Aid workers in Haiti are trying to find the right balance by “going local” [Oxfam] World Food Programme sees its Ugandan food purchases rising by 40 percent [Reuters AlertNet] One million displaced Somalis in need of aid are beyond reach [Reuters AlertNet] Study says organic foods offer no extra nutritional value over conventional food. True? …
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How does the food movement intersect with global poverty? This was one of many issues on the table at “Growing Food Justice,” an energizing event sponsored by the AJWS-AVODAH Partnership and co-sponsored by Hazon that I attended on Wednesday evening. The event brought together three activists who are fighting hunger in New York City in …
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Food aid, nutrition, AIDS—it’s all connected. Ruth Messinger’s recent piece on Change.org and Huffington Post poses a response to this week’s New York Times article that paints a stark picture for the future of Uganda and the global fight against AIDS. Despite the incredible achievements of U.S. foreign aid in combating the AIDS epidemic, advocates …
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Good news for all you justice-seeking java-lovers and chocoholics! AJWS has teamed up with Equal Exchange and formed Better Beans – a new initiative to sell and distribute fairly traded, kosher coffee and chocolate. Better Beans products allow congregations, community organizations and individuals to order high-quality coffee and chocolate while supporting farmers and community cooperatives …
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In Mogadishu, store shelves are full of food but the bellies of civilians are not. An article in IRN today reported that the Somali government has asked the UN World Food Programme (WFP) to release food stocks in Mogadishu for distribution to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) who are chronically hungry. Somalia …
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Years of conflict and instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have taken quite a toll on the national population, particularly on nutrition. Experts believe the basic structural causes of malnutrition have been aggravated by high food prices and the global financial crisis which has shaken the mining industry in the west and southeast …
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This past Wednesday at the long-awaited Haiti Donor Meeting, countries and international organizations pledged nearly $10 billion to rebuild Haiti after January’s earthquake. But the question of how this money will be spent and who, exactly, will benefit remains in question. Thanks in large part to the extraordinary work of AJWS Policy Associate and “From …
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On Friday evening, I zipped down to Brooklyn and joined a bunch of friends and colleagues to observe Global Hunger Shabbat, AJWS’s day of solidarity, education, reflection and activism to raise awareness about global hunger. When I arrived, our host was fretting about whether there’d be enough food for her guests—an ironic concern to voice …
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An interesting article in the New York Times this week discusses the positive changes in Sauri, Kenya—one of the first of the Millennium Villages created by economist Jeffrey Sachs. In a nutshell, Millennium Villages offer an innovative model for helping rural African communities lift themselves out of extreme poverty through community-based projects related to health, …
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Never heard of it? Me neither. But for farmers in Assam, India, it’s become a life-saving—and crop-saving—phenomenon. Developed by crossing and refining local rice strains, flood-resistant rice varieties have undergone five years of testing and are intended to boost yields and ensure harvests despite worsening flood problems in the region. Pretty cool, right? According to …
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