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Johns Hopkins Hospital launches Meatless Monday campaign to encourage healthier

The Johns Hopkins Hospital will launch a campaign on Monday, April 12 to encourage healthier eating among patients, visitors and staff — Meatless Monday.

12 Apr 2010

World Bank commitments during economic crisis reach all-time high

The World Bank on Wednesday announced it "has committed a record $100 billion in financial support over the past 18 months to help developing countries recover from the global economic crisis," Reuters reports.

9 Apr 2010

ICRC will nearly triple aid to combat food shortages, drought in Niger and Mali

The International Committee of the Red Cross announced Tuesday that it plans to increase aid to Niger and Mali, "where several million people are suffering from serious food shortages triggered by drought," SAPA/News24 reports.

8 Apr 2010

Major social science study to accompany Bovine TB BVDP

A major social science study to accompany the Government's Bovine TB Badger Vaccine Deployment Project, to be launched this summer [2010], will be led by a researcher from the University of the West of England, with colleagues from the Countryside and Community Research Institute, in collaboration with Exeter and Cardiff Universities, Drew Associates Limited, the Veterinary Laboratories Agency and the Food and Environment Research Agency.

7 Apr 2010

Community forum to discuss statewide efforts to improve children's health in Pennsylvania

In recognition of National Public Health Week, Secretary of Health Everette James today hosted a community forum at Owen J. Roberts Middle School and High School in Chester County to discuss statewide efforts to improve the health of Pennsylvania's children.

7 Apr 2010

Gene duplications can lead to functional diversity in organisms

New information about early Native Americans' horticultural practices comes not from hieroglyphs or other artifacts, but from a suite of four gene duplicates found in wild and domesticated sunflowers.

5 Apr 2010

European Commission rolls out new food security policies; Agricultural Research Conference concludes

The European Commission (EC) recently announced that it has adopted two new policy frameworks "to help developing countries address food security in emergency and long-term situations" and has called upon member nations to implement similar policies, IRIN reports.

3 Apr 2010

Organic food production increases greenhouse gas emissions

If everyone became vegan and so ate only fruit and vegetables, then the reduction in greenhouse emissions for the whole of food consumption would be a mere 7%. The widespread adoption of vegetarianism would have even less impact, while organic food production actually leads to a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions.

3 Apr 2010

Purity profile of Pharmaceutical Grade fish oil

Dr. Dave Woynarowski MD is a nationally renowned fish oil expert who has been studying and using fish oil himself and in his practice for over a decade.

3 Apr 2010

Cancer Prevention Coalition submits petition on imminent health hazard from hormonal meat

As reported in a March 18, New York Times editorial, "Honest Food Labels," FDA Commissioner, Margaret Hamburg, M.D., publicized letters to 17 food companies accusing them of -- "masking undesirable ingredients" -- in their products. She also emphasized the importance of "providing nutrition information that consumers can rely on."

3 Apr 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

"Achieving the [Millennium Development Goal] MDG 4 target of reducing newborn and child mortality will require concerted efforts to scale up evidence-based interventions, especially community-based preventive and therapeutic strategies in primary care," according to a Lancet comment that reflects on the challenges associated with developing "the appropriate mix of strategies" to improve maternal health.

3 Apr 2010

News outlets report on developments from Agricultural Research Conference

Nature News examines potential funding reforms for the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR), which are under discussion at a the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD) in Montpellier, France. The CGIAR "supports thousands of scientists working on agriculture and food security in developing countries," according to Nature News.

2 Apr 2010

ChromaDex signs agreement for commercial development of pterostilbene from University of Mississippi and USDA

A natural products chemistry company has licensed the rights for a promising botanical compound from the University of Mississippi and the Agricultural Research Service, which is the principal intramural scientific research agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

2 Apr 2010

Opinion: Job development for Haiti; NTDs in Africa; U.S. investment in TB

"Even before the earthquake, the Haitian economy was already on shaky ground. There is 70 to 80 percent unemployment in the formal economy. ... U.S. policy helped build this disastrous economy," AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Arlene Holt Baker writes in a Miami Herald opinion piece. Baker says previous employment efforts in Haiti resulted in "stop-gap jobs," which do not provide "employment stability or social protections."

2 Apr 2010

NSF panel to discuss advances in vaccine development and production in Asia/Australia

How did China and Australia develop and produce swine flu vaccine months before North America and Europe? A panel of U.S. experts will try to answer this question and report on other comparative findings in a workshop at the National Science Foundation in Arlington, VA, on May 5, 2010.

1 Apr 2010

Stakeholders, experts meet to develop agriculture reform roadmap

Experts meeting in Montpellier, France, for the Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development are calling for restructuring agriculture "to focus as much on new seed varieties as on good governance, women's empowerment and things like curbing commodities speculation," Reuters/Independent Online reports.

1 Apr 2010

U.S. lays out goals for role in Haiti recovery

As donors from more than 100 countries gather at the U.N. in New York Wednesday to discuss the rebuilding of earthquake-ravaged Haiti, Cheryl Mills, an advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, said that the U.S. "will be focusing on agriculture, energy, health and security. Also (on) support to the government in holding elections," Agence France-Presse reports (3/30).

1 Apr 2010

Newsweek examines challenges associated wtih U.S. food aid program

Newsweek examines how the U.S. farm bill influences food aid by tracking the efforts of U.S. entrepreneur Navyn Salem as she worked to launch a nonprofit capable of providing ready-to-use therapeutic (RUTF) food aid known as Plumpy'nut - "a squeezable package of fortified peanut-butter-based paste … used to feed severely malnourished children and pregnant or lactating women" - to NGOs that contract with USAID.

1 Apr 2010

Company affiliation is the greatest driver of farm-to-farm disease transmission risk: Study

A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examines the potential influence that the business connections between broiler chicken growers may have on the transmission of avian influenza, H5N1. According to the study, the risk of between-farm transmission is significantly greater among farms within the same company group than it is between farms with different company affiliation.

31 Mar 2010

Haiti's recovery: CARE calls for substantial, sustained commitment from international community

At this week's International Donors' Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti (March 31, 2010), CARE will urge the international community to ensure all Haitians have a chance to rebuild their country anew. Women and girls, in particular, will be at the heart of CARE's policy recommendations to address Haiti's recovery, reconstruction and long-term development needs as donor countries, international organizations and other partners gather to pledge resources and commit to long-term efforts in Haiti following the devastating January earthquake.

31 Mar 2010