411 — Post Script

Over the past 10 years, the supply and the demand for organic foods have steadily increased. And — as with all markets — as more organic products move off the shelves, more producers and retailers take note and become interested in making the products more available. In 2001, organic foods constituted almost $5 billion in … Read more

So what is Halal food and why should it be certified as such? To Muslims, as a matter of religious obligation, these are foods that are permissible for them to eat. Meaning, the food (especially meat) was prepared according to Islamic practice and does not contain any by-products, raw materials, or ingredients that are considered … Read more

Kevan Main’s eyes flicker when she talks about the future. That’s because her job is to help satisfy our growing hunger for marine cuisine.Commercial fishing operations across the planet have exploited and in some cases nearly erased certain species. Which is where Main’s flicker comes into play. She and others at Mote Marine Laboratory’s high-and-dry … Read more

The depletion of the cattle herds in parts of Zimbabwe, coupled with severe shortage of farm inputs, have become a major cause for concern to agricultural experts in the country, who now fear that the development may worsen the already bad food situation, despite a promising rainy season.On the shores of a crusty, dried up … Read more

Urbanization, industrialization and river erosion are eating up crop lands at a rate of 221 hectares a day posing a serious threat to Bangladesh’s economy with experts fearing bad days ahead for the country which will need to grow more food to feed its growing population. Officials and experts said that 143,998 square km Bangladesh … Read more

City Fish Supply to Increase Kampala city’s 1.5 million people will have more fresh fish by the end of 2004. The fresh fish will be from ponds and not fresh water lakes — the traditional source of fresh fish sold in Kampala. Bunamwaya Fish farming scheme, about seven kilometres outside Kampala, will produce 2,000 tons … Read more

U.N. peacekeepers are making progress in restoring stability to Liberia, but the West African nation faces many difficulties as it recovers from 14 years of civil war, the country’s top U.N. relief official said Tuesday. Abou Moussa, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Liberia, said some of the 4,500 peacekeepers are beginning to expand their operations … Read more

North Korea still hovers in a crisis of malnutrition “with no end in sight”, and its already poor hospitals are getting worse, say United Nations officials. Three successive years of good weather have improved the domestic food supply, but the country could still slip back into famine within six months if international relief was halted, … Read more

“Nearly 35 per cent of (West African) children under 5 years of age are stunted, a sign of chronically poor diet, while about 5 to 15 per cent of young children are wasted, a sign of acute hunger.”Improving the diets of West Africans facing nutritional deficiencies will be the focus of a workshop next week … Read more

Farmers, key to a secure food future? Tropical regions could enjoy secure food supplies over the next fifty years if local smallholder farmers are encouraged to help themselves, says a university of East Anglia development expert writing in this week’s journal Science. Professor Michael Stocking acknowledges that soil degradation is rife in some areas and … Read more