By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org As the world recognizes the 103rd International Women’s Day on March 8th, it is a good time to consider the role of women as an answer to improving food security, particularly in the face of global climate change. A recent report found that the narrowing of diversity in crop species contributing
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org A United Nations report titled Assessing Global Land Use: Balancing Consumption with Sustainable Supply highlights the pressing need to cope with changes in a growing and consuming world that is shifting quickly from the one we’ve known for decades. According to the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the need to feed a
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Overconsumption, as most people are aware of, is having a tremendous effect on the planet.  But fewer think of this in terms of diet, where intensive meat and dairy production is also a strain on the environment. A new report – Meat Atlas – has just been published by Friends of
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Alarmingly, food insecurity in Africa’s Sahel belt continues to worsen. This week the United Nations reported that 16 million people in the region are at risk of going hungry in the next year due to violent conflicts and rapid population growth. The Sahel encompasses a semiarid strip of land in Sub-Saharan
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org If you want to have an impact on reducing carbon emissions and the effects of climate change, look no further than your kitchen. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year the world wastes a third of all food for human consumption – nearly 1.3 billion tons – equal
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org Can the world improve food security in the face of rising food prices, population growth, climate change, poverty, and gender inequality? New research in the journal Climatic Change found that a changing climate will likely push food prices up 20 to 40%, regardless of cuts to future carbon emissions.  As reported
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org The headlines out of the Sahel region of Africa (and Sub-Saharan Africa) are not good, and are reflective of climate change, food insecurity, and poverty.  The situation highlights the need to invest in and empower women as one answer to these problems. The Food & Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Situation Update on
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org One billion poor people around the world rely upon fish and seafood as their primary source of protein. Climate change is putting these people at high risk for food insecurity, and they also face a very serious threat to their livelihoods as fisherfolk, according to the recent report Ocean-Based Food Security
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By Suzanne York, www.howmany.org It is estimated that globally, every two seconds, two people move into cities. Currently twenty-two percent, or 1.5 billion people, live in 600 cities around the world. Africa is home to the fastest growing countries in terms of population growth. It is projected that the continent will double from 1.1 billion
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 By Suzanne York, HowMany.org, October 27, 2011 Demographers predict the 7 billionth child will likely be born on October 31st in India or China. No one really knows, of course, but the odds are in favor of the birth happening in one of those two countries, which between them have 2.5 billion people, or 1/3rd
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