Next generation animal disease screening tools identified by FAZD Center

Posted on 14 Jul 2011 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

The US National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense> (FAZD Center) just released the report from its second Agricultural Screening Tools Workshop, entitled: ‘Enhancing Ag Resiliency: The Agricultural Industry Perspective of Utilizing Agricultural Screening Tools’. This joins the report of the first Agricultural Screening Tools Workshop: ‘Defining the Needs and Requirements for Agricultural … Continue reading →

Agriculture / Animal Feeding / Asia / Brazil / China / Latin America / Trade / USA

China’s insatiable appetite for Brazil’s soybeans is making the latter country rich–and nervous

Posted on 26 Jun 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Planting soy in the state of Paraná, Brazil (photograph via Flickr by Dami Izolan). Daniel Kfouri reports in the New York Times that Brazil’s ‘$7 billion agreement signed last month—to produce six million tons of soybeans a year—is one of several struck in recent weeks as China hurries to shore up its food security and offset … Continue reading →

CCAFS / Climate Change / USA

Al Gore, with gloves off, power on

Posted on 24 Jun 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Al Gore, in a scene from his documentary ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ (image credit: Juampe López’s Flickr photostream). What’s the world coming to? Al (‘Albert Arnold’) Gore, the moderate poker-faced ex-politico, 45th vice-president of the United States and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, who was raised on a tobacco-and-hay growing/cattle-raising family farm in Tennessee, appears this month … Continue reading →

Africa / Asia / Caribbean / Impact Assessment / Latin America / Research / USA

Signs of an American shift from development aid to development investment

Posted on 16 Jun 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Agriculture and Rural Development Day 2010, a side event at the COP16 climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico (photo credit: Neil Palmer/CIAT). Huffpost Business this week investigates ‘an intriguing dynamic developing in our nation’s capital among the three major influences that could end up changing the future of American aid to developing countries. ‘One is … Continue reading →

Africa / Agriculture / Asia / Caribbean / Latin America / USA

‘Helping farmers become self-sufficient is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty and hunger’–Gates and Shah

Posted on 26 May 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Fatima Kagenda, 53-year-old maize, potato and cassava farmer, as well as dressmaker and church treasurer, in the village of Khulungira, in central Malawi, with hoe, crutches and knitting (photo credit: ILRI/CGIAR/Mann). The international development website Devex reports this week that billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates and Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International … Continue reading →

Drought / Food Security / Kenya / North America / USA

Improve US food aid by adding animal-source protein–Oxfam

Posted on 9 May 2011 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

An undernourished child in Kenya drinks store-bought ‘maziwa lala’ (sour milk) (photo credit: ILRI/Elsworth). Eric Muñoz, a policy adviser for Oxfam America, blogs in the Guardian about a new report that takes a hard look at the commodities the US uses to respond to disaster and food insecurity, such as is unfolding in the Horn of … Continue reading →

Agriculture / East Africa / Genetics / ILRI / Kenya / Livestock / Research / USA

Now men can make babies without women

Posted on 15 Dec 2010 by ILRI Communications • Leave a comment

Now men may be able to make babies without women, through a technology that could for the first time allow same sex couples to have their own genetic children. In a technology developed to help in preserving endangered species and improving livestock breeds, scientists have, for the first time, developed an offspring from two males. … Continue reading →

Animal Diseases / Disease Control / Emerging Diseases / Research / USA / Zoonotic Diseases

Washington State University to construct global animal health research facilities

Posted on 10 Dec 2010 by Peter Ballantyne (ILRI) • Leave a comment

An American billionaire who built his fortune as co-founder of software giant Microsoft has given a university $26 million to find ways of improving Africa’s ability to respond to animal-borne diseases. Paul G. Allen, an investor and philanthropist, has made the largest gift to Washington State University in the school’s history — $26 million to … Continue reading →

Dairying / USA

Don’t blame dairy cows for US greenhouse gas emissions–study

Posted on 17 Oct 2010 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Baoshan Community Dairy Feeding Centre, Weishan County, Yunnan Province, China (photo credit: ILRI/Mann). ‘Forget all the tacky jokes about cow flatulence causing climate change. A new study reports that the dairy industry is responsible for only about 2.0 percent of all US greenhouse gas emissions. ‘The study, led by the University of Arkansas in association … Continue reading →

USA

National vs global boundaries of moral responsibility

Posted on 26 Sep 2010 by Susan MacMillan • Leave a comment

Andrew Revkin responds to a reader in Dot Earth who says moral responsibility to help people stops at one’s national borders. ‘Toward the end of a week focused on how the world’s rich can foster progress at the other end of the Slinky of social and economic progress, a reader here posted a provocative comment. … Continue reading →