The Full Monty on Animal Feeds

Here's a guide to all that's useful about animal feeds.


Hey, we know its fairly modest in scope as yet, but in time it will be a bigger list.

1. AllAboutFeed.net. As it says, all about feed.
2. EU problems from zero-tolerance of GMOs in feed imports
   
   

Do you know what hunger really is?

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Notes on Hunger.

The Millennium Project of the United Nations and its Hunger Related Goals

The Millennium Project of the United Nations is a source of background information about the project and links to documents and related Web sites. The Millennium Declaration, adopted by 189 UN member nations on 18 September 2000, outlines the signatory countries' commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Millennium Project Web site summarizes the goals. The World Bank's Millennium Development Goals Web site, provides information about the goals and the partner organizations. The United Nations Development Agency provides a resource page on MDGs. The Development Gateway offers a special feature on the MDGs with a section on food access and availability.

The Earth Institute of Columbia University provides information about the Hunger Task Force of the Millennium Project. The Millennium Project Web site summarizes target two of MDG goal one and provides information on the Hunger Task Force and its members. The World Bank's Millennium Development Goals Web site provides information about the goal to end malnutrition and hunger. J. D. Sachs makes available in PDF format a February 2004 lecture titled "Meeting the Hunger Millennium Development Goal." The Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs makes available a November 2003 paper by T. W. Pogge titled "The first UN Millennium Development Goal." The presentations from the 5 July 2004 seminar titled "Innovative approaches to meeting the hunger MDG in Africa" are made available by the Millennium Project.

FORMAT OF LINKS is as follows:

SOURCE

#USEFUL DOCUMENT AT THAT SOURCE

The Hunger Links Collection:

Development Gateway

# food security.

HungerWeb Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, Tufts University.

# collection of links

Bread for the World

# links to other anti-hunger and poverty organizations

BBC Broadcasting
# African hunger Crisis

Last Updated: Tuesday, 31 January 2006, 02:32 GMT
Africa's hunger - a systemic crisis
By Martin Plaut
BBC Africa analyst

The number of Africans needing food aid has doubled in a decade
More than half of Africa is now in need of urgent food assistance.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is warning that 27 sub-Saharan countries now need help.

But what appear as isolated disasters brought about by drought or conflict in countries like Somalia, Malawi, Niger, Kenya and Zimbabwe are - in reality - systemic problems.

It is African agriculture itself that is in crisis, and according to the International Food Policy Research Institute, this has left 200 million people malnourished.

It is particularly striking that the FAO highlights political problems such as civil strife, refugee movements and returnees in 15 of the 27 countries it declares in need of urgent assistance. By comparison drought is only cited in 12 out of 27 countries.

The implication is clear - Africa's years of wars, coups and civil strife are responsible for more hunger than the natural problems that befall it.

...Continues

Change.net provides

# links to information and action on world hunger and poverty.

Food and Nutrition Technical Assistance (FANTA) Project

# Internet resources related to nutrition and food security.

Eldis Gateway to Development Information provides a

# food security resource guide.

The very respected International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) provides policy solutions that cut hunger and malnutrition.

# collection of publications related to its

# 2020 Vision for Food, Agriculture, and the Environment and a collection of #discussion papers on food consumption and nutrition and

# essay titled "Agriculture, food security, nutrition and the Millennium Development Goals."

Hunger Project is a strategic organization and global movement committed to the sustainable end of world hunger.

Feeding Minds, Fighting Hunger is an international classroom for exploring the problems of hunger, malnutrition, and food insecurity.

M. M. Cody, Department of Nutrition, Georgia State University, offers resources for a

# course on world hunger.

Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin, makes available

# lecture notes and other resources for a

# course on world hunger and malnutrition.

UNESCO.

# Teaching and Learning for a Sustainable Future is a multimedia teacher

education program

# presentation on understanding world.

Viewpoint titled "Global food security: Challenges and policies" in12 December 2003 issue of Science

# collection of related Web resources.

Task Force on Hunger of the United Nation's Millennium Project of UN's Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)

# Halving Hunger: It Can Be Done (full report in PDF format)

# State of Food Insecurity in the World 2004

Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture makes

# 2003 report titled "Food security assessment" and a

# 2003 report titled "Linking land quality, agricultural productivity, and food security."

UN Chronicle had an

# article by G. McGovern titled "The real cost of hunger" and

# other articles on world hunger.

Heifer International's November-December 2004 issue of World Ark

# article titled "We can end hunger now" and

# other articles related to world hunger.

J. D. Sachs, Earth Institute, Columbia University

# 2004 article from Brookings Papers on Economic Activity by J. D. Sachs et al. titled "Ending Africa' s poverty trap" (5).

IDPAS Iron Deficiency Project Advisory Sevice Webpage

......# 2003 Global Report

2002 World Food Summit, by FAO

# Documents and other resources from

GMO Pundit Hunger Related Links (Partial Listing)

......# More nutrition per drop
......# New Global Biosociety
......# End of Poverty Part I. The Positives
......# End of Poverty Part II. Reversal of fortune.
......# Blogging World Hunger.
......# European attitudes blocking Progress.
......# Plenty of Food, Not in Africa
......# Children in the developing world

......# Blogging World hunger

......# Eliminate What?

......# Eradicating Poverty Through profits

......# Technology reduces poverty.

