Food Security

Germinating ideas for a healthier, more sustainable future. A series of events for everyone interested in how plant research can tackle global challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation and food security. During 2020 - 2021 we will deliver a series of virtual talks and debates on three...

Sedans, trucks, SUVs, and minivans idling in two lines down both West Vernor Highway and 25th Street, meeting in a fork where vehicles take turns edging forward. Masked drivers unlatching trunks as someone scribbles the number of children in their home on the windshield. Grab-and-go meals at elementary schools handed out for students who take classes virtually at home, while others eat in a cafeteria.

“We wouldn’t be able to make it work without them,” a woman said of the free meals provided by Gleaners Community Food Bank. Sandy, who declined to give her full name, awaited food pickup at St. Anthony’s in a blue minivan in the Tuesday morning line on West Vernor in September. She said the food was for her niece who was supervising virtual school at home for her three children and couldn’t come herself. “It probably saves us $50 to $60.”

Each person is given 30 pounds of food, including produce and milk. “It’s real milk,” Sandy said. “What’s good is the stuff they’re giving is stuff they’re actually eating.”

This is the new picture of food insecurity in Detroit, where the coronavirus pandemic has made hunger more visible. In the last six months, food banks, schools, and social service providers have made a tremendous pivot to make sure people are able to eat.

The Global Food Security Cluster (gFSC), which coordinates life-saving food and livelihoods assistance to people hit by crises, turns 10 this year and marked the anniversary at its bi-annual meeting of global partners held virtually today, with the participation of the FAO Director-General, QU Dongyu, the WFP Deputy-Executive Director Amir Abdulla and gFSC partners from NGOs and academia.

Craig Newmark Philanthropies will donate $3 million to the Bob Woodruff Foundation (BWF) as part of a larger initiative to combat food insecurity in America among veterans.

The Bob Woodruff Foundation will be able to identify and support programs across the country that work to reduce food insecurity for veterans and their families. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of Americans are experiencing financial strain and food insecurity, which has led to food banks facing a perpetual, diminishing food supply.

In the near-term to address this urgent need, BWF is providing stimulus funding to tackle hunger and food insecurity among the veteran population, while continuing to build a sustainable plan of action to support veterans and their families in the long-term. 

Today the Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food announced that Food Banks Canada has launched the $2.3 million Rural and Northern Capacity Fund. Minister Bibeau made the announcement alongside Gudie Hutchings, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Rural Economic Development, and Kirsten Beardsley of Food Banks Canada. This initiative is being funded under the first round of the $200 million Emergency Food Security Fund, and will help address food insecurity in communities or regions that are currently underserved.

FAO launched the Food Coalition to prevent the COVID-19 international health emergency from triggering a catastrophic world food crisis.

In Africa, food security is a major problem, despite the projection that the continent can feed the nine billion people that will inhabit the planet by 2050. The International Coordinator, Africa Agriculture Agenda, Dr. Ikechi Agbugba, in this interview with EHIME ALEX, sets post-COVID-19 agenda for…

500Foods shared this story from HD.com. The expansive UK food system has been mapped and quantified in a new report that reveals both the value of the agri-food sector and the multiple challenges it faces. Mapping the UK Food System – A Report for the UKRI Transforming UK Food Systems Programme is the inaugural report published by the £47.5M…

Vertical farming: a future way to feed urban populations? | FT Food Revolution 🏙️

youtube.com/watch?v=j3VZSE…

In 2019, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) noted that 52 million people in the MENA region were chronically undernourished. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with climate change and economic slowdown, could bring twice as many under the purview of 'acute food insecurity', this year. Water scarcity,…

EMIR Research’s Q3 2020 Focus Group Discussion (FGD) findings have highlighted concerns over food safety, security and sovereignty as major themes or issues – as raised by the two groups of discussants, namely the farmers and consumers – that have been brought to the forefront by Covid-19 and the imposition of the Movement Control Order (MCO).

Food safety is specifically linked to the non-use of pesticides, contaminants in their own right which increase the risks to health especially when the level is high.

The federal government is not doing enough to support First Nations communities contending with food insecurity problems made worse by climate change — and is aggravating the situation by failing to adequately reduce greenhouse gas emissions — says a new report by the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.

British farmers are drawing on breakthroughs in genetics, insect protein, remote sensing, vertical farming, and data analysis to make systems more ...

Every day is apple day in Rice Fruit Company’s world, but on October 21st the fall favorite is spotlighted for all of America on National Apple Day. This day falls right in the middle of peak apple harvest, when the abundance of a new crop is celebrated, packing lines are humming and farmers are busiest…

Majority of the women globally suffer from a nutritional deficiency disease anaemia due to the deficiency of iron Folic acid. As per FAO, about more than 2 billion people in the world do not have regular access to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food. They may be undernourished or malnourished. The waste for one may be food for others.

