Stronger regional ties in agriculture and production are being urged to ensure food security in the United Arab Emirates. Mariam bint Mohammed Al Mehairi, Minister of State for Food Security, said its future in the Middle East and North Africa depended on strengthening economic and trade co-operation.
Author: Sarah Polaski
Public colleges confront student hunger, housing needs over summer
In Massachusetts, local public colleges and universities are ramping up efforts to provide safety net programs to students over the summer break. This year, all four public colleges in Central Massachusetts have launched or plan to launch new on-campus food pantries as a stopgap measure to help students struggling to find meals. Those schools also have introduced or tried to better publicize existing programs aimed at students dealing with hunger, homelessness, or other issues between semesters.
Does more food always mean less hunger?
A group of farming experts have questioned calls that increased food production will guarantee a decline in hunger. International researchers reviewed 53 research papers on intensive farming in low and middle income countries and found it brings limited benefits to poor farmers and damages the environment.
Podcast: Feeding America: Solve Hunger by Reducing Food Waste
Earth911.com interviews Feeding America’s Liz Baldridge, director of Sustainability and Food Waste Initiatives, and Zuani Villareal, director of communication at Feeding America, to discuss food waste.
Fighting summer hunger block by block, lunch by lunch
Just 40% of the children who receive school lunches are reached in the summer: the Greater Philadelphia Coalition Against Hunger measured lunch consumption during October and July 2017. In Philadelphia public and charter schools, around 130,000 free lunches were served per day in October; in July, 52,000 lunches were served per day at the city’s summer food sites.
Pacific regional food security atlas launched to reach the most vulnerable
Representatives from across the North and South Pacific gathered recently to witness the launch of the first-ever Pacific Regional Food Security Atlas on the opening day of the Pacific Seed Forum in Nadi, Fiji. In a region highly prone to natural disasters, accurate and up-to-date data will support informed decisions by affected member countries and communities to prepare for and respond more effectively to a crisis or disaster.
Food insecurity rising in Argentina, sparking protest and food-emergency bill
Food insecurity isn’t anything new in Argentina. The country declared a food emergency in 2002, and it’s been continually extended since then. But people aren’t hungry because there’s not enough food. The problem is that the country poorly manages the food it has. On average, the nation loses or wastes about a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of food per person per day, says Mercedes Nimo, undersecretary of food and beverages for the Ministerio de Agroindustria.
One in two Indigenous children in danger of going to school hungry
One in two Indigenous children — roughly double the average of other Canadian kids — may be at risk of going to school with an empty stomach, according to the Breakfast Club of Canada, a national charity.
Farmers-Herdsmen Crisis Will Affect Nigeria’s Food Security, GDP – Lawmaker
Nigerian lawmaker Alhaji Mohammed Okpoku, a member of the Nasarawa State House of Assembly, says incessant farmers-herdsmen clashes may cause food shortage in the state and the country at large. Ongoing conflict threatens food security and leads to hunger for those who are not able to farm or graze their livestock.
Local youth fights world hunger
In Michigan, Addy Battel, 15, of Cass City, started “Meating the Need for our Village Hunger” four years ago when her rural town became a food desert. She works with friends and neighbors “to provide high quality protein to low-income members of our community and the communities surrounding us, while and through empowering other youth hunger fighters.”
