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
ICARDA is thrilled to present its new PhysioTron machine developed in collaboration with partner national research institutions and agricultural research programs. The innovative PhysioTron speeds up accurate measuring and recording of plant genetic traits, allowing for more advanced research towards achieving food security in the dry areas. Global food systems rely heavily on cereals, yet their agricultural production
BY CLAUDIA RINGLER ANDJENNA WILF Water is vital for all life and integral to the functioning and productivity of Earth’s ecosystems. Water is also central to food systems—as a basic component of food and drink, and in production, processing, and preparation of food. Another use of water, WASH (water supply, sanitation, and hygiene), is essential for human health and nutrition.
The new methodology developed by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in collaboration with the Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) aims to transform national food systems by achieving consensus between multiple stakeholders and building on successful participatory agricultural research experiences. According to a peer-reviewed paper published today in the journal PLOS