainable Development, Global Subsidies Initiative
• African Call for a Moratorium on Agrofuels. By African Civil Society Representatives, November 2007.
• Biofuels In India: Will They Deliver Or Destroy?, Pastapur India Statement. By Indian Civil Society Representatives, December 2007.
• Rapeseed biofuel `produces more greenhouse gas than oil or petrol. By The Times, September 2007
• Exploding the biofuel myths. By Eric Holtz-Giménez in Le Monde diplomatique, July 2007
• Ethanol as Public Policy in Canada. By the George Morris Centre, November 2007.
• The Agrofuels Trap. By Laura Carlsen, Americas Program special report, November 2007.
• How Biofuels Could Starve the Poor. By C. Ford Runge & Benjamin Senauer in Foreign Affairs, May/June 2007.
• Bill C-33: Proposed Canadian Renewable Fuels Bill.
• Agrofuels – Towards a Reality Check in Nine Key Areas. By 11 organizations, June 2007
• Agroenergy: Myths and Impacts in Latin America. By the Pastoral Land Commission and Network for Social Justice and Human Rights, October 2007.
• Paving the Way for Agrofuels: EU policy, sustainability criteria and climate calculations. By the Transnational Institute, September 2007.
• Agrofuels in Africa: the Impacts on Land, Food and Forests. Case Studies from Benin, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. By the African Biodiversity Network, July 2007.
• Land Clearing and the Biofuel Carbon Debt. By the Nature Conservancy and University of Minnesota, February 2008.
• Biofuels Deemed a Greenhouse Threat. By Elisabeth Rosenthal in New York Times, February 2008.
• Biofuels switch a mistake, say researchers. By Tristan Farrow in the Guardian, August 2007.
• The Last Straw. By George Monbiot in the Guardian, February 2008.
• Sustainable biofuels: prospects and challenges. By The Royal Society, January 2008.
• Sustainability criteria and indicators for bioenergy. By Núcleo Amigos da Terra Brasil, FOREN, Instituto Vitae Civilis, February 2006.
• When food makes fuel : The promises and challenges of biofuels. By Joachim von Braun, IFPRI, 2007.
• Developing bioenergy — economic and social issues : bioenergy and agriculture — promises and challenges. By Daniel G. de la Torre Ugarte, IFPRI, 2006.
• What we know and what we should know: towards a sustainable biomass strategy. By the Wuppertal Institute, June 2007.
• Agrofuels: Fuelling or Fooling Europe? The problems of using plant-based oils in power stations and vehicles. By Friends of the Earth Europe.
• Oil Palm and Other Commercial Tree Plantations, Monocropping: Impacts on Indigenous Peoples’ Land Tenure and Resource Management Systems and Livelihoods. By Victoria Tauli-Corpuz and Parshuram Tamang, May 2007.