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World Food Summit focuses on aiding agriculture in developing countries to fight hunger

Delegates at the World Summit on Food Security, which kicked off Monday, "rallied around a new strategy to fight global hunger and help poor countries feed themselves," the Associated Press reports.

16 Nov 2009

Food summit draft declaration omits hunger eradication deadline, aid commitment

"A declaration to be made at next week's world food summit in Rome will not mention a target to eradicate hunger by 2025 nor a commitment to spend $44 billion a year in agricultural aid, according to a final draft," Reuters reports (Aloisi, 11/12).

13 Nov 2009

Novel breakthrough may lead to new methods for sterilizing food and medical equipment

Got food poisoning? The cause might be bacterial spores, en extremely hardy survival form of bacteria, a nightmare for health care and the food industry and an enigma for scientists. Spore-forming bacteria, present almost everywhere in our environment, can also cause serious infectious diseases, such as tetanus, anthrax, and botulism.

12 Nov 2009

AGRA, NEPAD agree to partnership to expand food security in Africa

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has entered into an "historic" partnership with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) "to work towards increasing food production and food security in Africa," PEACE FM Online reports (11/9).

10 Nov 2009

FDA awards grants to boost food and feed safety initiatives

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced that it has awarded 83 grants in FY2009 totaling $17.5 million to state and local regulatory agencies to boost food and feed safety initiatives among federal, state, and local partners.

27 Oct 2009

USDA to have 'important but modest role' in U.S. global agriculture initiative, undersecretary says

As U.S. plans to fight world hunger take shape, the USDA is gearing up for an "important but modest role," in which the agency will follow directions from the State Department and developing countries, Rajiv Shah, undersecretary in charge of the USDA's research arm, said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

23 Oct 2009

U.S. food aid policy to be more flexible, Clinton, Vilsack say

"The Obama administration wants more flexibility in how it allocates food aid dollars to complement its new strategy to help small farmers in poor countries boost their food production," according to a conference call Friday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Reuters reports.

21 Oct 2009

Recent releases in global health

In light of a recent Guttmacher Institute report that indicated 70,000 women in developing countries die each year from unsafe abortion, a Lancet editorial outlines ways to reduce deaths, and says, "The current political climate is favourable, because the global-gag rule (the U.S. Government's policy on banning funding of foreign organisations linked to any type of abortion practice) is out of favour" (10/17).

19 Oct 2009

Gates Foundation to announce grants to promote agriculture at world food prize symposium

During a "keynote speech" Thursday at the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, Bill Gates, cofounder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is expected to announce $120 million in grants "to promote dynamic, home-grown, sustainable agriculture in Africa and India,"

19 Oct 2009

New food reports highlight growing global hunger

Reforms are required to curb global hunger, which was already "growing" before the worldwide financial downturn, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP) said in a report, released in Rome, ahead of World Food Day on Friday, the BBC reports (10/14).

15 Oct 2009

Global food price increases are 'realistic possibility,' FAO says at high-level forum

There is a "realistic possibility" that the world could see a repeat of the 2007-2008 upsurge in food prices that "caused a sharp rise in the number of hungry people around the world," the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said on Monday at a forum of experts who are meeting in Rome through Tuesday, Reuters reports. "Food commodities prices are likely to stay high and volatile in the medium term," according to the FAO.

14 Oct 2009

Exhibitors display latest biotechnology products and applications at BIOTECHNICA 2009

Chalking up an increase in the number of exhibitors and trade visitors plus the amount of display space sold, the BIOTECHNICA, exhibition (6 to 8 October 2009) sent some important signals in the midst of an economic crisis.

13 Oct 2009

Federal grant to boost food and feed safety initiatives

12 Oct 2009

Agriculture investment in developing countries must increase by 50% to feed 9.1B people by 2050, FAO report says

Developing countries need agriculture investments of $83 billion per year to meet the food needs of a projected

9 Oct 2009

Reports: Climate change effects could increase hunger in developing countries by 2050

By 2050, climate change could lead to decreased outputs of corn, rice and wheat across the developing world resulting in price increases and hunger, according to an International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) study, Bloomberg reports (Ruitenberg, 9/30).

1 Oct 2009

Ban, Clinton call for increased food security efforts

At a meeting on Saturday of "leaders, ministers, experts and non-governmental organizations from nearly 100 countries," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for greater urgency in the fight against hunger, Agence France-Presse reports. According to Ban, 2009 has seen an increase in malnutrition rates around the world (9/26).

29 Sep 2009

The Siebel Foundation to fund fellowships for Jacob School's top bioengineering graduate students

As breakthrough discoveries in bioengineering become more crucial to fundamental global issues, including health, food production and water supplies, UC San Diego's Jacobs School of Engineering's top ranked bioengineering department continues to be on the cutting edge of this field. The Siebel Foundation has recognized the Jacob School's pioneering efforts with a $2 million endowment to fund fellowships for some of its top bioengineering graduate students.

25 Sep 2009

Agriculture summit addresses doubling global food output by 2050

On Tuesday in Washington, D.C., U.S. agriculture companies Deere & Co., Archer Daniels Midland Co., DuPont Co. and Monsanto Co. met with lawmakers, hunger experts and other officials at a Global Harvest Initiative symposium to address "sustainable" food production, Reuters reports.

23 Sep 2009

EnWave signs Confidentiality Agreements with food production companies

EnWave Corporation (TSX VENTURE:ENW)(FRANKFURT:E4U) ("EnWave" or "the Company") today announced that it has signed Confidentiality Agreements with more than 15 food production companies located in North and South America, Europe and Korea to determine the benefits of using its nutraREVTM food dehydration technology in a wide range of new product areas including herbs, mushrooms, bananas, mangos, pineapples, peppers, tomatoes, garlic, snack chips, shrimp, salmon and pet treats.

17 Sep 2009

Natural plant hormone can help eliminate pesticide residues in food crops

Scientists in China are reporting the "intriguing" discovery that a natural plant hormone, applied to crops, can help plants eliminate residues of certain pesticides. The study is scheduled for the Sept. 23 issue of ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication.

10 Sep 2009