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One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?…
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One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World? (edition 2012)

by Gordon Conway (Author)

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302786,912 (3.25)5
Hunger is a daily reality for a billion people. More than six decades after the technological discoveries that led to 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, resource inequality, and an ever-increasing global population, the future holds further challenges. In One Billion Hungry, Sir Gordon Conway, one of the world's foremost experts on global food needs, explains the many interrelated issues critical to our global food supply from the science of agricultural advances to the politics of food security. He expands the discussion begun in his influential The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the Twenty-First Century, emphasizing the essential combination of increased food production, environmental stability, and poverty reduction necessary to end endemic hunger on our planet. Conway addresses a series of urgent questions about global hunger: * How we will feed a growing global population in the face of a wide range of adverse factors, including climate change? * What contributions can the social and natural sciences make in finding solutions? * And how can we engage both government and the private sector to apply these solutions and achieve significant impact in the lives of the poor? Conway succeeds in sharing his informed optimism about our collective ability to address these fundamental challenges if we use technology paired with sustainable practices and strategic planning. Beginning with a definition of hunger and how it is calculated, and moving through issues topically both detailed and comprehensive, each chapter focuses on specific challenges and solutions, ranging in scope from the farmer's daily life to the global movement of food, money, and ideas. Drawing on the latest scientific research and the results of projects around the world, Conway addresses the concepts and realities of our global food needs: the legacy of the Green Revolution; the impact of market forces on food availability; the promise and perils of genetically modified foods; agricultural innovation in regard to crops, livestock, pest control, soil, and water; and the need to both adapt to and slow the rate of climate change. One Billion Hungry will be welcomed by all readers seeking a multifaceted understanding of our global food supply, food security, international agricultural development, and sustainability.… (more)
Member:39south
Title:One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World?
Authors:Gordon Conway (Author)
Info:Comstock Publishing Associates (2012), Edition: 1, 456 pages
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One Billion Hungry: Can We Feed the World? by Gordon Conway

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An excellent chronicle of the challenges facing food security now and in the future. I felt like it fell short in terms of providing practical solutions, though - the recommendations were very esoteric and abstract, and no attempt was made to reality-check. ( )
  jarlalex | Sep 11, 2019 |
In this ambitious work, Conway sets up the current issues of hunger, displacement and water insecurity that face the world, then takes the reader through a step-by-step process of how to fix these problems. His main points concern the following: most agriculture in the developing world is conducted by smallholders, who weather all of the risk of farming but can't respond quickly to market forces. He recommends that insurance be set up for these farmers, and also that they're linked more directly to information about prices and weather. Water is being unsustainably used for irrigating crops, and he has compiled a set of tools to reduce water use (the most obvious recourse being to increase maintenance of existing irrigation infrastructure). Industrial methods of fertilizer and pest control are expensive and bad for the environment and biome, so he recommends crop rotation, interleaving crops together, and using either natural pest control or gene modification (making crops exude Bt, for instance). And international donors need to actually follow up on their promises and work within a larger organization, so that efforts can be coordinated.

Conway has been president of the Rockefeller Foundation, chief scientific adviser to the UK Department for International Development, and is now working as a professor while running an advocacy grant from the Bill&Melinda Gates Foundation. He writes dense prose, packed with citations and real world examples, but also rife with quotable sections. For anyone worried about sustainability, hunger, or agriculture, I highly recommend this book. It's far less angry and less radical than Paul Farmer's writing, but it's nevertheless a good companion to it. ( )
  wealhtheowwylfing | Feb 29, 2016 |
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Hunger is a daily reality for a billion people. More than six decades after the technological discoveries that led to 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, resource inequality, and an ever-increasing global population, the future holds further challenges. In One Billion Hungry, Sir Gordon Conway, one of the world's foremost experts on global food needs, explains the many interrelated issues critical to our global food supply from the science of agricultural advances to the politics of food security. He expands the discussion begun in his influential The Doubly Green Revolution: Food for All in the Twenty-First Century, emphasizing the essential combination of increased food production, environmental stability, and poverty reduction necessary to end endemic hunger on our planet. Conway addresses a series of urgent questions about global hunger: * How we will feed a growing global population in the face of a wide range of adverse factors, including climate change? * What contributions can the social and natural sciences make in finding solutions? * And how can we engage both government and the private sector to apply these solutions and achieve significant impact in the lives of the poor? Conway succeeds in sharing his informed optimism about our collective ability to address these fundamental challenges if we use technology paired with sustainable practices and strategic planning. Beginning with a definition of hunger and how it is calculated, and moving through issues topically both detailed and comprehensive, each chapter focuses on specific challenges and solutions, ranging in scope from the farmer's daily life to the global movement of food, money, and ideas. Drawing on the latest scientific research and the results of projects around the world, Conway addresses the concepts and realities of our global food needs: the legacy of the Green Revolution; the impact of market forces on food availability; the promise and perils of genetically modified foods; agricultural innovation in regard to crops, livestock, pest control, soil, and water; and the need to both adapt to and slow the rate of climate change. One Billion Hungry will be welcomed by all readers seeking a multifaceted understanding of our global food supply, food security, international agricultural development, and sustainability.

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