Systems science is key to identifying/mitigating discrimination in food systems. Fantastic work led by the brilliant @trmoore.bsky.social w/D. Krobath, Y. Chang Chusan, U. Sanga, @patrickwebb.bsky.social, A. Cuevas, H. Roland, B. Grant, C. Economos, V. Nicholson, S. Kumanyika. rdcu.be/eGoGc

Today's mid-August harvest. 🤗

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Madeline Horwath on how to block out bad news – cartoon

State of the world too much to bear? Don’t worry, a distraction is always at hand

theguardian.com

What's the story...?

Basketflowers. They close up at night, only to unfold the next morning. Delicate, despite their prickly looks.

My helianthus (perennial sunflower) and amaranth are luxuriating in this August's New England heat. And the pollinators too.

Useful transparency on gaps left despite WHO's updated 2023 guidence on management of child wasting. A lack of evidence on the effectiveness of prevention interventions still hinders appropriate action. Free access: gh.bmj.com/content/10/S...

Prevention of wasting and nutritional oedema: evidence gaps identified during WHO guideline development

Globally, an estimated 42.8 million children (6.6% prevalence) worldwide suffered from wasting at any given time in 2024, with severe cases accounting for 20% of deaths among children under 5 years ol...

gh.bmj.com

Our CRT in Uganda tested ways to improve water and food safety. One arm nudged the adoption of new technologies, and it significantly reduced water E.coli. But not sustained, and no shift in mycotoxins. We need demand for a 'clean food environment' to support nutrition. doi.org/10.4269/ajtm...

Ironic that our paper on supply chain optimization to enhance cost-effectiveness of USAID's food aid operations gets published...after the demise of USAID. 🙁 But if anyone in State Department now in charge of crisis response wants to know more, reach out. pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1...

As consumers and policymakers worry about the cost of healthy diets, we analyze market prices in Bihar to optimize diets for children and families. Government analysts considering subsidies or taxes on key foods should use such tools to determine cost-effective outcomes and tradeoffs.

I didn't expect this when I went to get my ladder! But life always finds a way...

Welcome back FEWS NET. The latest update on global food insecurity makes for hard reading, as usual: fews.net/global/speci.... Up to 45% shortfall in rain from long term trends in pastoral zones of Ethiopia and Sudan. Likely flooding in Kenya. But humanitarian aid cut like never before....

With 2.3 billion people moderately or severely food insecure in 2023, resources to #finance improved #food security and #nutrition are seriously constrained. This paper reviews financial flows in the conext of estimates for the cost of ending #hunger. www.fao.org/cfs/cfs-hlpe...

Strengthening responsible investments and financing for food security and nutrition

Background note for the Committee on World Food Security’s High-Level Forum, October 2025, Rome, Italy

fao.org

www.bbc.com/news/article...

Malnutrition in Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp after US aid cuts

A UN official warns that hundreds of thousands in the sprawling camp are "slowly starving".

bbc.com

Interesting new paper from #GLOPAN on Emerging EU policy impacts on African food systems: www.glopan.org/new-technica...

New technical paper – Emerging EU policy impacts on African food systems – Global Panel

The Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition has published a new technical paper by Koen Dekeyser from the European Centre for Development Pol

glopan.org

Our new paper shows how critical it is to use reliable data to achieve effective targeting and use of development resources: doi.org/10.1038/s414.... Sadly, the source of these data was terminated a few weeks ago. Draw your own conclusions...

So excited to see our article in @natcomms.nature.com, led by Valentin Seidler & w/ Edson Utazi, @sluckene.bsky.social , Gregor Zens, Maksym Bodarenko, Abigail Smith (@alleghenycollege.bsky.social alum!), Sarah Bradley, Andy Tatem, and @patrickwebb.bsky.social. www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Subnational variations in the quality of household survey data in sub-Saharan Africa - Nature Communications

Household survey data is vital to health and development. The study describes and maps data quality in 35 African countries, finding that data quality varies and worsens with distance from towns, indi...

nature.com

During the Steering Committee meeting, HLPE-FSN experts visited the UM6P impressive campus & innovation spaces, discussing applied research to support resilient food systems with students, faculty members & local stakeholders. @suwa-eisenmann.bsky.social @patrickwebb.bsky.social @mjamiot.bsky.social

🧵The HLPE-FSN expresses its sincere appreciation to CFS Chairperson Nosipho Nausca-Jean Jezile for the insightful and constructive discussion on the future of food security and nutrition, today, during the HLPE-FSN Steering Committee meeting at UM6P, in Morocco.

The HLPE-FSN is meeting at UM6P, Morocco, to advance its work on global food security. Discussions include the upcoming report "Building resilient food systems", responsible investment, key challenges & critical issues shaping the future. Grateful to UM6P staff for their support!

www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Trump’s ‘climate’ purge deleted a new extreme weather risk tool. We recreated it

The Guardian has recreated a searchable climate future risk tool developed by Fema but then deleted

theguardian.com

England suffered the largest decline in life expectancy improvement across Europe between 2011 and 2019. Hmmm...now who was in power in England from 2011 through 2019 (and beyond)? www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Life expectancy growth stalls across Europe as England sees sharpest decline, say researchers

Poor diet, obesity and inactivity blamed on decline with Norway the only country seeing a rise

theguardian.com

And over at Wholefoods, nothing to see here...

And BREXIT was sold as a 'good idea'? What fools... www.theguardian.com/world/2025/f...

Irish figures show €6bn drop in trade with Great Britain

Value of imports and exports is now about €32bn, with chemical sector among those hit by Brexit red tape

theguardian.com

Meanwhile... www.ft.com/content/6bad...

‘No signs of slowing’: US egg prices soar as avian flu rips across farms

Wholesale prices have doubled over the past year as culls to stop spread of virus prompt shortages and rationing

ft.com

Meanwhile... www.ft.com/content/311a...

US inflation unexpectedly increases to 3% in January

Figure bolsters case for Federal Reserve proceeding slowly with interest rate cuts

ft.com

Nearly half of the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture. Of this global agricultural land, 80% is used for livestock, despite meat and dairy making up a much smaller share of the world's protein and calories.

Meanwhile, egg prices.

Lovely day snowshoeing in the forest. Nothing else of consequence happening today, right?

Actually, it should read 10,000, not 1,000!

Patrick Webb@patrickwebb.bsky.social · 2y ago

Proud to note that our 2013 paper in the Lancet series on nutrition has reached 1,000 citations in Google Scholar. Not a lot, maybe, for earth science and climate papers, but quite a lot for a single nutrition article. Great that it still has legs! lnkd.in/eR8KXMxy