#food-as-a-weapon

#food-as-a-weapon

"Many times I find myself having to set aside other basic needs my children have in order to prioritize buying food," Garcia said in Spanish.

"Fresh food and perishables are almost like the canary in the coal mine," when energy prices go up, according to Vidya Mani, an associate professor at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business.

You may have heard that organic vegetables are right-wing now. That raw milk is the gateway to MAGA. That supplements are for fascists. You may be unsure just how this happened. It seems like only yesterday that vegetables were for hippies; that eco-communists-not MAHA momfluencers-were spreading the good word of pesticide-free potatoes.

From Minnesota to Mississippi we're lifting up our hard working farmers and ranchers and growers and we're putting more money in American pockets. We're going to prove that the golden age of American agriculture is right here and right now.

Nearly half of the world's traded urea—the most widely used fertiliser—and large volumes of other fertilisers are exported from Gulf countries via the Strait of Hormuz, making global agriculture highly exposed to any disruption there. Recent disruptions to gas supplies and shipping have already forced fertiliser plants, which use natural gas to manufacture fertiliser, in the Gulf and beyond to shut or cut their output.

A 72-count box of store-brand K-Cups is almost $30. A 64-ounce bottle of coffee creamer is almost $8. A 4-pound bag of sugar (shrinkflation; it used to be 5 pounds) is almost $10. These aren't luxuries.

NPR's global health and development team tells stories about life in our changing world, focusing on low- and middle-income countries also referred to as the Global South. And we keep in mind that we're all neighbors in this global village. NPR receives financial support for this team from the Gates Foundation. NPR is solely responsible for all content. Find more about NPR's standards and practices at NPR.org/ethics, as well as a list of our philanthropic supporters in our annual report.

The humble tortilla is an iconic food staple in Mexico. Everyone eats them, regardless of age or income. The ingredients for the tortilla I was frying in this photo have been fermented to include probiotics and prebiotics for gut health. My research focuses on developing such fermented nutraceuticals - nutritious products with pharmaceutical benefits - to help improve people's metabolic health and combat the malnutrition prevalent in some of Mexico's poorest communities.

Already, 2026 is proving to be a challenging year for global hunger. Last year, the global development sector faced enormous upheavals, with the United States and other donor countries slashing aid budgets even as low-income countries struggled with debt burdens. Steep aid cuts have exacerbated existing food security crises-whether from Russia's war with Ukraine disrupting international food supplies or farmers losing tens of billions of dollars due to climate change.

Since October's ceasefire, which meant Israel would allow some - but not nearly enough - aid trucks to enter our besieged Strip, people in Gaza have desperately been eating, whenever possible, what they had been deprived of previously. Yet, as a result, many have developed " refeeding syndrome," which is a serious medical condition. Refeeding syndrome occurs when food is suddenly reintroduced after a prolonged period of starvation - and Israel has subjected those of us in Gaza to such periods on multiple occasions.

"famine thresholds for acute malnutrition have now been surpassed"

Food aid to war-torn Sudan could run out within months unless hundreds of millions of additional dollars are pledged, the United Nations has warned. Marking more than 1,000 days of the country's civil war, the UN's World Food Programme on Thursday issued a plea for $700m to fund its work in Sudan. The money is needed to prevent what it says is already the world's worst hunger and displacement crisis from getting worse.

In 2025, the administration of US President Donald Trump ordered the US Agency for International Development to be closed; this year, it withdrew the country from 66 international organizations. Other Western nations that are plagued with high levels of debt and pressure to prioritize domestic challenges have slashed their foreign aid, too. According to projections, official development assistance dropped by 9-17% in 2025, amounting to some US$55 billion.