Since achieving its independence 20 years ago, Timor-Leste has set out to forge a cohesive national identity. The nation’s history of aquatic food preparation reveals a unique and distinctive culture, offering a source of pride for the East Timorese people. However, industrialized food systems have made traditional foods and customs inaccessible to many Timorese and led to a disconnect. A
WorldFish and the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-Food Systems (FISH) are global leaders in aquatic food systems research and innovation, and science and partnerships are the foundation of our work. Our team delivers robust evidence to policymakers and technological innovations to producers, value chain actors and consumers in order to transform food systems. In this series, we profile our
WorldFish’s Global Lead for Nutrition and Public Health Dr. Shakuntala Thilsted, who was recently awarded the 2021 World Food Prize, addressed the UN General Assembly telling member states of the game-changing solutions aquatic foods offer for a food systems transformation that supports the sustainable development agenda. Joining the High-Level Event on the Ocean last Tuesday, Thilsted addressed obstacles and opportunities
Once upon a time two women, one very beautiful and one not so beautiful, were gathering wild yams in the bush near their village on the island of New Guinea. They collected their yams and then started gathering vegetable leaves. Suddenly a snake appeared and called the women: “Tusss, Tusss, Tuss…,” the snake hissed. “Marry me and I will give
BY THOMAS REARDON, JOHAN SWINNEN, ROB VOS AND DAVID ZILBERMAN The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a major shock to food supply chains, as lockdowns and restrictions affecting labor supply, input provisioning, logistics, and distribution channels severely compromised poor consumers’ access to food. Yet it could have been worse; food systems have also shown resilience and innovative capacity to adjust. The
There is growing demand for sustainable development policy that is data driven, but our unprecedented and increasing capacity to generate large volumes of quantitative data also requires a much greater consideration of the ways these data are generated and interpreted. This, after all, determines if and how newly generated data are harnessed by policy and with what effects. The growing
Dr. Hung Nguyen is the co-leader of Animal and Human Health Program at ILRI and was a member of the WHO team investigating the origins of COVID-19 in China. He recently published an op-ed about his experience–and what it means for the upcoming UN Food Systems Summit in The Telegraph. This is a short excerpt from that op-ed. Early this
World Food Safety Day is celebrated annually on 7 June to raise awareness on the importance of safe food and its contribution to healthy lives, healthy economies and a healthy future. The theme this year is Safe food now for a healthy tomorrow. Our food systems need to produce enough safe food for all. A One Health approach to food safety