Opinions
Letting (some of) India’s women own land
This month, 600 women gathered under a huge blue-and-yellow-striped tent in Baripada, a small city in Odisha, a state in India’s east. They were among India’s most neglected people. Widowed, abandoned or divorced, many had ended up living like servants in the households of their fathers, brother...
The farm bill drove me insane.America’s top nutrition thinker tried to unpack the most important food law. It was a mistake
In fall 2011, in an act of what can be described only as hubris, I had the bright idea of teaching a course on the farm bill.For nearly 25 years, I had been writing and teaching about food politics and policy at New York University, and I knew that the farm bill dictated not only agricultural policy...
Feeding big cities in growing, fragile, and conflict-ridden states
As Ethiopia faces its worst drought in 50 years, some of the ten million people in need of food, and the 400,000 children suffering from malnutrition, reside in the slums of Addis Ababa. Increasingly the face of hunger is in a slum or city. While it is important to fight hunger and malnutrition in r...
Urbanization, food security and youth employment
A stunning fact: nearly 70 percent of the world's population will live in cities by 2050.As our primary goal is to increase food and nutrition security for all people, we must consider the ability of youth to forge productive livelihoods so they can feed themselves and their families....
Kenyans reaquire an old taste: eating healthier
In the 1950s and ’60s, governments in Africa and Asia started subsidizing the production of staple crops like rice and corn because it was the fastest way to fill bellies and reduce starvation in those regions. Today, needs have changed: The problem is no longer chronic hunger but malnutrition, an...
Beyond deportation: Fixing a broken immigration system
The Obama administration's self-contradictory stance on deportation perpetuates a long tradition of U.S. immigration policies that ignore the root causes of migration....
The surprising truth about the food movement
The Rutgers study asked consumers about information on labels using both methods: first, “What would you like to see on labels?” and second, “Would you like to see X on labels?” The difference between the responses is huge, and it’s at the heart of why the food movement seems so much bigge...
Jeb Bush, please talk to Bob Dole about food stamps
Presidential candidate Jeb Bush called on Friday for eliminating food stamps (now known as SNAP), handing the money over to the states, and giving them broad discretion over its use. Bush called SNAP a “failing, ineffective program” that “traps families in perpetual poverty.” He also impli...
GOP policy forum: Its high notes and low notes
It’s encouraging that six Republican presidential candidates appeared today in South Carolina to discuss poverty, and they advanced some positive proposals. Jeb Bush called for expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for low-income workers not raising children, essentially endorsing a propo...
Don’t buy the spin: The WTO talks in Nairobi ended badly and India will pay a price
It didn’t take long for the spin masters to begin working their magic on the latest dismal World Trade Organisation summit in Nairobi. WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo waxed eloquent about the “historic” agreement, stating in a post-meeting press conference that the agreement “will impro...