The World Meteorological Organization’s State of the Climate in Asia 2024 report warns that the region is warming nearly twice as fast as the global average, driving more extreme weather and posing serious threats to lives, ecosystems, and economies. In 2024, Asia experienced its warmest or second warmest year on …
China has levied taxes on exports of food grains such as wheat, corn, rice and soybean from January 1, 2008. The move is apparently aimed at reining in surging domestic food prices, which have driven up inflation. Food prices rose by 18.2 per cent in November 2007, an 11-year high. …
"We apologise for recent price increases," reads the sign over the bread counter, "but they are due to global factors beyond our control." This is not a Third World food stall but an upscale supermarket in Brussels, capital of the European Union, whose farming system was once notorious for the …
While cutting down rainforests to grow palm oil for biofuels may constitute "madness" (1 December 2007, p 50), burning other vegetable oils is no more sane, nor less damaging to Indonesia's rainforests. Indonesia is expected to increase its palm oil production by more than half over the next 10 years. …
This paper analyses the determinants of vulnerability to food insecurity among male and female-headed households in Kwara state of north-central Nigeria. The specific objectives are (1) to describe the socio-economics characteristics of male and female-headed households, (2) to examine the coping strategies employed by households against food shortage-related shock and …
Poverty remains to be the most important development issue facing India with an estimated 301.72 million Indians (27.5 percent) living below the poverty line in 2004-2005. In 1975, Ralegan Siddhi was just another drought prone, poverty stricken village, but it has had much success in poverty reduction since then. Ralegan …
This paper provides an overview of selected trends and conditions of ecosystem services, in particular, food production and impacts on the environment based on the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment. It then describes outcomes for future ecosystem services under alternative development pathways, with a focus on tradeoffs between food security and the …
Several studies addressing the supply and demand for food in China suggest that the nation can largely meet its needs in the coming decades. However, these studies do not consider the effects of climate change. This paper examines whether near future expected changes in climate are likely to alter this …
The paper begins by laying out the current state of global food insecurity and malnutrition, including magnitude, trends and future projections. The causes, consequences and costs of food insecurity and malnutrition are explored. Malnutrition is clearly a severe impediment to sustainable development and human security as it slows down economic …
This paper begins by laying out the current state of global food insecurity and malnutrition, including magnitude, trends and future projections. It then explores the implications of climate change and rising bioenergy demand for nutrition. It also examines the direct nutrition effects of rising bioenergy demand, as well as its …
International treaties and national policies seek to enhance global efforts to mitigate and adapt to climate change. While it is important to continue to strive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation alone is not enough and will not be felt before the second half of the century. Global warming is …
This highly illustrated guide helps health promoters, development workers, environmental activists, and community leaders take charge of their environmental health. In small villages and large cities, A Community Guide to Environmental Health can provide the tools, knowledge, and inspiration to begin transforming the crisis in environmental health. This book contains …
Food prices may climb for years because of the expansion of farming for fuel, climate changes, and demand from richer consumers in fast-growing developing nations, according to a report from a food research group. Biofuel expansion alone could push maize prices up by over two-thirds by 2020 and increase oilseed …
An outbreak of desert locusts (Schistocerca gregaria) in Sudan could intensify and spread along both sides of the Red Sea in winter this year. "This could give rise to a potentially dangerous situation in the region,' warned the Food and Agriculture Organization (fao) on November 12. A small part of …
For drylands with low inherent levels of biological productivity, coping with climate change presents particular problems. The world’s drylands cover over 40 % of the global terrestrial area and house more than 2 billion inhabitants MEA, (2005). The world’s poorest people live in these areas and they will be hit …
bithari village, Swarupnagar block, North 24-Paraganas: the men of Uttarpara hamlet in Bithari are hiding out in the fields every night despite the winter chill in the air. Better brave the cold than the police lock-up, they say. This remote village near the Bangladesh border is one of the many …
The un Special Rapporteur on the right to food recently has called for a five-year moratorium on biofuels, calling it a "crime against humanity' to convert food crops to fuel. Cereal prices have already soared in African countries putting pressure on them to import food, Jean Ziegler said. Designated a …
