In The News

India’s Agriculture on the Brink

Deepak Gopinath March 27, 2013
Sound food policy should be a priority for India, on track for the world’s largest population by 2025. India has also achieved status as a major food exporter with rice, wheat and buffalo beef. Indian policies emphasize minimum support prices for farmers and subsidized crops for the poor, but these in turn spur food inflation, price volatility, overproduction of grains and overworked land. The...

World Agriculture Suffers From Loss of Wild Bees

March 18, 2013
Wild bees are better at fertilizing plants than bees managed by humans, and their falling numbers are hurting global agriculture, according to a study in the journal Science, reported on by Health24. Wild bees live in edge habitats, borders between grasslands and forests, which are increasingly targeted by development. The Canadian researchers examined 41 crop systems. “Paradoxically, most...

Bangladesh Tackles Climate Change, Fuses Rice Paddies With Fish Farms

Naimul Haq March 4, 2013
Low-lying countries like Bangladesh understand that they must adapt quickly to climate change – and explore a range of options. Saltwater intrusion is destroying rice paddies. Combining aquaculture with rice farming could increase nutrition levels of food, reduce environmental damage and increase output capacity of land and neighboring waters, suggests a report from a fisheries management...

A Report Card for Global Food Giants

Stephanie Strom March 1, 2013
NGO Oxfam has developed a scoring mechanism to evaluate multinational food companies and their effects on the environment, labor and health, reports a New York Times blog. “The goal of the scorecard, called ‘Behind the Brands,’ is to motivate consumers to pressure companies like Nestlé, Kellogg and Mars to improve their policies on land and water use and the treatment of small farmers, among...

Horsing Around the Global Food Chain

Nayan Chanda February 18, 2013
Regulators in Britain tested the DNA of meat in packaged lasagnas, labeled as beef, and discovered some containing more than half horsemeat. Fast, convenient, affordable frozen and processed meals – often marketed to the poorest consumers – have complex supply chains with many subcontractors for the many ingredients, explains Nayan Chanda, YaleGlobal’s editor. Intense competition and lingering...

High-Tech Fork Counts Your Mouthfuls

Bruce Kennedy January 25, 2013
Inventors in one part of the world often observe problems elsewhere and develop solutions. Researchers have long pointed out that eating too fast leads to weight gain and obesity. Quick eaters take in too much before realizing their stomachs are full. So engineer Jacques Lépine invented a fork with electronics in the handle, designed to vibrate and turn red if users insert food into their mouth...

With Hunger Growing, North Korea Returns to Nuclear Talks

Shim Jae Hoon March 7, 2012
China’s policy toward North Korea is increasingly viewed as self-serving, cynical and awkward. On one hand, China sides with the international community, echoing demands for a nuclear-free peninsula and, on the other, props up the Kim regime with food and military aid. At first glance, North Korea’s new leader, Kim Jong Un, has let China off the hook by offering to restart talks on...