
A woman carries her baby as she walks through a wheat field on her way to a polling station to cast her vote in Shabazpur Dor village, in Amroha district in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, as India kicked off the biggest day of its mammoth general election April 17, 2014. REUTERS/Adnan Abidi
Nutrition, Agriculture, and Innovation: The Road Ahead
Micronutrient deficiencies undermine the health of 2 billion—yes, billion—people worldwide and are responsible for almost half of all preventable maternal and child deaths each year. Biofortification—the process of naturally enriching staple foods such as rice, wheat, and corn with vitamins and minerals—can resolve such deficiencies and benefit low-income subsistence farmers who rely on these inexpensive but not very nutritious staple foods for much of their families’ diet.
Enlist the Market in the Climate-Change Fight
This year’s World Economic Forum Global Risks Report declared the “failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation” the “risk with the greatest potential impact in 2016.” Yet financial markets suffer from an alarming lack of climate-risk information, which keeps investors and policymakers from accurately incorporating these risks into their decisions. Combating climate change requires not only leveraging bold action by governments to cut carbon pollution, but also harnessing the power of market forces with clear, uniformly disclosed assessments of climate-related economic risks.
Ever Wanted to Track Where Your Fish Comes From? Now You Can.
Anyone with internet access and a passion for seafood will soon be able to track commercial fishing trawlers all over the world, with a new tool that its developers hope will help end the overfishing that has decimated the world's fish stocks. Millions of people depend on fish to survive, and fish will be vital to feeding the world's growing population that is predicted to reach 9.7 billion people by 2050.
Why USAID Is Looking to Silicon Valley for Food Security Partners
The Bay Area is home to a growing number of agriculture technology, or agtech, startups, ranging from robotics to predictive data analytics to the “Internet of Things.” Building on the momentum of the Global Food Security Act, which President Barack Obama recently signed into law, they are working with USAID’s Global Development Lab to explore how Silicon Valley investors and entrepreneurs might adapt and scale agtech in developing countries.
