Author: Steve Hansch

Book: How to Feed the World by Vaclav Smil

Vaclav Smil has produced an increasing repertoire of books summarizing how humans consume different resources.  Over four decades he has visited many topics including food availability and its constraints.  His latest 2025 book, “How to Feed the World:  The History and Future of Food” stands as his summum opus, and is the best current survey about the tension between human needs and food supplies, comparing key options and constraints.  Therefore it is highly recommended to students, scientists, aid workers and general readers alike.  The first section of his book tracks the inevitability of humans to depend on grains and legumes.

Smil highlights the paradox that some of the world’s largest food producers, like India, have significant undernourished populations. He attributes this to unequal “global entitlements to food” rather than insufficient production, pointing to economic, political, and social barriers that prevent equitable distribution.  But he also is concerned with the ability of societies to grow enough food for a population growing toward 10 billion persons, particularly in Africa where crop yields are low and water/irrigation is limited.

Smil causes particular attention to food waste.  He emphasizes the colossal scale of food waste—approximately 1,000 kcal per person daily in Western countries, with a third of food produced (around 3,300 kcal per person per day) wasted, including a quarter of unopened food in places like Britain. This inefficiency exacerbates hunger by reducing available food and straining resources, a critical issue as populations grow.

 

 

 

Book Review: Hot, Hungry Planet

Lisa Palmer’s book, Hot, Hungry Planet, The Fight to Stop a Global Food Crisis in the Face of Climate Change, presents seven case studies of individuals working in different continents in the race against hunger, noting that “with a growing population, the demand for rice and other cereals is expected to rise by 14 percent every decade.”

A journalist, and affiliate of George Washington University’s Global Food Institute, Palmer explores how farmers are adopting new technologies and land management strategies to increase productivity while minimizing environmental harm such as “climate-smart villages,” where farmers apply solar-powered irrigation systems to manage and conserve water, reduce carbon emissions, and sell excess energy back to the local electrical grid.  Regenerative agriculture methods such as no-till farming and cover cropping can help capture and sequester carbon out of the  air.

Her case studies are drawn from farms in India, Uganda, Kenya, the U.S. Colombia, Syria and Indonesia.  She writes, “We are on the cusp of a global food crisis… How is the global food system meeting the demands of people right now?  Of the more than 7 billion people in the world, about 1 in 6 go to bed hungry every night.  This is not because we don’t have enough food.”  She points to the growing paradox:  “once people have sufficient funds to afford food, they almost immediately want better food, which puts greater strain on the food system.”   As a result, she observes, “the rapid rise of the global middle class is driving half the increase in the world’s predicted food consumption  To prevent more hunger, farmers would have to more than double their production by 2050.”

She extolls drought-tolerant maize and heat-resistant crop varieties.  She argues for plant-based proteins instead of livestock, which demands more inputs.

She points to advances in precision agriculture, using satellite remote sensing and drones for crop monitoring and soil sensors.  For growing urban populations, she points to vertical farms (indoor, high-tech farms using LED lighting and hydroponics) which can locate food production nearer to cities, reducing transportation costs and emissions.  She further gives examples of how integrating trees into agricultural landscapes (including “forest gardens”) can enhance biodiversity, improve soil health, and promote ecosystem services.

See:  https://smpa.gwu.edu/anneliese-lisa-palmer

 

Book Review: We Fed an Island – the True Story of Rebuilding Puerto Rico, One Meal at a Time

The book, “We Fed An Island – One Meal at a Time” by Chef Jose Andres (2018, Harper Collins Publisher) describes how the NGO, World Central Kitchen (WCK), reacted to the 2017 Hurricane Maria after it hit Puerto Rico, knocking out power and destroying homes. Several days after the hurricane, Chef Jose Andres traveled to Puerto Rico and began organizing kitchens to cook hot meals, largely sancocho (stew) and sandwiches, particularly ham and cheese sandwiches (“the key ingredient was the mayonnaise. Lots and lots of mayonnaise mixed with tomato ketchup.”). At its peak, WCK provided 150,000 meals per day, mobilizing an estimated 20,000 volunteers and partnering with local churches, restaurants, the Southern Baptist Convention and, in places, Mercy Corps.

WCK received donations of food products from various companies and organizations both on and off the island. This included staples, produce, and other necessary items. As WCK received press publicity and donations, it scaled up purchases of bulk foods from the United States.

