The dilemma of eating locally and hurting others globally
Farmer plants rice in the Philippines. Credit: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Want to change the world? Many tell you to start at the grocery story…or with your local farmers market. Eat...
View ArticleEconomist: Why food is so expensive for poor people
Were you confused by the stories that explained, way back when, that the riots and political unrest which exploded into what we then called the Arab Spring (now perhaps better dubbed the Arab Turmoil...
View ArticleFeed the Future Survives for Another Day
Feed the Future is the Obama Administration’s answer to cyclical global hunger crises. Rather than provide food in response to droughts or work around governments, Feed the Future represent’s a...
View ArticleAfrican agriculture threatened by funding drought & bad trade policies
Morgana Wingard African countries are making promising agricultural gains, but the progress remains in the balance due to a $4.4 billion funding shortfall, warns a new report by the ONE Campaign. That...
View ArticleRoger Thurow on why Hunger should not exist
Humanocast is a podcast and look at recent news in global health, aid and development as well as a guest interview. This week we interview Roger Thurow, for many years a foreign correspondent for the...
View ArticleBrightening Up Chocolate’s Dark Side
Joe Whinney and Theo Chocolate factory Tom Paulson Welcome to the Humanosphere podcast, our weekly look back at the world of global health and development. This week we discuss the Obama...
View ArticleFeed the World: Bugs
Jokes naturally followed the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation’s new report extolling the virtues of eating bugs. The most popular tweet was a variant on “Let them eat cake.” Others pointed to the...
View ArticleMalnutrition has a Global Cost: $3.5 Trillion a Year
As if there was any doubt that malnutrition was a bad thing, it now comes with a hefty price tag of $3.5 trillion lost globally every year. That’s roughly the same size as the annual GDP of Germany....
View ArticleLast Ditch Effort for Food Aid Reform
What's at stake: Between 4 million and 10 million more hungry people overseas could be fed -- for the same amount of money -- if proposed changes are enacted, according to experts at a leading...
View ArticleWhat explains the weird way Congress voted down food aid reform?
Flickr, pinehurst19475 The recent defeat in Congress of legislation aimed at improving the efficiencies of our foreign efforts to feed the hungry didn’t fall into the normal partisan divisions, or even...
View ArticleWhy food security and conflict may not be linked
Food prices go up and people revolt, right? Maybe not. Conflict does lead to food insecurity. That makes sense because broken markets means it is harder and more expensive to get food. But what about...
View ArticleBringing better nutrition to Tanzania’s farmers
Six percent of children were characterized as wasted (critically below healthy weight for the appropriate age group) in September 2012. Last month, that number reached zero after a steady decline. More...
View ArticleHow much do your food snacks and beverages hurt the poor?
Have you ever wondered to what extent that can of Pepsi or Coke - or the quasi-potato-chip Pringles or that quasi-chocolate Snickers bar - hurts the poor? No? Well, Oxfam and its Behind the Brands...
View ArticleThe 10 stories you missed while following the Philippines
The disaster following Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines rightly has dominated the global twenty-four hour news cycle. Humanosphere has devoted more of our reporting time to the issue than anything...
View ArticleAre there trade-offs in feeding the world?
Uganda IamNotUnique A world-wide hunger problem with a continuing growing population means that food is increasingly important. Some 842 million people suffer from chronic hunger. That means one out of...
View ArticleWhat’s In A Strawberry? Poverty and Racism
Michael Valiant/Flickr There’s nothing like sitting down at the table with a bowl of fresh berries from the store. Rinse them, maybe sprinkle a bit of sugar on top, and enjoy. Sweet and healthy. What’s...
View ArticleA ‘special’ perspective on food, human rights and the future of agriculture
Olivier De Schutter For today’s podcast, we talk with the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier De Schutter. You may wonder: What the heck is a rapporteur, let alone a...
View ArticleAmid UN food ration cuts, how US food aid prolongs civil conflicts
USAID-provided lentils and soy-oil are readied for distribution to citizens of Petonville, Haiti. USAID The UN announced last week that it was forced to cut food rations for nearly 800,000 refugees in...
View ArticleDecline in global hunger threatened by climate change and conflict
There are 209 million fewer people who face hunger today that did in 1990. Hunger has become an issue of the past for some 100 million people in the last decade alone. This progress is exciting, but...
View ArticleIs the UN cooking up faulty numbers on global hunger?
How much progress has the world made against hunger? The question seems easy. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says there are 209 million fewer people hungry today than in...
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