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Hunger in the news

A daily selection of news reports from the world's media dealing with hunger and responses to it.
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Hunger in the news
11 January 2013

Winter storms pound Levant region

Severe winter weather has killed at least 12 people across the Levant region this week, as low temperatures and precipitation sweep across Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Territories. The UN appealed on Thursday for urgent aid to help thousands of Syrian refugees in a Jordanian camp who are battling mud, water and freezing cold in the worst winter storm in a decade.
Al Jazeera
Hunger in the news
11 January 2013

U.N. agencies: Stop the suffering in Syria

Violence has left four million people inside Syria in desperate need of help -- shelter, food, education, clean water, health care and protection -- and has uprooted two million inside the country and sent 600,000 fleeing the horrors of war into neighboring countries. Now a bitter winter is the new enemy. (..) The good news is our aid is reaching approximately 1.5 million Syrians, even in areas of fighting -- children are being vaccinated, and temporary schools are being set up, families are being fed and sheltered -- thanks to our work and to the valiant, efforts of many partners like the Syrian Arab Red Crescent. (..) But we could do so much more.

CNN
Hunger in the news
11 January 2013

U.N. agencies: Stop the suffering in Syria

Editor's note: Three of the United Nations' most senior executives have written a joint opinion piece exclusively for CNN.com. They are Antonio Gutterres, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees; Ertharin Cousin, the executive director of the World Food Program; and Anthony Lake, executive director of the U.N. Children's Fund or UNICEF.

CNN
Hunger in the news
10 January 2013

UN Says Food Prices Drop Again

A U.N. agency plays down fears of a looming world food crisis as international coordination and flagging demand have led to a drop in food prices for the third consecutive month in December. The food price index of the Rome-based Food and Agriculture Organization edged down 1.1 percent with drops in the international prices of major cereals, oils and fats. For 2012 as a whole it was down 7 percent from 2011. Earlier this year the agency had warned that bad weather, including severe drought in North America, could trigger a repeat of the rioting and unrest that hit parts of the developing world in 2007-2008.
The New York Times / AP
Hunger in the news
10 January 2013

U.N. food agency: "Million Syrians going hungry"

Abeer Etefa, World Food Programme spokeswoman, talks to Becky about the growing number of Syrians lacking food.
CNN
Hunger in the news
10 January 2013

Almost half of the world's food thrown away, report finds

As much as half of the world's food, amounting to two billion tonnes worth, ends up being thrown away, a UK-based report has claimed. The Institution of Mechanical Engineers said the waste was being caused by poor storage, strict sell-by dates, bulk offers and consumer fussiness. (..) The report - Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not - also found that huge amounts of water, totalling 550 billion cubic metres, were being used to grow crops that were never eaten. (..) The United Nations predicts there will be an extra three billion mouths to feed by 2075 as the global population swells to 9.5 billion.
BBC News
Hunger Bytes
9 January 2013

U.N. food agency: "Million Syrians going hungry"

Abeer Etefa, World Food Programme spokeswoman, talks to Becky about the growing number of Syrians lacking food.

CNN
Hunger in the news
9 January 2013

Syrian refugees in Lebanon facing bitter winter

As the Syria conflict further escalates, refugees continue to cross borders to seek safety in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt. According to the U.N., the number of Syrians who have registered as refugees -- or are being assisted in these countries -- now exceeds 540,000, with an increase of over 140,000 during the past six weeks alone. I recently traveled to eastern Lebanon to work with Mercy Corps and assist the refugees who have fled their homes in Syria. It was a cold, foggy day with a constant downpour of icy rain.
CNN
Hunger in the news
9 January 2013

Climate change and poverty have not gone away

An economic and political system that does not deliver for most citizens is one that is not sustainable in the long run. (..) The good news is that the gap between the emerging and advanced countries has narrowed greatly in the last three decades. Nonetheless, hundreds of millions of people remain in poverty, and there has been only a little progress in reducing the gap between the least developed countries and the rest.
The Guardian
Hunger in the news
9 January 2013

The Internationalization of Women's Issues

“Women issues are world issues,” Michelle Bachelet, the executive director of U.N. Women and former president of Chile, said recently. (..) Familiar issues like equal pay, workplace policies, family-work balance and political power haven’t gone away in the United States or anywhere else. Basic needs and basic rights remain elusive for many women in the developing world. And those issues, too, will not go away anytime soon. But more women in more regions of the world are stepping up and living better lives, just about everyone in the field agrees. And as the old women’s issues become global, the expectations rise, and the challenges get larger.
The New York Times

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