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High Maize and Soybean Prices Spur Food Security Fears

Jul 5th, 2012 • by Sara Gustafson

Global maize and soybean prices have skyrocketed in recent weeks and experts fear that price increases will be unabated as dry weather in the US Midwest continues for at least another week.

East Africa Sees Steadily Rising Food Prices

Jul 2nd, 2012 • by Sara Gustafson

FEWS NET has released its Food Price Watch for June, citing steadily increasing staple food prices in East Africa. Rising prices in the region are being caused by a combination of dwindling supplies from previous harvests and market interruptions due to conflict; many areas of the region were already seeing alarmingly high food prices.

UN Secretary-General Issues Challenge to Achieve "Zero Hunger"

Jun 28th, 2012 • by Sara Gustafson

The Rio+20 Conference last week witnessed the launch of the "Zero Hunger Challenge," an initiative calling for resilient global food systems and adequate nutrition for every individual. The Challenge encompasses five goals:

Achieving 100 percent access to adequate nutrition for every individual year-round.
Ending malnutrition during pregnancy and early childhood.
Making all food systems sustainable.
Increasing the productivity and income growth of smallholder farmers, particularly women.
Achieving zero percent food waste.

Scaling Up Agricultural Investment to Combat Poverty and Hunger

Jun 27th, 2012 • by Sara Gustafson

The 2007-2008 and 2010-2011 food crises saw not only an increase in food prices, but also an increase in poverty in many developing countries. A staggering 1.2 billion people live in extreme poverty worldwide, and 70 percent of those poor live in rural areas and depend in some capacity on agriculture to survive. For these poor populations, there is an urgent need for strong investment in agricultural growth to increase production, reduce hunger, and help lift them out of crushing poverty.

New Global Atlas Examines Potential for Increased Agricultural Productivity

Jun 25th, 2012 • by Sara Gustafson

Agricultural productivity is an increasingly hot topic worldwide, particularly after last week's G20 Summit (read the Interagency Report on increasing agricultural production ). If current estimates of global population growth are correct, farmers will need to roughly double the world's current food production in order to feed 9 billion people by 2050. Climate change presents an additional challenge, with changing weather patterns and severe weather events undermining farmers' ability to even maintain current production levels.