World hunger

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Rice Has a Goldilocks Problem
Rice Has a Goldilocks Problem
Jan 6, 2024 3:55 PM CST

Rice Has a Goldilocks Problem

Too much or too little water hurts the crop, and changing climate is causing both conditions

(Newser) - Rice is essential to feeding the planet, but climate change is forcing farmers to adapt as heat and flooding reach extreme conditions. Per Modern Farmer , breeders and scientists are working toward that goal (an essential one to fighting hunger, with 20% of human calories consumed from rice). They write that...

The Latest World Hunger Stats Are Grim

Number of people going hungry jumped by 122M between 2019 and 2022

(Newser) - The number of humans going hungry stood at an estimated 735 million in 2022, an increase of 122 million people since 2019. That roughly 20% jump is being attributed to the COVID pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, per a new report issued by the Food and Agriculture Organization...

Elon Musk Answers UN Challenge on Hunger Donation

Tesla founder questions whether $6B will solve the problem

(Newser) - Challenged by a United Nations official to donate enough money to help solve world hunger, Elon Musk responded with a challenge of his own. David Beasley, director of the World Food Program, had called on Musk, Jeff Bezos, and others among the world's wealthiest people to make a one-time...

New Hope Against Hunger: These 'Super Beans'

Early signs of success in Africa

(Newser) - The so-called "super bean," a fast-maturing, high-yield variety, is being promoted by Uganda's government and agriculture experts amid efforts to feed hunger-prone parts of Africa, the AP reports. It's also a step toward the next goal: the "super, super bean" that researchers hope can be...

Is Boring Breadfruit Our 'Food of the Future'?

Hawaii hosts movement to support the nutritious stuff

(Newser) - It’s highly nutritious and some say it could alleviate world hunger; trouble is, it’s not too appetizing. “You have to kind of fool people to get them to try it,” a chef tells the Wall Street Journal . That may be worth it, breadfruit supporters say: A...

Stars Unite to 'F*** Famine'

Group aims to raise awareness, not money

(Newser) - Bono, George Clooney, Colin Farrell, and a host of celebrities spout the F-word in a new ad with a simple message: "F*** famine." (Don't worry, it's still SFW, thanks to a lot of censoring.) "Famine is the real obscenity," explains Bono in the...

Ten Countries With Fastest Rising Food Prices

Droughts make matters worse in Brazil, Kyrgyzstan, elsewhere

(Newser) - Between June and December 2010, 44 million people across the world were pushed into poverty by rising food prices. The price of many agricultural commodities increased by more than 25%, and for many countries that rely heavily on grains such as wheat for sustenance, prices may not go back down...

G20 Should Bail Out the Poor: Kristof
 G20 Should Bail Out 
 the Poor: Kristof 
OPINION
Apr 2, 2009 10:03 AM CDT

G20 Should Bail Out the Poor: Kristof

(Newser) - While world leaders waste bicker, the global economic crisis hurts more than your 401(k), Nicholas Kristof writes in the New York Times. The crisis will cause another 22 children to die every hour in 2009—and that’s the World Bank’s best-case scenario. So it’s really discouraging when...

Asia Needs Funds to Battle Food Crisis

Development bank pleads for 'money and ideas'

(Newser) - Asia need funds fast to prevent billions of people from facing severe hunger, says the region's development bank. The bank today appealed for "money and ideas" to stave off poverty in the wake of rice and wheat prices doubling over the past year, reports Reuters. "The global fight...

Scientists Work on New 'Green Revolution'

Solving food crisis will depend on a steady diet of innovation

(Newser) - Food scientists are plotting a new "green revolution" to solve a growing food crisis, LiveScience reports. Facing what a World Food Program official called a “silent tsunami” of world hunger, researchers are working on a sequel to the first "green revolution" of the mid-20th century, whose innovations...

UN Compares Food Crisis to 'Tsunami'
UN Compares Food Crisis
to 'Tsunami'
Apr 22, 2008 12:41 PM CDT

UN Compares Food Crisis to 'Tsunami'

International help needed before situation deteriorates

(Newser) - Rising food prices are creating a crisis every bit as deadly as the tsunami of 2004, and the situation requires a similar response, the UN says. Political and business leaders from around the world gathered today in London and heard the head of the World Food Program, Josette Sheeran, call...

Climate Change May Trigger Crop Failures

Major food shortages predicted for Africa, Asia by 2030

(Newser) - Climate change could cause severe food shortages in South Asia and southern Africa, two of the poorest regions in the world, by 2030, National Geographic reports. "We were surprised by how much, and how soon, these regions could suffer if we don't adapt," said one of the study's...

Norway Builds Doomsday Vault for World Seeds

Site beneath Arctic mountain will preserve all essential crops

(Newser) - Norway has built a giant vault under an Arctic mountain, where it will preserve seeds from 21 of the world's essential crops in case disaster strikes. The so-called doomsday vault will eventually store 4.5 million seeds from crops such as wheat and rice to use in the wake of...

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