For more than 50 years, Sanchez has worked on agriculture and hunger issues throughout the developing world. Since 2005, he has helped to establish and direct the Millennium Villages Project to promote policies to bring a green revolution to Africa and achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.
US rice production dominates our consumption at over 90% (USDA, 2012), and the question is whether or not that choice is the best one for our water and our environment.
What are the implications of hydraulic fracturing on agriculture and food security? In agricultural areas with widespread, ongoing hydrofracking, there have been incidences of livestock poisoning from contaminated surface water sources or grasses, and soil contamination from explosions, spills, flares, irresponsible fracking-wastewater treatment, and leaky gas pipes.
The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), a program of the African Union, was launched in Lusaka, Zambia in July 2001. NEPAD offered a fundamentally new approach to development. African leaders set out to pursue new priorities and methods to transform the continent politically and socio-economically, focusing on Africa’s growth, development and participation in the [...]
Climate scientist Simon Mason talks about the drought and the role of climate information in disaster preparedness and response.
In 2010, almost two-thirds of the world’s ecosystems were deemed degraded due to human impacts and mismanagement, but fortunately ecosystems can be restored. The Earth Institute’s work in Haiti illustrates just how complicated ecosystem restoration can be.
Achieving sustainable water sustainability in Brazil’s semi-arid northeast will involve more than just building pipes, pumps and water towers: it will require significant changes in the ways water is monitored, distributed and used throughout the region.
It is no surprise that New York City holds one of the world’s densest agglomerations of people and infrastructure; but according to a new report, it is also hides a huge archipelago of potential farmland. The report, by the Earth Institute’s Urban Design Lab, identifies some 5,000 scattered acres of private and public vacant land suitable for farming–plus [...]
Climate and food security expert Jim Hansen lays out the root causes of food insecurity in East Africa.
“If crops don’t adapt to climate change, neither will agriculture, and neither will we,” said Cary Fowler of the Global Crop Diversity Trust at the 2009 TED conference. Climate change is already affecting food supplies around the world as heat waves and drought reduce grain harvests and food prices soar. For every 1˚ C rise above [...]
State of the Planet is a forum for discussion on varying viewpoints. The opinions expressed by the authors and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Earth Institute or Columbia University.
