The U.S. Senate voted on Monday to confirm President Obama’s nominee for Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Margaret Hamburg. The FDA is the oversight agency for food production as well as prescription drugs and medical devices. Dr. Hamburg is a Harvard-trained doctor and former New York City health commissioner known for […]
This article by Lester Brown, founder of the Earth Policy Institute, appears in the May 2009 issue of Scientific American magazine. In his analysis, Brown argues that causal factors such as the current world order, water shortages, eroding soil, and rising global temperatures are threatening not only the global food supply, but world civilization as […]
The World Trade Organization’s (WTO) chief countered the perception put forward by development experts that the international food trade was key to the recent global food crisis. Speaking at the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council conference in Austria, Pascal Lamy, the Director General of the World Trade Organization, rebuffed the idea put forward […]
Is it possible to make a difference in the fight against global hunger from your computer? Organizations that are dedicated to fighting hunger work approach this challenge in many ways, and must dedicate a great deal of time and resources to raising funds to support their programs. The United Nation’s World Food Programme (WFP) for […]
U.S. President Barack Obama announced the creation of a “Biofuels Interagency Working Group” to be composed of the Departments of Agriculture, Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency(EPA). The working group will be tasked with supporting the U.S. biofuels industry through funds to support existing refiners, new loans to increase crop production and the building of […]
The Influenza A H1N1 virus (also known as “swine flu”) outbreak continues to challenge the globe, despite a pronouncement by the CDC’s acting director of “encouraging signs” concerning the severity of the outbreak. Still, various countries and international organizations are dealing with the possible spread of the virus and the effects on the world population. […]
The U.S. government is working to understand and combat the “swine flu” outbreak, it must also contend with the impact that swine flu fears are having on exports of U.S. pork products. So far, countries including China, Croatia, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Philippines, Russia, South Korea, Thailand, Ukraine have announced full or partial bans on pork […]
The dramatic rescue of the Maersk Alabama’s captain Richard Phillips brought relief that his hostage crisis was resolved, but the dangers of piracy in the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean continue. Somali pirates have not been slowed by the Maersk Alabama incident, continuing to regularly hijack ships to make money by ransoming the ship, […]
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP) held an event on April 8, 2009 with Professor Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Professor De Shutter presented an analysis of the global food crisis titled “From Malthus to Sen.” Following his remarks, he took questions from Steven Schonberger from the World […]
The Foreign Policy Association has posted a Great Decisions 2009 Spring Update on its website. The Update compiles important news items from the past few months and is an excellent way to stay up to date on the each of the eight U.S. foreign policy and global affairs issues covered in Great Decisions 2009. There […]
The recent salmonella outbreaks in peanuts and pistachios may have been wake-up calls to the public about the dangers of food-borne illness, but U.S. agencies that measure food safety have seen how “progress has plateaued” in government efforts to combat contamination of U.S. food supply. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has released its […]
The danger of delivering food aid in unstable regions or conflict zones was further illustrated by yesterday’s hijacking of a U.S. cargo ship by Somali pirates. The Maersk Alabama was delivering food supplies to East African countries for several aid organizations: “‘The vessel’s manifest showed it was carrying 401 containers of food aid from USAID, […]
A joint report issued by the Center on International Cooperation (CIC) in New York and the Overseas Development Institute in London cited that 122 aid workers were killed and over 260 were attacked in 2008 while conducting aid programs, making it the most dangerous year for aid workers. A Reuters article quotes Abby Stoddard from […]
President Obama announced a plan designed, in part, to combat the global food crisis* on the final day of the G-20 summit in London last week. The initiative allots $448 million to address immediate aid concerns in Latin America and Africa, and allocates another $1 billion for the development of a long-term food security strategy. […]
California’s State Assembly has drafted new legislation in response to the investigation of salmonella contamination of pistachio nuts from Setton Farms of Terra Bella, CA. The draft bill aims to improve food inspections, testing and reporting of contaminated food. An article in the Los Angeles Times makes two important points: First, that the reaction of […]