In The News

Hunger Pains Test North Korea’s Dynastic Succession

Shim Jae Hoon February 1, 2012
Isolated North Korea has carried out early stages of transfer of power from Kim Jong Il to his third son, Kim Jong Un, with elaborate titles and displays of respect. But the government faces grave challenges stemming from decades of prioritizing military spending capped by a nuclear-weapons program, acrimonious relations with South Korea since the 1950-1953 war, and steadfast refusal to engage...

India Needs Western Supermarkets

Salil Tripathi December 2, 2011
India has approved allowing foreign investors to hold majority stakes in multibrand retail. Critics blast the plans – worrying about store closures, job losses, profits going to foreigners, and homogeneity – and they vow protectionist measures in some states. But fast-growing India needs the so-called “big box stores” with their dependable supplies and reduced prices for consumers, argues Salil...

The New Geopolitics of Food

Lester R. Brown October 18, 2011
“Prices [of food] are climbing, but the impact is not at all being felt equally,” argues Lester Brown in Foreign Policy. Temperature increases, drying wells, mismanagement of soils, and ever-increasing population growth, with an additional 80 million of people to feed per year, are behind the price hikes. As a result, the gap between food supply and demand is widening, carrying political...

How Global Investors Make Money Out of Hunger

Horand Knaup, Michaela Schiessl, Anne Seith September 6, 2011
Traders, intent on making money, increasingly rely on products always in demand: food commodities. Record sums are being invested in commodities. “Agricultural commodities attract investors who are no more interested in grain than they were previously in dot-com companies or subprime mortgages,” explains a team from Spiegel Online. The result is fast-rising food prices, reports the UN Food and...

Ethiopia “Using Aid as Weapon of Oppression”

August 29, 2011
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations describes the seven nations – Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, the Sudan and Uganda – of the Horn of Africa, as one of the most food-insecure regions in the world. A team of journalists from the BBC and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism traveled through Ethiopia, posing as tourists, and discovered communities allegedly...

Globalizing Insurgency in Somalia

Christopher Anzalone August 23, 2011
The Somali Al Qaeda–linked insurgent movement al-Shabab has ruled most of southern and central Somalia, including the capital city of Mogadishu, since mid-2008. Originating as the most radical wing of the military arm of the Islamic Courts Union coalition, the movement delivered relative law and order and peace to Somalia in 2006. Since then, al-Shabab has moved ideologically closer to the...

The Problem With Fair Trade Coffee

Colleen Haight August 17, 2011
Europe and the US account for about 88 percent of the world’s coffee consumption, while most beans are grown in developing nations. Some industry representatives try to ensure what’s become known as “fair trade,” by certifying producers who meet specific labor, environmental and production standards. “Retailers explain that neither FLO – the Fairtrade Labelling Organization’s International...