16 October 2020, Rome - Today, World Food Day marks the 75^th anniversary of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

Born on the wake of catastrophe - World War II, three-quarters of a century later, FAO's mission to end hunger and nourish the world has been made more relevant because of another global scourge - the COVID-19 pandemic, said QU Dongyu, FAO Director-General.

Along the way, the world, and with it FAO, went from growing more food, to getting attuned to its environmental footprints, setting up regulatory frameworks in response, getting animal diseases under control, and, finally, seeing the fight against hunger as inseparable from other development goals.  

Hence, also, this year's World Food Day's theme: grow, nourish, and sustain. Together. 

"The present moment is again fraught with danger, complicated, and demands urgent action. As hunger grows once more, as the COVID-19 pandemic exposes the fragility of our food systems, history is calling upon us once more to rise to the challenge," urged Qu.

Millennials' obsession with avocado toast is probably an unfair stereotype. But a scientific breakthrough is promising to secure the supply of smashed avo for future generations.

Promoting innovation and applying digital technologies in agri-food systems, as well as reducing food loss and waste, are vital to step up the fight against hunger and poverty. This was FAO’s main message at the opening of the High-Level Special Event on Strengthening Global Governance of Food Security and Nutrition.

Migrant workers in Dutch agriculture are faced with poor, often abusive, labor conditions. That's in stark contrast to the sector's high economic productivity. That's according to researchers. They are from the Open Society European Policy Institute and the International Institute of Social Studies at…

Even before the pandemic hit, many food-insecure Americans were forced to make difficult decisions. Some gave up some meals so their children did not, as they waited for a new month’s SNAP benefits to kick in. Others opted to pay their rent, a doctor’s bill, or bus fare to work instead of buying a full load of groceries. Many also visited food pantries and soup kitchens to see them through hungry days—a need that has exploded since March.

Things are even more radically precarious for those who are unhoused. Before the pandemic, between 3.5 and 5 million people in the U.S. experienced homelessness over the course of a year. Now, despite a temporary—and hardly encompassing—federal eviction ban, enacted in early September, many landlords have nevertheless turned out tenants unable to pay rent. Some economists project the nation’s homeless rates will surge by as much as 45 percent by the end of 2020.

Rice is staple food for nearly 50% of the world population, cultivated on an area of about 150 million ha across the world (9% of total cultivated area). India has the largest rice acreage in the world, 43.8 million ha accounting for nearly one fourth of gross cultivated area in country.

Biodiversity underpins most of the world’s economic activities, particularly in the agri-food sector, so the pace of its erosion must be contrasted with holistic and collective efforts, FAO Director-General QU Dongyu said at UN Summit on Biodiversity.

"Its loss undermines global efforts to tackle poverty and hunger - no biodiversity, no food diversity," he said in a video address to the UN Summit on Biodiversity.

Qu spoke on behalf of several UN agencies and represented the United Nations system while participating in a Leaders Dialogue on how to mainstream biodiversity issues into the broader drive for sustainable development. The panel was co-chaired by Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, while interventions were made by more than a dozen heads of government or state from countries such as Belize, Kyrgyzstan and Zambia, along with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay and the heads of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the International Parliamentary Union and WWF International.

A recently released report by EY details that the Australian fruit and vegetable industry is facing a workforce shortage of up to 26,000 people throughout the peak summer season. A shortage of workers will have a real impact on Australian consumers, with price increases and likely shortages of fruit and…

At the global event marking today the first International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and their partners urged everyone to do more to reduce food loss and waste or risk an even greater drop in food security and natural resources.

Concerned that Quebec might one day be unable to import essential foods like fruits and vegetables during a crisis like the current COVID-19 pandemic, Premier François Legault said during an online CAQ policy discussion last weekend that the government hopes to launch a major greenhouse farming project,…

The aim of the online event: AI, Food for All. Dialogue and Experiences is to reinforce and build upon the Rome Call for AI Ethics endorsed by Pope Francis and co-signed by FAO, IBM and Microsoft at a conference hosted by the Academy in February.

This week’s PMA virtual town hall focused resource scarcity in food production. The panelists of this town hall were Dr. Jo Handelsman, who served as Science Advisor to President Obama, and is currently the Director of the Wisconsin Institute of Discovery at the University of Wisconsin, Madison; Dr.…

Food security is currently one of the main goals in the Middle East and North Africa. They strive to become self-sufficient. These countries often face harsh conditions, with hot and dry or hot and wet climates. The main issue there isn't how to heat the greenhouse, but how to cool and dehumidify it.  With…