......# Tackle Corruption

GMO Pundit African Links

......# http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/2006/02/south-africa-portal-for-gmos-slipping.html
......# http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/2006/01/africans-welcome-gm-crops-for-more.html
......# http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/2006/01/african-experiences-show-conservation.html
......# http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/2006/01/ban-on-gm-maize-still-in-place-in.html
......# http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/2005/12/end-of-poverty-part-ii-reversal-of.html
......# http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/2005/11/advice-to-zambia-from-charles-benbrook.html
......# http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/2005/11/grain-toxins-that-cause-birth-defects.html
......# http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/2005/11/super-sorghum.html
......# http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/2005/12/plenty-of-food-in-world-but-in-africa.html

......# http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/2005/12/european-attitude-to-gm-products.html
......# http://gmopundit.blogspot.com/2005/12/is-european-attitude-to-gm-products.html

The May 2003 issue of the UN's Africa Recovery

# special feature "Africa beyond famine" that included an

# article titled "New strategies needed to combat hunger, disease and rural poverty."

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Super sorghum

Biofortified sorghum project boosts African scientific capacity
November 16, 2005
Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International
JOHANNESBURG One of Africa's greatest challenges the twin problems of limited scientific infrastructure and human capacity is being addressed by the Africa Biofortified Sorghum (ABS) project, which is supported by the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative.
An essential goal of the ABS project is to build African scientific capacity through the training of African scientists. The first two scientists have begun research in the United States this week. Andile Grootboom and Luke Mehlo, two plant biotechnologists from South Africa's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), are being trained at Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., the world's leading agricultural seed technology company and subsidiary of DuPont in Des Moines, Iowa.
Africa has limited skills in science and technology and the ABS Project is designed to broaden skills in specifically in plant biotechnology.
"The expertise gained through the new technologies and cutting-edge research will benefit other African institutions and further enhance the quality of research in CSIR, a New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) Bioscience Center of Excellence," says Dr. Blessed Okole, strategic partnerships manager at CSIR Biosciences.
"As leader of the ABS project, I am proud that we have met the first important milestone. Not only have two African scientists begun research in the United States, we have lined up additional African scientists, to be trained both at the CSIR and Pioneer in the coming months," says Dr. Florence Wambugu, CEO of Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International.
Dr. Wambugu says "the start of the capacity building process is not only a crucial milestone of this project but also a confirmation that this is a project by Africans building Africa, for Africa with the help of friends in developed nations."
Over the course of the ABS project, scientists will spend time at both the CSIR and Pioneer. In the US, the scientists will mainly learn advanced scientific techniques, protocol and strategy designs for construction of plant transformation.
"We have designed a unique program to impart skills that will directly contribute to the ABS project with the goal of producing a new generation of nutritionally-enhanced sorghum with improved essential amino acid composition, protein and starch digestibility, iron and zinc availability, and elevated levels of select vitamins, including Vitamin E," says Dr. Paul Anderson, international end use senior manager, Pioneer, and the ABS project's principal investigator.
"We are delighted to work with African institutions in building capacity both for the ABS Project and the continent. This will ensure that Africa draws maximum benefit from the Intellectual Property donation, worth US$4.8 million, donated to the project by Pioneer," says Dr. Anderson
"It is an amazing opportunity to come to Pioneer and work alongside some of the world's best scientists," says Andile. "We are excited at being part of a project that will positively impact the lives of over 300 million poor people in Africa and the developing world."
Luke adds that they are looking forward to learning state-of-the-art research techniques. "This is high-level science with a precise goal of transforming the lives of people at the lowest level of society."
The African Biofortified Sorghum (ABS) Project is supported by the Grand Challenges in Global Health initiative, which focuses on harnessing the power of science and technology to dramatically improve health in the world's poorest countries, and is funded primarily by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The overall goal of ABS is to develop highly enhanced sorghum as a food source to help fight hunger, malnutrition and poverty. The ABS Project is designed to solve global challenges under the direction of a strategic consortium of public and private organizations led by Africa Harvest Biotech Foundation International and its strategic partners the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), South Africa, and DuPont through its subsidiary Pioneer Hi-Bred International. For additional information, please visit http://www.supersorghum.org .

The current high tech approach to vitamin A deficiency

Alfred Sommer is a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and was involved in discovering vitamin A’s importance in infectious disease. His CV reads:

"In a series of complex intervention trials Sommer conducted in Indonesia (1976-1980), he and his research team discovered that vitamin A deficiency was far more common than previously recognized, and that even mild vitamin A deficiency dramatically increases childhood mortality rates, primarily because this deficiency reduces resistance to infectious diseases such as measles and diarrhea. Parallel studies Sommer organized with colleagues in Africa demonstrated that most cases of measles-associated pediatric blindness were also related to low vitamin A levels.

To prove these observations definitively, Sommer and his colleagues ran a number of large-scale, community-based, randomized trials from 1983 through 1992 and demonstrated the link between even mild vitamin A deficiency and pediatric mortality.

Moving from science to practice, Sommer next showed that the debilitating consequences of vitamin A deficiency could be effectively, quickly, and cheaply treated with oral high-dose vitamin A supplementation, and treatment did not require a sterile injectable preparation. As a result, the World Development Report (World Bank) declared vitamin A supplementation one of the most cost-effective of all health interventions.

The latest research by Dr. Sommer and his colleagues has shown that supplementing women of childbearing age with vitamin A or beta-carotene can reduce maternal mortality by an average of 45 percent. These dramatic results are now being tested in a new, large, randomized, controlled, field trial in Bangladesh, where the potential benefits of simultaneous supplementation with other micronutrients (zinc, folate, iron, B-complex) are being determined.
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