Podcast Episode 10: “Does Money Really Talk?” with Akhter Ahmed
August 16, 2017
Dr. Akhter Ahmed, Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division of IFPRI, discusses the importance of social protection programs, which often provide cash or food assistance for one-third of Bangladesh’s population living below the poverty line, and their ability to decrease the prevalence of stunting and underweight among children. Dr. Ahmed and his colleagues created a program called the Transfer Modality Research Initiative (TMRI) to test the efficacy of different combinations of transfers. He discusses the surprising results, which shed light on which combination of transfers produces the best results for child nutrition, and how these findings can be used to inform new policies.
Podcast Episode 9: “Where Things Won’t Grow” with Corey EllisAugust 9, 2017
What are some of the most unique solutions to food insecurity problems around the world? How about a system that allows individuals to grow plants without any soil? We talk to Corey Ellis, co-founder and CEO of The Growcer, a hydroponics company that seeks to mitigate food insecurity in Canada’s remote north. Hydroponics is the process of growing plants in various mediums such as water or sand, with added nutrients, but no soil, proving that food production is not just one dimensional.
Podcast Episode 8: “Supersizing Big Agriculture” with Danielle NierenbergAugust 2, 2017
Co-founder of Food Tank, Danielle Nierenberg, sheds light on her work in building a global community of aware, safe, healthy, and nourished producers and eaters, and communicating their stories. Ms. Nierenberg shares the lessons she learned about sustainable agriculture and food systems when she traveled around the world talking to farmers, researchers, policymakers, and government leaders. She also reflects on who big agriculture actually is, and highlights various grassroots efforts around the world to ensure local crop diversity and nutrition for poor communities. Join us as we find out more about the three sustainabilities advocated for by Food Tank, and what we can do as individuals to help build sustainable food systems whilst ensuring the livelihoods of farming communities, big and small.
Podcast Episode 7: “On to the Road to 1 Billion” with Howdy BouisJuly 26, 2017
Howarth ‘Howdy’ Bouis, recent World Food Prize Laureate, gives us a glimpse of the impressive successes--and some challenges too-- associated with biofortification, the process of breeding high yield staple crops with specific vitamins and minerals to address micronutrient deficiencies. Dr. Bouis reflects on the past, present, and future of biofortification, and how scientists are working to overcome known obstacles, like people’s attachment to foods they are already familiar with, and still-unknown ones, like climate change. He details the long-term vision of HarvestPlus, which is using investment, innovation, and plain old information to get biofortified crops into 30 countries and feed 1 billion people by the year 2030.
Podcast Episode 6: “Rise of the Dragon” with Shenggen FanJuly 19, 2017
Shenggen Fan, IFPRI’s director general, about all things China. Dr. Fan details China’s stunning economic growth during the past few decades, which has managed to not only pull half of the country’s undernourished citizens out of poverty and hunger, but also helped the world achieve MDG#1, to reduce world poverty by half from 1990 to 2015. At the same time, these massive economic changes, along with rapid urbanization, have also highlighted the emergence and power of the triple burden of malnutrition. Join us as we talk with Dr. Fan about the changing faces of hunger across the country and what China can do to ensure a nutritious, healthy, and sustainable food future for all of its citizens in the next millennium.
Podcast Episode 5: “A Million House Calls” with Regine Kopplow and Meghan AnsonJuly 12, 2017
Regine Kopplow and Meghan Anson of Concern Worldwide, who tell the story of how Malawi responded to crisis-levels of malnutrition among young children in 2002 by piloting a new approach: Community-Based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM). Instead of treating malnourished children within traditional hospital settings, CMAM empowered local communities and health volunteers to proactively treat- and prevent- the most severe forms of malnutrition. In Malawi, this innovative approach was able to increase the percentage of children reached and treated from 10 percent to 70 percent. Ms. Kopplow and Ms. Anson discuss the current challenges and successes associated with CMAM, which has now been endorsed by partners such as WHO, UNSCN and UNICEF and rolled out to more than 60 countries around the world.
July 5, 2017Dr. Sam Myers, Senior Research Scientist at the Harvard School of Public Health and Director of the Planetary Health Alliance, an initiative exploring how changes in Earth’s natural systems impact human health. Dr. Myers discusses his groundbreaking research examining how rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may reduce important nutrients in staple crops, such as corn, wheat, and soy, and how this and other climate-related changes, such as earlier growing seasons, may impact human nutrition. Tune in to learn more about the broader social justice implications of these changes and what individuals and communities can do to mitigate the looming effects of climate change on human nutrition.
Podcast Episode 3: “The Private Sector Puzzle” with Lawrence Haddad
June 28, 2017
Lawrence Haddad, the executive director of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), discusses the role of public-private partnerships in ending malnutrition. Dr. Haddad emphasizes the unique position of businesses, who can help ensure the sustainability and scalability of an intervention, to help address global hunger and malnutrition. At the same time, he addresses the elephant in the room, mainly transparency and accountability. What is GAIN’s strategy for companies that “do good” and companies that “do bad” in the area of nutrition? How does it undertake due diligence to ensure that its partnering businesses are invested and committed to improving nutrition? How does GAIN build trust within communities? Tune in to hear these insights and more on the largely-untapped role of the private sector in improving nutrition around the world.
Podcast Episode 2: “From the Farm to the Schoolhouse” with Catherine Bertini
June 21, 2017
Catherine Bertini, professor at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University and 2003 World Food Prize Laureate, about the many challenges that face women living in low- and middle-income countries today. Professor Bertini details the role of women as the cooks and caregivers of the household, and laborers within agriculture, dual roles that make them critical to ending hunger and malnutrition. She proposes that girls’ and women’s education is the foremost step to creating not only opportunities for women, but also increasing the agricultural productivity and economic opportunities within their countries. The episode relates some innovative solutions to ensuring that families keep their daughters in school, and Professor Bertini’s vision of a world in which all women can lead fulfilling lives.
June 15, 2017
In this first episode, IFPRI interviewed Dr. Jacob Anankware, an entomologist from Ghana. Entomology is the scientific study of insects, and entomophagy is the practice of eating them. According to Dr. Anankware, insects have the potential to solve malnutrition, especially in developing countries. They are extremely abundant, highly nutritious, and environmentally sustainable, and may prove to be a formidable opponent to conventional meat.
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