Andres begins the book explaining Puerto Rico’s history as a U.S. colony. He also explains how World Central Kitchen came about its name: “it was founded in the basement of what was then Washington D.C.’s central homes shelter.”  In Puerto Rica, he describes complex interactions with FEMA, President Trump, local authorities and his disappointment with the Red Cross and Salvation Army.

Andres describes the challenges of roads that were destroyed, shortages of water, and poor communications among relief organizations. He organized several kitchens across the island, while hiring local cooks, chefs and drivers among those unable to work their normal jobs. Andres writes repeatedly about circumventing other relief forums or channels because of his impatience with what he calls red tape. Andres’ focus in Puerto Rico and in other WCK programs is to feed people as much as possible in the short-term and leave other aspects of rehabilitation, resettlement and livelihoods to other actors.  Despite the book’s subtitle, the story is not, strictly speaking, about rebuilding or recovery, but about feeding people as a form of relief.  Andres also distinguishes his approach — hot food — from that of other relief models by other organizations which aim to provide the basics for people to feed themselves.

Andres credits his success, and that of his colleagues, to the complexities of running restaurants.  Running restaurants, he argues, requires the same skills as managing disaster relief.

Note:  In 2019 World Hunger Education Service (the NGO publishing this article in Hunger Notes) donated to WCK for its work.

Note:  Though WHES has written repeatedly to WCK for an interview, both to staff and to Chef Andres, no reply has been received.

In Memoriam: The US Famine Early Warning System, Known as FEWS, as well as SERVIR

The program which many experts considered to be the most effective at stopping famines and starvation and arguably the single most valuable aid program of all time, has ended its 40 year run of success, as the White House shut it down, alongside hundreds of other global initiatives, without review, discussion or debate.  The “Famine Early Warning System” aka “FEWS” was created to address the longstanding problem that U.S. food aid, which takes months to plan, procure and ship across oceans, kept arriving too late to save lives where there was famine.

FEWS has prevented the deaths of an estimated 10 million children from famine during its tenure.  FEWS played an important role in the decline in famine deaths seen in the last century.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) created FEWS following the late famine relief efforts of the mid 1980s when famine hit Ethiopia, Sudan and the Sahel.  In those famines, US food aid saved many lives, but could have saved more, and prevented mass forced migration (the uprooting of refugees) if food aid had reached those in need at earlier stages of crisis.  The President of Tufts University (in Massachusetts), Dr. Jean Mayer, a nutritionist, proposed a new famine early warning initiative to the head of USAID at the time, and the new program was born.  In the decades since, US food aid became dramatically more effective at addressing emergency food needs in a timely way, in the process saving millions of lives.

From its inception, FEWS cleverly combined data from a range of different sources about local crop production in countries from Somalia to Mali, from Afghanistan to Haiti.  FEWS obtained and compared data from satellite imagery of fields under cultivation, ground visitations, rainfall, local retail prices, surveys of malnutrition, and distress sales by households (an early indicator of intention to migrate).  Its methods elegantly blended insights from markets, biology, climate, and remote sensing.  FEWS brought together contributions from other parts of the government:  including NASA, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), NOAA, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Various universities including the University of California/Santa Barbara and the University of Maryland also provided critical satellite monitoring and analysis, all under USAID management, backed by networks of field analysts and scientists.  The first American group leading FEWS was Tulane University School of Tropical Medicine.

Graduate courses in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) taught about FEWS as a case study of a successful application of layering information in multi-colored maps to target food aid where it was needed most.  Courses in schools of public health taught about FEWS as well.  Humanitarian aid became a science.

USAID renamed the program “FEWS NET” and funded it to avoid appearance of conflict of interest to inflate food needs through funding appeals.  The cost of FEWS NET has been a small fraction of the value of the humanitarian food aid that USAID distributes. As FEWS matured and became a global network, FEWS NET, it provided ongoing, real-time reporting about a several dozen countries spanning continents and became a mainstay of USAID, being renewed continuously.  FEWS provided guidance not only to US food aid, but food from other donor countries including Canada, Japan, Europe and Australia.  To emphasize this collaboration with other contributing nations, in 2000, the initiative was renamed to Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) to emphasize the importance of collaboration with international and local information systems.

