In The News

Is Larry Summers the Canary in the Mine?

Devesh Kapur May 14, 2008
One-time champions of free trade, economic liberalization and globalization – like Larry Summers, former treasury secretary with the Clinton administration – now unveil their doubts. Globalization presents competition, and perhaps potential threat for the US is how a trio of analysts summarizes Summers’ argument in an opinion essay for the Financial Times. His “apparently nationalist argument is...

McCain's Gift to the Green Movement

Eric Pooley May 14, 2008
With US presidential candidates in agreement on the need for action on climate change, debate has been limited on the topic, thus disappointing environmentalists. The Republican candidate, John McCain, has had to distance himself from the policies of a fellow Republican – President George Bush. Climate change is one area, with McCain opposing his party’s stance since 2000. With presumptive...

Superclass and the Inequity of Globalization

David Rothkopf May 14, 2008
The free-market principles that drive global trade of goods, services and ideas often run counter to notions of institutional regulation. According to David Rothkopf, author and visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this void in global governance has facilitated the rise of a “superclass” of elites, numbering about 6,000, whose actions impact millions of lives. The...

In Hungry World, Japan's Farmers Are Stuck With High-Priced Rice

Blaine Harden May 13, 2008
Japan’s rice market is subjected to intense manipulation. Even as rice consumption is on the decline, farms remain small and protected, the country grows more than it needs and prices are high. Shortages of rice and other foods abound in poor countries, but Japanese rice is unaffordable, with prices more than double those in international markets. Per-capita annual consumption of rice has been...

Bee Emergency: Unexplained Mass Die-Off Hits German Hives

Andrew Curry May 12, 2008
The occupants of about half the bee hives in the German state of Baden-Württemburg have perished, writes Andrew Curry for Spiegel Online. The Rhine Valley is one of Germany’s most productive agricultural regions and bees contribute to pollination of many crops. Beekeepers in Germany and across the border in France express concern about a new pesticide, clothianidin, and question where it’s too...

Africa Plays the Rice Card

G. Pascal Zachary May 12, 2008
With food prices jumping, governments no longer taking their agriculture sectors for granted. In recent years, African governments eliminated duties on imported rice and assumed that wealthy countries would also curtail agricultural subsidies, explains G. Pascal Zachary for Foreign Policy. Many nations in Africa must import rice, but Uganda recognized that many countries subsidize their...

Food for Thought

Nayan Chanda May 8, 2008
While trying to save the environment, businesses try new public relation campaigns, which may end up hurting the world’s poor. The British supermarket giant Tesco has resorted to putting labels on imported foods that indicate foreign origin and warn consumers that the product contributes to global warming. The company also adopted a "carbon labeling" system which shows the amount of...