The Guardian: The true cost of a plate of food: $1 in New York, $320 in South Sudan
“The world’s poorest pay more than a day’s wages for a single plate of food, according to a report from the World Food Programme, which reveals that the same bean stew can cost the average consumer in New York just $1.20, while the price tag is more than $320 in South Sudan. The research, released to coincide with World Food Day on Monday, underlines the sheer discrepancy of consumers’ purchasing power around the world by measuring the relative cost of food in various countries against a single baseline…” (Hodal, 10/16).

NPR: Why World Hunger Isn’t Going Away As Fast As We’d Hoped
“…[W]hile at first glance the global trend lines still look promising, [Rob Vos, formerly a key official at the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization and now with the International Food Policy Research Institute, or IFPRI,] says a closer look at the statistics reveal stubborn problems that threaten that rosy picture. Increasingly this year, he says, cracks are starting to show. … For too long, says Vos the top-line good news has distracted policymakers from the underlying bad news. But he says the declaration of famine in so many countries early this year has helped pierce the bubble…” (Aizenman, 10/17).

U.N. News Centre: At U.N. event in Rome, Pope Francis urges action on climate change, conflicts to end global hunger
“Food security for all requires tackling climate change and ending conflicts, His Holiness, Pope Francis, stressed Monday at an official ceremony for World Food Day held at the Rome headquarters of the United Nations agriculture agency. ‘It is clear that wars and climatic change are a cause of hunger, so let’s not present it as if hunger is an incurable disease,’ the Pontiff said during his key note address marking the day at headquarters of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)…” (10/16).