Opinions
Don’t ask how to feed the 9 billion
At dinner with a friend the other night, I mentioned that I was giving a talk this week debunking the idea that we need to grow more food on a large scale so we can “feed the nine billion” — the anticipated global population by 2050....
How a national food policy could save millions of American lives. The food system and the diet it’s created have caused incalculable damage to the h...
Mark Bittman, an opinion columnist and food writer for the New York Times, is the author of “How to Cook Everything Fast.” Michael Pollan, who teaches journalism at the University of California at Berkeley, is the author of “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” ...
The two words that scare the World Bank: human rights
Does it matter that the lead source of funding for, and thinking about, world development won’t go near human rights with a 10-foot pole?...
How to eat for the climate
Consumers have unrealized power to steer the close marriage between agriculture and the climate toward healthier outcomes, according to food-policy activists at the Green Festival in Chicago Saturday....
Who’s serious about global food security?
Can a stable and reliable international food trade system that is resistant to political manipulation be created? The keynote speaker at the Oilseed & Grain Trade Summit said the future depends on it....
Cuba’s impressive role on Ebola
Cuba is an impoverished island that remains largely cut off from the world and lies about 4,500 miles from the West African nations where Ebola is spreading at an alarming rate....
Addressing malnutriton Reps.
Malnutrition is the largest single contributor to child mortality worldwide, and according to the World Health Organization is the underlying cause of death for at least 3 million children every year. As the United States continues its efforts to help end world hunger and poverty, we must address ...
Census data show the economy strengthened in 2013, but too slowly to improve the living standards of many middle- and low-income Americans
Today’s Census data provide fresh evidence that the economy strengthened in 2013, but too slowly to improve the living standards of many middle- and low-income Americans. Median household income did not rise significantly and remained 8.0 percent (or $4,497) below its level in 2007, before the Gr...
CAR: A forgotten crisis at the heart of Africa: Though it scarcely makes headlines, the Central African Republic’s vicious civil war has created...
Take a look at the World section of nearly any mainstream news outlet and the main story will be Iraq, Syria, Ukraine, or Gaza—all of which are suffering acutely from their respective conflicts. Yet even together they hardly enjoy a monopoly on gruesome civil wars or protracted refugee crises....
Why Asia is probably poorer than we think: Asia’s ‘success’ in reducing poverty uses a flawed system for measuring income and ignores food insec...
The first target of the first millennium development goal (MDG) is to halve extreme poverty. It has been interpreted in terms of income poverty alone, relying on counting people living below the arbitrary global poverty line of $1.25 per day. According to this measure, there has been a global reduct...