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Access to food must be considered in talks focused on global financial crisis, WEF participants say

Business and political leaders meeting in Davos, Switzerland, at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Thursday agreed that the focus on the global financial crisis "won't matter unless people have one basic thing: Enough food to eat," the Associated Press reports.

30 Jan 2012

Financial Times examines global food security issues

This Financial Times analysis examines food security, writing, "Climate change, ill-judged policies, protectionism, urbanization and plain greed have all conspired to reignite Malthusian prophesies of a growing world population unable to feed itself."

27 Jan 2012

Libya: Detainees tortured and denied medical care

Detainees in the Libyan city of Misrata are being tortured and denied urgent medical care, leading the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières to suspend its operations in detention centres in Misrata, MSF announced today.

26 Jan 2012

Latest attacks in Jonglei, South Sudan, perpetuate a pattern of extreme violence, says Médecins Sans Frontières

In the state of Jonglei in South Sudan, civilians continue to bear the brunt of inter-communal fighting. Wounded patients are still arriving at the Médecins Sans Frontières hospital in Pibor, three weeks after the violent attack on the town and outlying villages in Pibor County. Many were injured in the bush, where thousands have remained, afraid to come out of hiding. Médecins Sans Frontières medical teams are now treating serious wound infections, some several weeks old. Since re-launching emergency medical activities in Pibor on 7 January, Médecins Sans Frontières has treated 47 patients with gunshot wounds – 16 women and 8 children. A further 43 patients have so far been treated for stab wounds, beatings or wounds sustained while fleeing in the bush.

24 Jan 2012

Moral imagination helps dirty workers to overcome profession-related stigmas

There are some jobs ("dirty work", in Anglo-Saxon terminology) that, because of their characteristics, produce a certain amount of social rejection towards the people who perform them, due to the fact that they are subjected to moral conflicts and ethical decisions related to performing those duties.

24 Jan 2012

Drought threatens Africa's Sahel region; Aid agencies worry about donor fatigue

"For the third time in the past decade, drought has returned to the arid, western shoulder of Africa, bringing hunger to millions," and "aid agencies are warning that if action is not taken now, the region known as the Sahel could slip into crisis," the Associated Press reports.

24 Jan 2012

Lives lost in Horn of Africa because of late response to famine early warnings, report says

"Scientists and aid organizations gave the world plenty of time to prepare, but a late response by the world's donor nations cost 50,000 to 100,000 lives during last year's drought in the Horn of Africa region," the Christian Science Monitor's "Global News Blog" writes about a report released on Wednesday by Save the Children and Oxfam.

20 Jan 2012

World must overcome psychological, organizational, political barriers to heed early famine warnings

Psychological, organizational and budgetary factors contributed to why governments did not respond sooner to early famine warnings in the Horn of Africa, Hugo Slim, a visiting fellow at the Institute of Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict at the University of Oxford, says in this Guardian opinion piece.

19 Jan 2012

U.S. ambassador to U.N. food agencies, Ertharin Cousin, appointed to head WFP

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General Jose Graziano da Silva on Tuesday announced the appointment of Ertharin Cousin, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.'s Rome-based food agencies, to head the U.N. World Food Programme, the Associated Press/CBS News reports.

19 Jan 2012

Smoking to be banned at University of California campuses

The University of California is banning cigarettes and all other tobacco products from its campuses over the next two years. This drastic step is designed to both protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke and prevent young people from developing the bad habit. Students and staff alike will be prohibited from smoking anywhere on a UC campus - including outdoor spaces, parking lots and private residences. There won't be any designated smoking areas.

16 Jan 2012

Kangaroo on cigarette packs outrages Australian authorities

According to Attorney-General Nicola Roxon the government is helpless to prevent the use of Australia’s most prized icon – the kangaroo on the packets of cigarettes in France. An image of a kangaroo and the phrase “An Australian Favorite” are on packets of Winfield being sold in France.

15 Jan 2012

Orange juice fungicide contamination scare

The United States has temporarily halted shipments of imported orange juice from all countries and said it would destroy or ban products containing even low levels of a banned fungicide.

12 Jan 2012

Food security remains high-level priority in 2012

In this post in the Department of State's "DipNote" blog, Jonathan Shrier, acting special representative for global food security, reflects on food security issues and accomplishments in 2011, writing, These efforts leave us well situated in 2012 to lead the L'Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI) group, which aims to strengthen mutual accountability among participating governments in meeting food security commitments.

12 Jan 2012

Researchers produce multifunctional films from whey protein

Convenience foods are growing in popularity, and the food they contain is usually protected by films based on petrochemicals. Now researchers have not only developed a biomaterial from whey protein, they have also come up with a commercially viable method of producing multifunctional films on an industrial scale.

10 Jan 2012

Blacklisted British doctor sues journal

A British doctor who lost his medical license in the U.K. in 2010 and who was accused in a journal last year of publishing bogus research filed a defamation suit this week in state District Court in Travis County.

9 Jan 2012

Contaminated cantaloupes carrying listeria

According to federal health officials last week, at least 13 people are dead amid 72 sickened in 18 states in an outbreak of listeria food poisoning tied to contaminated cantaloupes.

8 Jan 2012

Moving FAO forward with sights on hunger eradication

Jose Graziano da Silva, director-general of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, writes in a Huffington Post opinion piece, My top priority for 2012 will be to make a renewed push towards achieving the first millennium development goal of halving the proportion of people living in hunger and extreme poverty by 2015, but also to look beyond it, to the final, total eradication of hunger from this planet.

7 Jan 2012

Magellan launches two fitness products

Magellan GPS announced today the launch of its first two products in its new fitness line: Switch and Switch Up. Designed to meet the needs of runners, cyclists, and multisport athletes, the new Switch Series is a powerful, adaptable, and customizable family of crossover GPS watches that will integrate seamlessly with third party sites.

7 Jan 2012

New FAO head says agency will increase support to countries experiencing prolonged food crises

The new head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Director-General José Graziano da Silva, began work on January 1, "pledging on Tuesday to increase the agency's support to poor countries experiencing prolonged food crises," the U.N. News Centre reports.

5 Jan 2012

Britain mulling on cigarette plain packaging to discourage smoking

Britain wishes to follow Australia’s footsteps in banning all eye-catching designs and branding from cigarette packs to stop young people being lured into smoking. Australia meanwhile is poised to become the first nation to introduce so-called “plain” packaging on tobacco products by the end of 2012. The packs will show graphic health warnings about smoking but banish attractive colors and logos. The proposed law was cleared by parliament in November and is being closely watched by governments considering similar moves in Europe, Canada and New Zealand.

1 Jan 2012