By John Thompson, co-convenor, STEPS Centre food and agriculture domain and joint coordinator, Future Agricultures Consortium The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) chose Brazil’s José Graziano da Silva as its Director General, the first new leader in almost two decades as the world faces near-record food prices that are driving…
A NEW LEADER AND A NEW BEGINNING FOR THE UN FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANISATION?
ONE HEALTH, ONE WORLD?
Photo: SARS Mural, from Steel Monkey’s Flickr photostream (creative commons)STEPS Centre researcher Paul Forster is blogging from the International One Health Congress in Melbourne. This is the first of his posts from the Congress. “Are you from the human side, or the animal side?” The question came from a doctor – an epidemiologist – from…
AVIAN ‘FLU: THE POLITICS AND POLICY PROCESSES OF A GLOBAL RESPONSE
By JULIA DAY, STEPS Centre member When the potential of a flu pandemic derived from Avian Influenza emerged, alarm bells rang across the world. The prospect of a major public health catastrophe caused by the human-human transmission of so-called bird flu sparked considerable investment into developing surveillance and response systems for the disease. But how…
UN FOOD SUMMIT: BACKGROUNDER
By JULIA DAY, STEPS Centre member The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation called the emergency meetingafter soaring commodity prices threatened to add as many as 100 million more people to the 850 million already going hungry, destabilising governments in the process. Photo: Guilio Napolitano / FAO The FAO said the meeting would discuss ways…