Global hunger affects nearly a billion people. The five major forms of malnutrition worldwide are: Protein-energy malnutrition, iron, iodine, zinc and vitamin A deficiencies. These deficiencies affect the mental, physical and emotional development of children and adults. They also impact on economic productivity. Malnutrition has now been recognised as a significant contributor to infant mortality. The observation that malnutrition during pregnancy has a long term impact on the offspring,...

This lecture, given by Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy, Centre for Food Policy, City University, London, focuses on the politics and social fissures that cut across contemporary food policy concerns. The 2007-08 commodity price spike enabled a mainly technical, production-oriented approach to future food to stake its claim in mainstream policy discourse. Critics propose that this 'productionism' marginalises and downplays the social dimension of food systems. Food is not just a matter of...

Human diets have changed dramatically over the last century, and the impact of industrialisation on our food supply has had devastating consequences for public health. The detrimental effects of highly processed 'junk food diets' on physical health are well recognised, but far less attention has been paid to their consequences for mental health and wellbeing. Abundant evidence now links modern, western-type diets - rich in highly processed, refined foods - not only to increased rates of...

More than six decades after the Green Revolution aimed at ending world hunger, regular food shortages, malnutrition, and poverty still plague vast swaths of the world. And with increasing food prices, climate change, land and water resource degradation and inequality, and an ever-increasing global population, the future holds further challenges. In a discussion of his new book, One Billion Hungry: Can we feed the world?, Sir Gordon Conway, one of the world's foremost experts on global food...