Food production will have to increase by 70% over the next 40 years to feed the world's growing population, the United Nations food agency predicts.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation says if more land is not used for food production now, 370 million people could be facing famine by 2050.

The world population is expected to increase from the current 6.7 billion to 9.1 billion by mid-century.

Climate change, involving floods and droughts, will affect food production.

Visit Barnaby's site and read the comments below his media release...

Ronit Ridberg has given the world a marvellous look into the fraudulent, Big Government-Big Pharma complex with his documentary film, Big Bucks, Big Pharma: Marketing Disease and Pushing Drugs. It's a bit dated, from 2006, but certainly, that is no hindrance to the message of the film. It's an hour long, but worth every minute of your time.

Suggestions that John Howard, George Bush, Tony Blair, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Benjamin Netanyahu, The Milky Bar Kid, Malcolm Turnbull, Godwin Grech or the fairy at the bottom of the garden might have been "shortlisted" for the Nobel Peace Prize might be taken seriously in some quarters, however .....

Below is a brief description of the process involved in selecting the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates.

It took 25 years longer than George Orwell thought for the slogans of 1984 to become reality.

"War is Peace," "Freedom is Slavery," "Ignorance is Strength."

I would add, "Lie is Truth."

The Nobel Committee has awarded the 2009 Peace Prize to President Obama, the person who started a new war in Pakistan, upped the war in Afghanistan, and continues to threaten Iran with attack unless Iran does what the US government demands and relinquishes its rights as a signatory to the non-proliferation treaty.

As Israel's democratic posture becomes more questioned, its mystique becomes more exaggerated. In order to convince others of the validity of Israel's actions, supporters focus on three components of Israel's drive to an accomplished nation:

Fears that as much as 30 per cent of the beef sold in Australia is old cow meat repackaged as prime produce has prompted the NSW Government to introduce rules to protect consumers.

Shoppers have little way of telling the true quality of the meat they are buying because there is no grading system for locally sold beef, nor any onus on retailers to inform their customers of the quality of a cut.

Locally sold meat is graded under Meat and Livestock Australia's voluntary MSA scheme, but only about 12,500 of the nation's 160,000 cattle properties are MSA-accredited.

From the Independent

From the Moscow Times:

Lower-ranking Russian politicians were quicker to weigh in, expressing everything from cautious congratulations to frustration about Obama winning the prize. They were virtually united in the opinion that the award went to the U.S. president as a downpayment on his future actions to reinforce global peace rather than for his accomplishments so far.

Many of them noted Europe's disappointment with the policies of Obama's predecessor, George Bush, and hope that the new White House would take a more peaceful approach to its foreign policy.

Tegenlicht, a documentary program by the Dutch public broadcast organization VPRO, allows several interesting opinion makers to speak on the future of the American and Israel relationship and the reception of John Mearsheimers and Steve Walts article "The Israel Lobby and US foreign policy."

What you would normally do with warning people about a fire is say: "get out" It's a really basic human response, "get out, there's a terrible fire coming, run for your lives, words to that effect.

The Eurosceptic Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, wants a new two-sentence footnote to be added to the EU's Lisbon Treaty before signing it, Sweden says.

The new condition came up during a phone conversation between Mr Klaus and Swedish PM Fredrik Reinfeldt, current holder of the EU presidency.

Mr Reinfeldt said the requested footnote was linked to the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights.

No one is above the law, not even a prime minister.

That is the conclusion of one of the most eagerly awaited court decisions in recent Italian history.

The country's Constitutional Court has ruled that Silvio Berlusconi and three other people in public life - the president of the republic and the two parliamentary speakers - should not have immunity from prosecution while they are in office.

But, just like the country as a whole, it seems the judges were divided over the issue. The judges voted nine to six against the law.

So what are the implications? Well, it is best to divide them into two.

US President Barack Obama has said his decision on a new strategy in Afghanistan will not please everyone.

He told key figures from Congress, gathered to discuss future US plans, that he would decide the question with a sense of urgency.

Democratic Senator Harry Reid said members from both parties told Mr Obama they would support his decision.

But Republican Senator Mitch McConnell stressed backing would depend on Mr Obama following his generals' advice.