From the Middle East to Madagascar, high prices are spawning land grabs and ousting dictators. Welcome to the 21st-century food wars. In the United States, when world wheat prices rise by 75 percent, as they have over the last year, it means the difference between a $2 loaf of bread and a loaf costing maybe $2.10. If, however, you live in New Delhi, those skyrocketing costs really matter: A doubling in...

Gearing for the challenge of implementing the proposed Food Security Bill, Union Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution K.V. Thomas has decided to hold a conference of Chief Ministers to seek their views and cooperation. Mr. Thomas toldThe Hindu that he had made a presentation of the proposed Bill to Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh...

Policies aiming to combat malnutrition are ignoring an entire generation of women whose overall health has a direct bearing on children’s growth, say advocacy groups and researchers Cradling a frail son on her hip and with a plastic bag stuffed with clothes in one hand, Tara Jadam walked into the rehabilitation centre inside the district hospital here to spend the next two weeks. On a hot afternoon, she has walked several miles...

-The Economic Times   It's promising to be a tumultous kharif sowing season notwithstanding the massive food grain stocks with the government which is forcing down farmer produce prices countrywide. Early arrival of a forecast normal to good monsoon should have ordinarily enthused farmers to increase the acreage under key summer sown crops this season. But, in protest against the Centre's persisting anti-farmer policies, small and marginal farmers in some villages...

Discussions with Plan panel, finmin and NAC almost over, draft law to be finalized at the next eGoM meeting The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is expected to introduce the National Food Security Bill, a proposal that aims to provide subsidized foodgrain to the poor, in the monsoon session of Parliament even as the procurement of rice and wheat touches a record high. The ruling Congress party had pledged in its...