Bingo. My biggest complaint/mystery of Joomla just got solved. Why isn't this clearly documented somewhere (it's not that I read all the documentations..:p)!!

Ethiopia’s government denies that anyone is being displaced, saying that the land is unused — an assertion many experts doubt. “One thing that is very clear, that seems to have escaped the attention of most investors, is that this is not simply empty land,” says Michael Taylor, a policy specialist at the International Land Coalition. If land in Africa hasn’t been planted, he says, it’s probably for a reason. Maybe it’s used to graze livestock, or deliberately left fallow to prevent nutrient depletion and erosion.

Indeed..

In recent months, the Ethiopian government began marketing abroad one of the hottest commodities in an increasingly crowded and hungry world: farmland.

Really not sure how to take this trend (Needless to say, Korea is playing a big role on it too!)..

IFPRI has been working on the issue also:
http://www.ifpri.org/publication/land-grabbing-foreign-investors-developing-countries

Howard Buffett's Crusade Against African Famine 6/26/2009

As the global economic downturn sets back decades of work to end world hunger, Warren Buffett's son, Howard Buffett, takes on a surprising, little-known role on the front lines. Mr. Buffett travels from Ghana to Togo to Benin, trying to spread approaches to farming that he's found successful on his Illinois farm. Scott Kilman and Roger Thurow report.

I loved the book [Enough] too - a must for whoever starts working on the international development issue.

A report of the Economics of Climate Adaptation working group. This report applies the methodology to 8 case studies and identifies significant potential for cost-effective adaptation measures. I participated its Mali case study.

pdf full text

YOU VOTED! And we counted. In all, nearly 20,000 readers weighed in on the area's finest people, places and things.Below, your picks for best bartender, film fest, vintage store, Metro stop and more. Click on the links to learn more about each winner. Want to view the section as it was printed in Express? Click here.

Oh, jewel!

Helicopter

Please call ahead to make heliport arrangements.

2AMYS - voted the best pizza in DC!

University of East Anglia's Hadley Climatic Research Unit was hacked, and internal documents released. Some discussion and analysis of the leaked items can be found at Watts Up With That. The CRU has confirmed that a breach occurred, but not that all 61 MB of released material is genuine. Some of the emails would seem to raise concerns about the science as practiced — or at least beg an explanation.

Huh, CRU hacked.. Should IFPRI get worried too? Any case, timely alarming..

Google Wave is a new web-based collaboration tool that's notoriously difficult to understand.

Indeed. Not sure if SChEF members are prepared for this..