FEWS NET integrated varied data to build the most-likely scenarios to project food insecurity conditions in designated countries four and eight months in advance, indicating where timely humanitarian food aid might save lives and livelihoods.  FEWS NET’s analysis have answered the who, what, where, when and why. FEWS NET also reviews livestock conditions, markets and herder mobility (and fisheries, where important), along with crop conditions.  In recent decades, conflict became the biggest driver of food insecurity due to broken market links, shrinking livelihood options, death or injury of main breadwinners, and population displacement, leading to aid dependence.

No other public source has provided this kind of independent and globally consistent food insecurity intelligence.  FEWS NET briefings to all branches of the US Government, UN and NGO community are well respected and eagerly sought.  FEWS NET also reviewed livestock conditions, markets and herder mobility (and fisheries, where important), along with crop conditions.  In recent decades, conflict became the biggest driver of food insecurity due to broken market links, shrinking livelihood options, death or injury of main breadwinners, and population displacement, leading to aid dependence.

Famines will continue to occur, but prevention and early mitigation and response will be hampered now in the absence of FEWS.

In addition to the termination of FEWS, the USG also terminated other early warning projects, such as SERVIR.  The SERVIR program was a joint initiative of NASA and USAID that leveraged satellite-based Earth observation data to support climate resilience, disaster preparedness, and prevention in poorer countries. Established in 2005, SERVIR’s mission is to “connect space to village,” making NASA’s Earth data accessible for locally-driven environmental and development solutions. SERVIR tracked food security, water resources, weather, land use, and natural hazards.  SERVIR partnered with regional organizations in Amazonia, Eastern and Southern Africa, Hindu Kush Himalaya, Mekong, West Africa, and Central America.

Other sources about the demise of FEWS:   New Humanitarian about Data Streams;  and National Public Radio’s piece.

About Servir, see:     https://nasawatch.com/trumpspace/usaid-erasure-impact-nasa-halts-servir-solicitations/ https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20210022715/downloads/Anderson2021_Getting-ahead-of-disaster-impacts-EO-CB_20211015.pdf

Prayer Vigil for Foreign Aid Unites Evangelicals for Aid

A prayer vigil for foreign aid was held March 11, among some 50 Christians, at the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, attended by Bread for the World, World Relief, Compassion International, Catholic Relief Services, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency, World Renew, Hope International, the Accord Network, and others.

Speakers called on Congress, the Administration and the American people to re-install aid programs serving the hungry around the world.

According to Ministry Watch:  Eugene Cho, president and CEO of  Bread for the World, denounced the “broad, un-targeted cuts” recently implemented at the U.S. Agency for International Development as an assault on vulnerable populations all over the globe.

America Farm Workers Face Food Insecurity

Investigative article in Grist covers challenges facing farm workers in the US including high food prices and low compensation.

https://grist.org/food-and-agriculture/farmworker-hunger-crisis-climate-inflation-grocery-costs/

“The people who feed America are going hungry:  
Climate change is escalating a national crisis, leaving farmworkers with empty plates and mounting costs” written by Ayurella Horn-Muller
Staff Writer

Including:  “Historically, hunger rates among farmworkers, as with other low-income communities, have been at their worst during the winter due to the inherent seasonality of a job that revolves around growing seasons. But climate change and inflation have made food insecurity a growing, year-round problem.”

Feeding America’s Claire Babineaux-Fonteno Cited by Time Magazine

The newly released Time Magazine review (Feb. 20, 2025) of “Women of the Year” features Claire Babineaux-Fonteno for her nation-wide advocacy to end hunger.   (https://time.com/7216387/feeding-america-ceo-claire-babineaux-fontenot/)

Babineux-Fonteno heads the nonprofit Feeding America, described by Time as “the country’s largest domestic hunger-­relief organization—overseeing a network of more than 200 food banks and 60,000 partners.”

Time quotes her:  “Babineaux-Fontenot embraces the nonpartisan nature of her work. ‘No matter what your political positions are in this country, people consistently believe that people deserve to have access to nutritious food.'”

A lifelong volunteer with nonprofits and boards, Babineux-Fontenot worked at Wallmart before joining Feeding America, including as executive vice president and global treasurer.  She was recognized by Sothern Methodist University with their Distinguished Alumni Award.

