Jack Breslauer

Government-funded global agriculture programs are making a world of difference for many small farmers in rural Africa. Don’t believe it? Read the living proof: Getting a fair price at market is always a struggle. Find out how mobile technology is changing the lives of farmers in Ghana. Prosper Biche is a yam farmer from eastern

Prosper Biche is a yam farmer from Eastern Ghana. Until recently, he relied on an antiquated system to sell and transport his goods to the market. This archaic system meant that Prosper would sell his wares to individual buyers, who travel across the countryside on bicycles. These buyers would then provide the goods to processors

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is a seductive idea. For many, it conjures up images of multinational companies pouring money, technologies and expertise into underdeveloped regions, driving openness and prosperity. At many times and in many places this is accurate, yet we must be careful. In some (mostly African) countries, FDI is coming at an unacceptable

As prices rise and the ranks of the hungry continue to grow, it is only natural that those with empty stomachs start pointing fingers. Who is to blame? Of course, there’s nothing we can do about the weather, which has caused crop failures from Argentina to Zimbabwe. Nor can we really blame the growing middle

While much of sub-Saharan Africa seemed to be coping well during the first months of the food crisis in 2010, some countries in East Africa have suffered more recently from poor rains and seen prices rise since the turn of the year. Prices for maize rose over the past three months by 25 percent in

The poorest countries on earth have more needs and deficiencies than many of us can comprehend, from fallow fields to failing schools to raging epidemics. One cannot help but ask: Where should donor countries even begin to help out? There are many common — and valid — answers to this question. Health, many argue, is

This Wednesday, Raj Shah, the head of USAID, testified in front of a Congress that is threatening to cut funding to development programs by as much as 40 percent. Much of the speech was just as you would expect: a celebration of the success of US aid programs in improving health, cutting hunger and driving

Tinkering with agricultural markets is a dangerous business, especially when prices are skyrocketing and more and more people are going hungry. Hastily devised export bans, subsidy programs or regulation of commodities trading, however well intended, can make things worse. Many experts believe this to be the case with past food crises in the early 1970s

Fezila Begam struggles to raise her baby son, Saim, in the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh’s overcrowded capital. While all mothers fret about their child falling ill, Fezila’s fears are better founded than most. Recently, he was hospitalized for almost a week with severe diarrhea after drinking water from a suspected contaminated well. The risk of

Why is food so expensive right now? Ask 10 experts and you might get 10 different answers. Bad weather, export restrictions, hoarding and speculation are all popular explanations for the continuing rise in the cost of basic food staples. But it is hard to argue that the price of fuel, in particular oil, is not

“The problem is no longer that with every pair of hands that comes into the world there comes a hungry stomach. Rather it is that, attached to those hands are sharp elbows.” -Paul A. Samuelson, Nobel Prize winning economist Tunisia’s Zine ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak both unceremoniously elbowed out of power over the

Female farmers in the Uwamwima Growers Association in ZanzibarWomen can feed the world. This was the simple message of this year’s International Women’s Action Day Breakfast, organized by Women Thrive Worldwide, an organization that advocates for the empowerment of women through US foreign aid programs. You might be surprised to know that women make up