-The United Nations     While insects can be slimy, cringe-inducing creatures, often squashed on sight by humans, a new book released today by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) says beetles, wasps and caterpillars are also an unexplored nutrition source that can help address global food insecurity. The book, Edible Insects: future prospects for food and feed security, stresses not just the nutritional value of insects, but also the benefits that insect farming...

-The Hindu Ask any television journalist why they sometimes behave in the manner they do - aggressive, over-the-top, loud, over simplifying complex issues, whipping jingoism and hysteria with little restraint - and the reaction is unanimous, "This is what sells." Ask any general entertainment channel official why they invest in shows which often reinforce the most conservative and patriarchal of attitudes, and the response is similar, "This is what people...

-Firstpost.com It is becoming increasingly difficult to retain respect for Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. He seems to surface in the media every time the UPA government is about to legislate its pet follies, providing intellectual succour to mindless spending and corruption wrapped up in the package of anti-poverty schemes. Yesterday, Sen bobbed up just when the UPA - under siege for every known scam in India - tried to start discussions on...

-The Hindu Business Line Mother Nature possesses bountiful natural resources. After all, it is not for nothing that our planet is today supporting a seven billion human population, besides a large number of other living beings with varying survival requirements. Till around the end of the 19th century, agriculture, in the form it was practised, provided more or less enough food to sustain the human population of that time. This is...

-The Times of India India may be facing the shame of 47% of its children suffering from malnutrition and about 30% of its population living below poverty line, but food continues to rot in government granaries. The Food Corporation of India (FCI) has admitted in data accessed through RTI that the amount of damaged wheat has increased from 2,010 million tonnes (MT) in 2009-2010 to 2,401.61 MT (2011-2012). The country has...