PSD Blog - World Bank Group

Gates opens market doors for farmers

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation recently announced that it will increase its budget for farming projects by 50 percent this year as food prices soar around the globe.  According to its website the foundation will inject  the additional funds into existing projects designed to help farmers cultivate more resilient crops, and helping producers gain better access to markets for their products. The Foundation, created in 1994, focused initially on health and education. In May 2006 it launched a call for a "Green Revolution" in Africa.

Locally-grown food in the middle of New York City

New York Magazine asked four architects to design whatever they would like for a full city block of space with no clients to worry about. One design offered was a vertical farm, complete with water tanks and each floor would be used for the cultivation of a different crop. Amale Andraos, of Work AC, the firm responsible for the intriguing idea, said in the article that they “are interested in urban farming and the notion of trying to make our cities more sustainable by cutting the miles [food travels].”

Ok, maybe that’s taking sustainable design to an extreme; does anyone have more eco-friendly (and preferably profitable) ideas?

A hungry man is an angry man

Food prices have increased by an estimated 40 percent globally since 2007. This increase has had a disproportionate effect on many developing nations, where families often spend more than half their income on food. The situation is particularly troublesome in countries such as Nigeria, Vietnam and Indonesia, where the percentage of income spent on food is respectively 73, 65 and 50 percent, as reported recently by the New York Times. As a result riots have taken place in several countries as people protest the rising food prices.

The IMF published a brief analysis last month predicting that the social implications in Sub-Saharan Africa may be severe. It also points to long term and temporary factors – including rising biofuels production and droughts – contributing to the current increase in food prices as well as guiding policy responses.

Oh, the Bob Marley tune that inspired the title of this blog post goes on to say that a "hungry mob is an angry mob." How is that for a policy-guiding principle?