Interviewed by The Cut in December, she explained how “Advocating on behalf of people experiencing hunger is a big part of my role. I get to lift up their aspirations.”

Feeding America, based in Chicago, Illinois, was founded in the 1960s.

The organization supports mobile food distributions, school feeding, disaster relief, public advocacy, education, elderly feeding and other activities.

Their annual report for 2024 explains that their network supported almost 6 billion meals in the twelve months from mid 2023 to mid 2024.  Feeding America raised $5.2 billion in 2024.

USAID Library of Project Reports and Evaluations

American Taxpayers often have questions about how funds for foreign aid work.  In early 2025 there has also been claims — and false information — by Congress and social media about an overall lack of transparency about this aid.

The primary or lead aid agency for the US Government is the United States Agency for International Development or USAID.  In tracking the tens of thousands of projects that have been funded, USAID has maintained a public, transparent, free, easy, searchable database, called the “Development Experience Clearinghouse”, or DEC.   Indeed, World Hunger Education Service has turned to the DEC many times in the last few decades to help provide educational content to the public.

The Development Experience Clearinghouse (DEC) is large database of several hundred thousand reports for sharing and accessing USAID-funded technical and program documentation, including reports, evaluations, studies, and other resources related to international development.   Most of the independent rigorous evaluations conducted of USAID activities can be freely download or read from this site.  In addition to serving as a historical record of USAID’s work, it also fosters knowledge sharing about American solutions to problems and technical advances between countries.  There is no comparably comprehensive, one-stop-shop source of information about development insights, for instance by the UN or in Europe or the UN.

Reports on the DEC are typically written by groups implementing programs overseas, including American nonprofits, universities, research groups and other independent specialists or front-line implementers summarizing their programs.

Ironically, during the January/February 2025 period of claims by some Congresspeople that USAID is not transparent, the new Administration shut down the DEC, so that it is no longer accessible for American citizens, including students or Congresspersons, to learn from.  No explanation has been given about why the new Administration is blocking transparent access to details about USAID-funded programs.

 

Questions to Ask about Aid from USAID

The US Government Agency that Brings Aid – USAID

USAID, started in 1961 under President John F. Kennedy.  Estimates are that some 3 billion people in 150 countries have benefited directly from U.S. food assistance      . The Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, a part of USAID, identifies food aid      needs in close consultation with foreign governments     .

A common misperception is that the US spends a large percentage of its budget on foreign aid. In reality, it is less than 1% and is widely seen within government as providing some of the most bang for the buck in terms of its return.

The US Administration is asking some good questions of programs across the US government– is this right for America, are we kept safer, does it promote US interests?

As things are continuing to move quickly     , there are some broader questions to ask about USAID in regards to the new administration’s direction.  For example:

  • Are all or most the USAID programs harming US interests?
  • How does humanitarian aid – the supplying of food, water, medicines and other life saving measures – improve the lives of peoples in nearly 130 countries? Is the withdrawal of this aid make us more or less American? That is, does humanitarian aid reflect our values and support to people and countries in need? Is humanitarian aid promoting US interests?
  • Will the abrupt withdrawal of humanitarian aid programs worldwide cause countries to trust America more or less in the future?
  • How will this impact the hundreds of non-profit, non-governmental organizations who have been working with USAID, their operations, their staff and American volunteers, their reach to the most vulnerable, if their resources are cut?
  • Are we more or less safe? Does the trust that other countries have in the USA matter in terms of the overall safety of Americans? Will our adversaries step in and develop relationships with those foreign people’s trust we now might have lost?

These are important and forward-looking questions that should be addressed by government and law makers at this critical time. There are a number of other such questions we should ask.

The good work of USAID in over 100 countries worldwide merits immediate attention and fair review.

Margie Ferris Morris

Former Chairman of the Board, World Hunger Education Service

(Margie worked for decades in the field, as a nutritionist and food expert and has taught about international aid frequently including Tulane and George Washington Universities.

 

Career, Long-term, Retired USAID Experts Speak about USAID’s Value

February 13, 2025:   The United States Agency for International Development Association’s Alumni Association, of retired USAID experts, petitioned new Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also the USAID Administrator, with this letter this week, citing a few of the many USAID-supported projects and programs worldwide that are cost effective and help others on “behalf of the American people”: