World Hunger and Poverty

The ENS did a great job reporting about the opening of the High-level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy.
In my opinion, the most noteworthy part is when Dr. Jacques Diouf, the director of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, pointed out the shameful contrast between what we waste and […]

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, “The rapidly escalating crisis of food availability around the world has reached emergency proportions.”
Rising prices have already raised the costs of the WFP’s current operations from $500 million to $755 million.
I assume the inflation comes from the rising price of energy, which has risen from increased demand and decreased […]

In a recent article, Arthur C. Brooks, author of Gross National Happiness, pointed out an interesting fact about charity: Most studies have shown that the working poor tend to give away between four and five percent of their incomes, on average, while the rich give away between three and four percent. So-called “middle class” people […]

To most people, it seems that the mainstream evangelical movement has mostly focused only on opposing abortion and gay marriage. But I happily read an article about a group of evangelicals trying to prioritize a broader range of issues including poverty. They also intend to address other social problems such as healthcare, global warming, and […]

I often stress the importance of using grassroots organizations to alleviate poverty on a local level. Local organizations understand the local community and can meet the local community’s specific needs.
Unfortunately, most communities have become too passive about poverty. Almost all people realize they would rather live in a world without poverty, but they do not […]

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has announced that he plans to co-host a UN meeting on poverty with the president of the (UN) General Assembly.
The meeting will take place on September 25th, during the general debate of the UN General Assembly which runs from September 23 to October 3.
September seems like far off, but hopefully it […]

I just read a good article by Dean Calbreath in which he points out the failures in the national poverty line. Basically, he shows that elderly people have a higher cost of living than what the poverty line says.
For example, according to calculations from UCLA research, elderly people from San Diego generally need to spend […]

Apparently as a result of rising food prices, the UN says that world hunger is rising, namely in countries such as Mexico, Yemen, and Indonesia.
UN figures show that food prices have rose last year by 40 percent due to increasing oil prices and rising demand from developing countries.
I read in the newspaper that the size […]

A biannual poverty report from Israel’s National Insurance Institute says that 45 thousand Israelis slipped below the poverty line in 2007, including 30 thousand children. Also in 2007, the percentage of children living in poverty in Israel rose to 35.8 percent. The report also points out that poverty has risen among both Jews and Arabs.
Like […]

Someone sent me a notification about a report about biotech crops by the ISAAA (The International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications). According to the report, biotech crops have experienced remarkable growth over the last dozen years. The report also points out some socioeconomic benefits of biotech crops, namely the ability of poor or […]