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| As countries observe World Food Day on October 16, food prices around the globe again threaten to rise to the levels of 2007-2008, which triggered riots in several countries. The price spiral is driven by increasing demand for food and decreasing availability of land to grow it. At the same time, there is a drastic change in the way food is grown and sourced. There is growing dependence on packaged and stored food, which is at the cost of locally grown, diverse produce that has for centuries supplemented the nutritional needs of the poor. Uncertainties over food supply has triggered an alarming trend—the rush to grab land in poor countries by dispossessing marginal farmers, who are being pushed to starvation. Agricultural cooperatives (this year’s food day theme) hold the key to curbing food inflation and feeding the three billion hungry and malnourished people of the world, but the transition to cooperatives will not be easy |
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| Democratising the global food chain |
| There is a broad consensus today that the world has to shift from the present system of food production and supply—controlled by corporate food giants—and adopt a radically new approach if it has to provide safe and adequate food to the estimated nine billion people by 2050. Organising small landholding farmers into cooperatives is the key to the transition, says Chandra Bhushan |
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| Land grab fallout |
| Scramble to buy land in foreign countries to grow more food leaves more people hungry |
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| Pitfalls of a uniform food regime |
| In face of drought and rising food prices, attention shifts to local diet and food diversity |
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| Food basket is shrinking |
| Local fruits and veggies hold the key to food, nutritional security |
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| India's hunger level constant for past 15 years | |
| Economic growth didn't result in hunger reduction after 1996, says Global Hunger Index | |
| • Hidden hunger | |
| • Hunrge stalks government schools in West Bengal | |
| • Lost rhythm of life | |
| • Nutrition challenge | |
| • Consumed by hunger | |
| • Food and malnutrition | |
| • Untreated hunger | |
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| CoP 11 treads middle ground on biofuels | |
| Admits that biofuel technologies may aggravate drivers of biodiversity loss, but stresses on their role in mitigating climate change | |
| • EU biofuel targets fuelling inflation | |
| • Promoting millets: the wheel need not be reinvented | |
| • Contaminating millets | |
| • Parliament panel report on GM food highlights rift within government | |
| • Maize mania | |
| • Who is watching GM crops? |
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| Death on the mounds of a bumper crop | |
| As corruption hijacks procurement centres in Bundelkhand, farmers prefer suicide to a debt trap. | |
| • Foodgrains risk rot | |
| • Major revamp of ICDS recommended | |
| • PM should head food security bill | |
| • Grains of doubt | |
| • Difficult to digest | |
| • Food security bill forgoes nutritional security | |
| • What is causing food inflation | |
| • When business rules our kitchens | |
| • Whose seed is it anyway? | |
| • Unravelling the food mess | |
| • Fix what is broken | |
| • Exclusive cereal dependence | |
| • No food talk | |
| • Starved of substance | |
| • Bread, values and politics |
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| Organic Universe | |
| Organic is all the rage. Organic food, cosmetics, clothes and even organic medicines. But mostly it is food. | |
| • Safal shows the way | |
| • UN heritage status for Odisha's Koraput farming system | |
| • With help from worms | |
| India Environment Portal | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The state of food insecurity in the world 2012 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| How progress in reducing hunger has been better but the number of people suffering from chronic undernourishment is still high | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HUNGaMA (Hunger and Malnutrition) report 2011 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A report on hunger and malnutrition in 112 districts across nine states of the country has revealed that 42.3 per cent children under the age of five years are underweight, 58.8 per cent are stunted and 11.4 per cent are “wasted” | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The state of food and agriculture 2010-11: women in agriculture | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Comprehensive data and analysis on the critical role women play in agriculture | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Food security and poverty in Asia and the Pacific: key challenges and policy issues | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Drivers behind food insecurity in Asia and points to ways to mitigate it | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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