hunger

Drought in the Horn of Africa has killed the livestock of nomadic herders and forced thousands of pastoralists into refugee camps, dependent on food aid. Authorities in Ethiopia, while dealing with the crisis, are looking into longer-term adaptations, such as introducing irrigated agriculture and small farms in the country's Somali region, "a land long known for just herding animals," says the Washington Post.

Governments are likely underestimating the risks of climate change to agriculture, especially in the event of simultaneous extreme weather events in key areas, say researchers from the U.K.’s Met office. Using 1,400 climate model simulations, the researchers discovered that the probability of severe drought was greater than if judged solely from observations.

Famine often starts in rural areas and must be prevented in rural areas, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in a report on hunger in Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen, collectively one of the world's largest food crises in 70 years. Some 20 million people in the four nations are at risk of famine, a figure that could grow to 30 million if there is no additional action, said FAO.

Some 646 million people are food insecure, with diets of less than 2,100 calories a day, in the 76 low- and middle-income nations that are current or traditional food-aid recipients, says the USDA in forecasting a dramatic improvement in the decade ahead.

The congressionally created Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR) will put $10 million into a new global consortium whose goal is to accelerate crop breeding to meet the rising world demand for food, the eight-member consortium said in a kick-off announcement. FFAR said its contribution "is expected to leverage significant investment from partners."

Nearly every article on food waste includes these stats: 40 percent of food in this country, worth $165 billion, is wasted each year. But a study from the University of Minnesota’s Department of Applied Economics says that those numbers are only estimates and may actually be inaccurate.

To feed its 1.3 billion citizens, China is amassing large tracts of agricultural land in Australia, replacing the United States as the second-largest foreign owner of farmland in the country.

Last week, Feeding America, the nation's largest hunger-relief organization, announced a plan to boost the nutritional content of food distributed at food pantries, including more fresh produce, whole grains, and lean proteins, reports The Washington Post.

The bipartisan bill filed in the House and Senate would stop four "lunch shaming" activities in public schools but would not assure students would get a hot meal, says Bettina Elias Siegel, who writes The Lunch Tray blog. The congressional legislation was modeled on a New Mexico law that requires all children receive the standard school meal, even if their family owes money on a food account.

A report from the antihunger group Feeding America says that food insecurity rates are highest in rural counties and in the South, says the news site CityLab. For the report, Feeding America combined data from USDA, the Census Bureau and the Labor Department "to stitch together a portrait of food insecurity at the state and county levels," says CityLab, with Jefferson County along the Mississippi River in southwestern Mississippi having the highest rate in the nation, 38 percent.

David Beasley, governor of South Carolina from 1995-99, will become executive director of the UN World Food Program on April 4, succeeding fellow American Ertharin Cousin for a five-year term, announced UN Secretary General António Guterres. The WFP describes itself as the world's largest antihunger agency, assisting 80 million people annually.

Nervous that applying for food stamps will hurt their immigration status or put them at risk of deportation, immigrants are dropping food relief services. “Officials at Manna Food Center in Montgomery County, Md., report that about 20 percent of the 561 families they have helped apply for food stamps, or SNAP benefits, in the past few months have asked that their cases be closed,” says NPR.

Despite a stagnant global economy, the world made progress against hunger, says the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in an annual report: "For the first time in modern history, the number of people living in extreme poverty fell below 10 percent of the global population and the global rate of under-nutrition was expected to fall below 11 percent." IFPRI singled out Bangladesh and Ethiopia for halving hunger rates since the 1990s.

Some 17 million people in Yemen, 60 percent of the population, "are now facing hunger," due to armed conflict and a rapid rise in food insecurity since last summer, said the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. "Without additional humanitarian and livelihoods support, Taiz and Al Hudaydah, two governorates accounting for almost a quarter of Yemen's population, risk slipping into famine."

Second-term Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback will be named U.S. ambassador to UN agencies on food and agriculture in Rome, says Kansas Public Radio, based on information from "a former high-ranking government official." There was no immediate comment from the governor's office and KPR quoted an unnamed source as saying the appointment was "a done deal."

Two-thirds of the cropland in the Gaza Strip has been damaged by shelling, razing, and vehicle traffic since armed conflict began a year ago in the territory, said two UN agencies. The escalating agricultural damage exacerbated a food shortage, said the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UN Satellite Center.