Unclean water, poor sanitation, and lousy hygiene—and resulting diseases—combine with poor nutrition as the leading causes of young child mortality and stunting. 
In the book The Last Hunger Season, the intimate dramas of farmers' lives unfold amidst growing awareness that to feed the world's growing population, food production must double by 2050.
Recently, I've been rereading "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich." In this political season, William L. Shirer's mammoth history of Hitler's Germany seems a useful guide to how a skilled demagogue can seize and destroy a great nation.
