Yesterday, the Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa began. Here, the possible successor resolution to the Kyoto Protocols will be discussed.

The sharp increases of agricultural and food prices in 2007/08 and 2010/11 have resulted in enormous costs to the population of Southern countries and have revived the debate on the need of market regulation in order to ensure global Food Security.

Anne Moore, the Irish Farmers Organisation (IFA) has been awarded for its innovative farm. She develops 'a milking once a day', based and focused on the pasture low-cost production of high quality milk

The First Workshop of Experts on Family Agriculture was held between 3 and November 4. This meeting was organized by the FAO through Latin America and the Caribbean without Hunger Initiative. The main objective of the workshop was to discuss and address the different areas of small and medium scale agriculture, and generate consensus and conclusions regarding the potential and the strengthening of Family Farming.

We encourage you to read the article "Dialogues about the International Day of Rural Women" written by Lorenzo Soliz, Director General of CIPCA and member of the Board of Directors of the World Rural Forum.

Rising food prices, climate change and food riots have put agriculture high on the international agenda. Too much of the current policy debate focuses narrowly on increasing the volume of food, and assumes that industrial agriculture and biotechnology are the only options for feeding a growing global population. Alternatives do exist. The Asian Farmers' Association for Sustainable Development and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy have produced a new report documenting successful approaches in three countries.

The following document outlines some of the claims in defense and promotion of family farming for their inclusion in the compilation document RIO +20. It is based on the recommendations included in the Final Declaration of the "World Conference of Family Farming: Feeding the world, caring for the earth" that was held in Bilbao between the 5th and 7th of October 2011.

On December 18, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution 62/136 states that on October 15 of each year shall be announced and will be officially celebrated the International Day of Rural Women.

The Family Farming World Conference finished with a large participation of representatives of the rural world on five continents and a very high level of documents that will soon at your disposal on the website.