The world food system today is far too complex for common sense to understand. It raises many questions: If safe, nutritious food is a fundamental right, why are one billion people living with hunger? Why do farmers and farm workers remain starved/half-starved? Why are people in food-exporting countries living with hunger? If the value of annual global exports in agriculture products is in billions, why are agricultural labourers and farmers...

The recent Cabinet nod to the National Food Security Bill triggered a flurry of criticism in the mainstream media, focusing mainly on the financial implications. The cost of the Bill obviously needs careful scrutiny and public debate, but it’s a little sad to see so much concern with the cost, and so little interest in what the Bill can do to improve people’s lives. The barrage of attacks was predictable —...

The government’s desperate race to redraft the Lokpal bill in time for passage this Parliament session has left political circles uneasy, with even some Opposition leaders conceding the dangers of lawmaking under such abnormal pressure. The Centre too is squirming at this “indecent haste”, prompted by its keenness to avoid another face-off with Team Anna. But it feels it has little choice in a political climate where “confrontationism” is giving the...

-The Times of India   MOGRAHAT (SOUTH 24-PARGANAS): The poison that has killed over 170 people on Kolkata's southern fringes flowed like rivers on Tuesday as policemen smashed bhattis and dumped the illegal liquor in dried-up ponds and canals. The don who ruled over the area, Khora Badshah, is a hunted man but is it really an open and shut case? Amid cries of conspiracy from Trinamool Congress leaders, it has not escaped...

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi has asked Union food minister KV Thomas to iron out last-mile hurdles in the way of the flagship food bill before it is brought to the Cabinet again on Sunday. A lack of consensus in the Cabinet — which must clear the bill before it can be placed in Parliament — led to it being stalled last Tuesday. The Congress chief, who had overseen the bill’s drafting...