In The News

India Digs Deeper, But Wells Are Drying Up

Somini Sengupta December 22, 2006
India, soon to be the world’s most populous country, is running out of water. Encouraged by cheap electricity doled out by vote-buying politicians, rural Indians have spent the past few decades using electric pumps to suck up and sell the nation’s groundwater reserves. Such water harvesting has provided poor Indians with a steady stream of cash, but ill-timed droughts can leave Indian aquifers...

Apocalypse Now

David Adam November 4, 2006
A report released by the British government has everyone talking about the weather, and contains dire reasons for the world to start doing something about it. The 600-page Stern Report warns that, unless drastic measures are taken to combat global climate change, average temperatures will rise 2 or 3 degrees Celsius in the next half century, which will in turn melt ice fields, raise sea levels,...

Golden Age Is Fast Wilting

Gwynne Dyer October 17, 2006
The world is gradually losing its ability to feed itself. While the “Green Revolution” revolutionized agricultural efficiency in the second half of the 20th century, that revolution is over with its legacy steadily eroded by inexorable population growth. For the sixth time in seven years, the world will not produce enough food to feed itself in 2006, according to journalist Gwynne Dyer....

The Law of the Spirits

Andrew Morgan June 30, 2006
Good cooks like to experiment. But vodka producers in the Nordic, Polish and Baltic markets want to restrict ingredients for vodka production to two raw products: cereals or potatoes. Such are the issues that have posed obstacles for negotiators throughout the Doha round of trade talks. The regulation would prevent other producers whose alcohol comes from fruit or molasses from marketing their...

A McDonald’s Ally in Paris

John Tabliabue June 23, 2006
Despite the theft of a plastic figure of Ronald McDonald and the bulldozer attack of one restaurant – all to protest the Americanization of France – the French continue to dine at McDonald’s. Learning from the attacks, a McDonald’s executive started an ad campaign to educate consumers about the corporation, its all-French ingredients and employees. Europe now has more than 6,000 McDonald’s, with...

Growing in India: Food for the World

Anand Giridharadas June 14, 2006
While India is the world’s second-largest grower of fruits and vegetables, it accounts for only 1 percent of the world’s exports of such products. Furthermore, nearly two thirds of India’s population lives in rural villages where millions struggle to grow enough to feed their families. Given the country’s tropical climate and natural resources, not to mention the explosive success of IT growth...

Biotech Food Tears Rifts in Europe

Elisabeth Rosenthal June 6, 2006
Europe’s resistance to genetically modified foods places it at odds with the WTO, the US, Canada and Argentina, all of which push for greater acceptance of the products. No evidence suggests that such crops are dangerous, but the European public remains suspicious. Farmers argue that it’s ludicrous to grow crops that consumers detest. The issue has divided nations such as Greece, where the head...