Attempting to quantify the depth of damage to global food security by the food crisis of 2006-2008, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released its annual “The State of Food Insecurity in the World” report. The theme of the report coincides with the recent World Food Day celebration and related events, examining how food price […]
World Food Day 2011 will be commemorated on Sunday, October 16th, starting two weeks of programs and events focusing attention on the effect that volatile swings in food prices are affecting the poor. World Food Day was originally started to celebrate the founding of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and has since […]
Even before it was a country, the United States has drawn people eager to realize the opportunities that it affords to new arrivals. For refugees living in the United States, however, their arrival often accompanies a traumatic break from their homelands because of conflict or persecution. The U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement initiated a program […]
Working with a local telecommunications company, the World Food Programme (WFP) has developed a program in the Ivory Coast to facilitate cash transfers that can be used by thousands of Ivorians to by food despite a climate of political violence. WFP provides $75.00 per month to households, benefiting 54,000 people in the Ivory Coast. However, […]
Last week’s edition of The New York Times Magazine was the annual Food & Drink issue, with articles and features dedicated to subjects including health, policy, drinks, cooking, etiquette, curiosities and more. Perspectives on food security issues could be found among the answers to policy questions, including: “What’s an abundant food source that we haven’t […]
The battle between environmental conservation and business development continues in Alaska where voters sent in ballots on Tuesday October 4th to decide whether to prevent a mine from being built near the headwaters of Bristol Bay – one of the world’s premier salmon fisheries, according to the Associated Press (AP). “Supporters [of the mine] say […]
Feeding America created an interactive map of food insecurity in the United States in order to assist with its food aid efforts at the local community level. The Mapping the Meal Gap project also serves the general public with a useful illustration of hunger statistics by state and county, including: a piechart of the food […]
Monday’s opening of the 66th United Nations General Assembly will feature two high-level meetings on issues that will affect international cooperation on food security and development issues. The first, taking place on September 19th and 20th, will address non-communicable diseases (NCDs) which include cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, conditions which can develop or worsen depending on […]
The natural disaster at the root of the famine striking Somalia, which has been worsened by interference by al Shabab militants and a failure to deliver aid, will only see a break when the October 2012 harvest yields its crops. In the meantime, the United Nations has declared a sixth area of southern Somalia as […]
14.5% of American households were food insecure for at least some time in 2010, according to an annual study released by the United States Department of Agriculture. This is essentially unchanged from 2008 and 2009, but is higher than 2007 when 11.1% of American households were food insecure. For most of the decade starting in […]
International organizations with interests in the Horn of Africa crisis are stepping up their contributions to both alleviating the current crisis and preventing similar crises in the future. The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) pledged $350 million after an emergency donor conference held in Istanbul, Turkey two weeks ago. The African Union Commission organized […]
Hurricane Irene is making its way across the eastern seaboard of the United States, a rare trajectory for such a powerful storm. With damage expected in the billions of dollars and uncertainty about the degree to which storm damage will disable access to utilities and supplies for the large population on the East Coast of […]
Nina Federoff, who served as the science and technology adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton until 2010, takes on the Obama administration in an Op-Ed that appeared in The New York Times titles, “Engineering Food for All.” Now a professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University, Federoff writes that while the Obama administration has […]
Depending how you feel about the subject, reading about eating insects can make one as squeamish as actually eating them. But in an effort to portray the many dimensions of food security, this post addresses two recent articles that discuss the possibility of insects as a food source. Dana Goodyear’s article in The New Yorker, […]
For those interested in conducting research about topics in food security, the New America Foundation is now taking applications for its Schmidt Family Foundation Fellowship. “The ideal candidate is a policy-minded writer with an interest in exploring how agroecology informs, or should influence, policy debates on the right to food, resilience/adaptation to climate change, agricultural […]