The Guardian published an article on 12 December 2009 arguing that Fairtrade is a bit more problematic and a bit less win-win than its advocates suggest. It says that Fairtrade does not actually benefit the world's poorest farmers and is based on an anti-mechanisation, anti-large scale view of development, and that very little of the profit from the end product actually makes its way back to the farmers. You can read the Guardian article here.

On the 16 December 2009 a free lunch made from delicious ingredients that would otherwise have been wasted was prepared for 5000 people in London. The aim was to highlight the ease of cutting the unimaginable levels of food waste in the UK and internationally in the days and weeks before 16 December 2009. Feeding the 5000 received tonnes of generously donated fresh produce from farms, packers and markets - from the tonnes of produce that are 'outgraded' for being cosmetically imperfect and that would have been wasted though still good to eat.

KRAV has published a first set of general standards relating to the climate impact of agriculture and food production in their region. Specifically, the standards concern farm requirements, plant production, greenhouse production, milk production and fisheries. The standards are available for download here.

The Global Donor Platform for Rural Development has published its eighth issues paper. To download it see here.

The Sustainability Institute, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Ventana Systems have jointly developed a Climate Scoreboard. This is an online embeddable widget that allows the public, journalists and others to track progress in the ongoing negotiations to produce an international climate treaty.