Opinions
Regime change for humanitarian aid: How to make relief more accountable
The global humanitarian system, already under considerable strain, will soon be tested as never before. In 2013, the gap between the funds available for humanitarian aid and estimated global needs reached $4.5 billion, leaving at least one-third of the demand unmet. The gap seems certain to widen, a...
Big Corn vs. Big Sugar could have a sweet outcome for taxpayers
In the never-ending fight against corporate welfare, the forces of fairness and economic rationality may have found a winning strategy: Divide and conquer....
So much for trickle down: only bold reforms will tackle inequality. Even the IMF recognises the vicious circle in which inequality breeds instability,...
Christine Lagarde took time off last week from grappling with the Greek debt crisis to make a speech about inequality. The managing director of the International Monetary Fund chose a nautical metaphor first used by John F Kennedy....
Why developing countries should stop discriminating against agriculture: A short history of agricultural trade policies over the past 40 years
The following post by former IFPRI senior researcher Alberto Valdés is part of an ongoing series of blog stories celebrating IFPRI’s 40th anniversary. Each story authored by current and former IFPRI research staff highlights a key research topic through the years from the personal perspective of ...
Agriculture will drive Africa’s rise to economic power
I was in Mali recently where I met a woman, Maimouna Coulibaly, who several years ago left her job in the United States and returned to her home country to start a seed company called Faso Kaba. She quickly and confidently ramped up production, from 100 tons per year to over 1,000. She is eager to k...
Fear of almonds
I can’t tell you how many times in the last month someone has come up to me and said something like, “Do you think I should stop eating almonds?” or “I really miss almond butter, but I just can’t bring myself to buy it anymore.”...
Increased agricultural research investment needed to meet future food demand
A new Chicago Council report, Leveraging Innovation to Feed the Future, says that innovation will be essential to meeting future food needs driven by urbanization and population growth, especially in the face of rising temperatures, resource scarcity, and the increasing volatility of climate events....
Wasting the savanna
In recent years, as governments have begun to protect tropical forests because of the carbon they store, other vast tropical ecosystems have come under increasing threat. These are the wet savannas, which have a mix of grasses, trees and shrubs and receive enough rainfall to grow crops....
Let’s make food issues real
There is some talk about the food movement’s winning. I’m not even sure such a thing as a food movement exists....
Paul Ryan loves talking about poverty, but he keeps getting the basic facts wrong
is back to talking about poverty, taking to CBS's Face the Nation this past weekend to lay out his plans for tackling it. Some of his ideas on the topic are worthwhile — he's right that the Earned Income Tax Credit needs to be increased — and the fact that a major national politician has taken ...