Helping the Crowd Fight Malaria

On Tuesday 15th October, I attended the International Society for Neglected Tropical Diseases: Integrated Disease Surveillance & Vector Control annual conference in London.  While there were many interesting presentations on epidemiology and surveillance techniques, innovations in vector control and the various impacts of resistance, I was most intrigued by the concept of crowd-sourcing for malaria…
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World Food Day 2013

How can we feed an increasing population with healthy, nutritional, sustainably-produced food? Each year on the 16 October, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN celebrates World Food Day.  This year’s theme, “Sustainable Food Systems for Food Security and Nutrition”, aims to raise awareness of problems and solutions in the drive to end…
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Managing disasters, saving lives…

October 13th is International Disaster Reduction Day, which is aimed at celebrating how people and communities are reducing their risk to disasters and raising awareness about the importance of disaster reduction. While some disasters are man-made and avoidable to some extent, many natural disasters are inevitable. In an Annual Disaster Review of 2012, 357 natural…
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Ocean warming could raise mercury levels in fish, says new report

According to researchers from Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, rising sea surface temperatures may increase the ability of the fish to accumulate mercury in their tissue.  This could present a risk to the health of consumers of seafood due to the bioaccumulation of methylmercury and transfer between marine food webs.  The paper is published in the…
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Food waste is damaging the environment says new FAO report

According to the report, global food wastage is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions after China and the USA. On September 11th the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) released its report titled Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources, which it claims is the first assessment of global food wastage from an environmental perspective,…
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Can the growth of cities help to eliminate malaria?

The past century has seen unprecedented growth in cities around the world. Whilst the rise of megacities is a source of concern to some (see Feral cities, BBC Radio 4), according to researchers from the UK and USA, urbanization has been followed by a significant contraction in the extent of malaria throughout endemic countries.
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India passes controversial new food bill

On Monday August 26th, India's Lower House of Parliament (the Lok Sabha) approved a Food Security Bill that aims to provide subsidised food to two thirds of its population.  Continue reading to find out more.
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