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Food Insecurity Continues to Grow

By Guest PostSeptember 21, 2013Economycentral missouri, food affordability, food insecurity, hunger, minimum food needs, missouri hunger atlas, policy makers, private program, sandy rikoon, united states

Missouri trends mirror the national picture; MU scientist offers policy suggestions to fight hunger issues

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The 2013 Missouri Hunger Atlas, issued by the University of Missouri’s Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security, shows that more than one in five Missouri households with children are food insecure, meaning they worry about not having enough food. One author of the Hunger Atlas said that patterns in Missouri reflect what is happening at the national level, and offers suggestions for actions from government policy makers and individuals to provide some relief.

“The percentage of Missouri’s population that is food insecure has grown from an average of 8.6 percent during the 1999-2001 period to 16 percent during the 2009-2011 period,” said Sandy Rikoon, the director of the MU Interdisciplinary Center for Food Security and co-author of the Hunger Atlas. “Many of our findings – including deeper food insecurity rates in inner cities and rural areas, and greater lack of participation in food programs in some highly populated regions near urban centers – are comparable to national trends. We also found an increase in the number of households that experience hunger in the form of reduced meal portions, skipped meals and other reductions.” (more…)

Global health policy fails to address burden of disease on men

By Guest PostMay 20, 2013General, Healthaids, alcohol use, burden of disease, cerebrovascular disease, chris murray, davidson gwatkin, decline, economic situation, gender inequalities, gender norms, global health policy, global mortality rates, hiv, ischemic heart disease, kent buse, lancet, life expectancy, lower respiratory infections, men, policy makers, sarah hawkes, tobacco smoking, unaids, university of washington, unprotected sex, unsafe sex, women

Men experience a higher burden of disease and lower life expectancy than women, but policies focusing on the health needs of men are notably absent from the strategies of global health organisations, according to a Viewpoint article in this week’s Lancet.

The article reinterprets data from the ‘Global Burden of Disease: 2010’ study which shows that all of the top ten causes of premature death and disability, and the top ten behavioural risk factors driving rates of ill-health around the world, affect men more than they affect women. (more…)

Commentary in Nature: Can Economy Bear What Oil Prices Have in Store?

By Guest PostJanuary 27, 2012Economy, Environmentalternative sources, crude oil, crude oil production, david king, economic pain, fossil fuel, global climate change, global economic growth, global economy, global warming, industry e mails, internal documents, international monetary fund, james w murray, Nature, oil companies, oil supply, policy makers, sandra hines, shale gas, tar sands, tipping point, united kingdom, university of oxford, university of washington, use, wells, world war II

Stop wrangling over global warming and instead reduce fossil-fuel use for the sake of the global economy.

That’s the message from two scientists, one from the University of Washington and one from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, who say in the current issue of the journal Nature (Jan. 26) that the economic pain of a flattening oil supply will trump the environment as a reason to curb the use of fossil fuels.

“Given our fossil-fuel dependent economies, this is more urgent and has a shorter time frame than global climate change,” says James W. Murray, UW professor of oceanography, who wrote the Nature commentary with David King, director of Oxford’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. (more…)

Highest Percentage of Americans in Four Decades Say Financial Situation Has Gotten Worse

By Guest PostApril 17, 2011Economyamericans, biennial survey, economic assessments, financial situation, general social survey, happiness, norc, policy makers, tom smith, university of chicago, well being of americans

*General Social Survey Also Shows That Happiness Takes A Hit Because of Personal Finances*

Chicago — A recently released report of the General Social Survey, conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago, shows that for the first time since 1972, more Americans say that their financial situation has gotten worse in recent years rather than better. Understandably, also for the first time since 1972, the percentage of Americans saying that they are “not at all” satisfied with their financial situation (31.5%) notably exceeds those saying they are “pretty well” satisfied (23.4%). (more…)

Think Globally, but Act Locally When Studying Plants, Animals, Global Warming, Researchers Advise

By Guest PostMarch 22, 2011Environment, Natureagriculture, air pollution, butterfly, camille parmesan, climate, climate change, climate change impacts, effects of climate change, extinctions, global scale, global warming, greenhouse gas, habitat fragmentation, human activities, invasive species, los angeles, mediterranean geraniums, michael singer, multiple factors, natural changes, nobel prize, plants and animals, policy makers, quino checkerspot butterfly, san diego, southern california, species, united states, urban sprawl

AUSTIN, Texas — Global warming is clearly affecting plants and animals, but we should not try to tease apart the specific contribution of greenhouse gas driven climate change to extinctions or declines of species at local scales, biologists from The University of Texas at Austin advise.

Camille Parmesan, Michael C. Singer and their coauthors published their commentary online this week in Nature Climate Change.

“Yes, global warming is happening. Yes, it is caused by human activities. And yes, we’ve clearly shown that species are impacted by global warming on a global scale,” says Parmesan, associate professor of integrative biology. (more…)

Tag Archives: policy makers

Food Insecurity Continues to Grow

Global health policy fails to address burden of disease on men

Commentary in Nature: Can Economy Bear What Oil Prices Have in Store?

Highest Percentage of Americans in Four Decades Say Financial Situation Has Gotten Worse

Think Globally, but Act Locally When Studying Plants, Animals, Global Warming, Researchers Advise