-Frontline DAVID SANDERS, Professor Emeritus and founding Director of the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa, is a specialist paediatrician with postgraduate qualifications in public health. One of the founders of the global public health movement, he has over 30 years' experience in health policy and programme development in Zimbabwe and South Africa, having advised governments as well as organisations such as...

-Down to Earth India faces a surplus of foodgrains. Is exporting a good option? With India's grain mountain set to implode, the government is desperate to push the exports of rice and wheat. However, a global glut and the resulting depression of prices are dimming the prospects of foodgrain exports. According to the Food Corporation of India (FCI), the nodal agency for grain trade in the country, India is sitting on 34 million...

-The World Bank   Policy Interventions Can Turn the Tide, Says World Bank Report WASHINGTON: A new World Bank report warns that risky behaviors -smoking, using illicit drugs, alcohol abuse, unhealthy diets, and unsafe sex- are increasing globally and pose a growing threat to the health of individuals, particularly in developing countries. The report looks at how individual choices that lead to these behaviors are formed and reviews the effectiveness of interventions...

-Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy Blog For those who see agroecological approaches as necessary for achieving the food, health, and environmental targets of post 2015 agenda, agroecology is not only central to maintaining ecosystem integrity, but also to realizing food sovereignty of those involved in food production and consumption. IATP's new report, Scaling up Agroecology: Toward the Realization of the Right to Food, begins from five principles of agroecology, presents examples...

Released two days before the World Food Day i.e. 16 October, the Global Hunger Index 2013 report paints a gloomy picture of India. Its score of fighting hunger has improved only marginally in the past two decades while many of its neighbors have moved up from strength to strength. (See full report below)   The report entitled: The Challenge of Hunger: Building Resilience to achieve Food and Nutrition Security says that India...