Conflict, food insecurity, and globalization:

"We explore how globalization, broadly conceived to include international humanrights norms, humanitarianism, and alternative trade, might influence peaceful and foodsecure outlooks and outcomes. The paper draws on our previous work on conflict as a cause and effect of hunger and also looks at agricultural exports as war commodities. We review studies on the relationships between (1) conflict and food insecurity, (2) conflict and globalization, and (3) globalization and food insecurity. Next, we analyze countrylevel, historical contexts where export crops, such as coffee and cotton, have been implicated in triggering and perpetuating conflict. These cases suggest that it is not export cropping per se, but production and trade structures and food and financial policy contexts that determine peaceful or belligerent outcomes. Export cropping appears to contribute to conflict when fluctuating prices destabilize household and national incomes and when revenues fund hostilities. Also, in these scenarios, governments have not taken steps to progressively realize the right to adequate food or to reduce hunger and poverty. We conclude by exploring implications for agricultural development, trade, and human rights policies." Authors' AbstractHunger, Conflict, war, Globalization, Crops, exports, coffee, Cotton, Human rights, Right to food, Fair trade,

The human right to food as a U.S. nutrition concern, 1976-2006:

"For 30 years, U.S. food and nutrition scientists and policymakers concerned with food and nutrition have explored the possibility of making the human right to food (HRF) the moral and legal cornerstone of U.S. domestic and international initiatives in this area. The U.S. government has consistently opposed formal right-to-food legislation, labeling it as overly burdensome and inconsistent with constitutional law. In contrast, anti-hunger advocates have favored a rights-based framework as a way to hold government accountable for improving the nutritional situation of its poorest citizens and for saving lives and preventing malnutrition in developing countries. The U.S. government has continually expanded food and nutrition assistance at home and abroad, but not within a human rights framework. What might a human rights perspective add, and what are the continuing rationales of the opposition? Using as touchstones U.S. government and nongovernmental organization (NGO) testimonies from the 1976 Right to Food Resolution congressional debate and the 1996 World Food Summit, which featured U.S. opposition to HRF language, the U.S. government and NGO HRF positions are traced from 1976 to 2006. Qualitative analyses of historical policy position papers, testimonies, research reports, and the popular nutrition literature are used to evaluate how human rights and the HRF—as framing and rhetoric—have influenced nutrition policy, public and official understanding, and outreach. In this documentation process, we also integrate information from the wider “human rights” positions of the food-and-nutrition advocacy community, including Food First, Bread for the World, the Food Research and Action Center, the community food security movement, and charitable food assistance agencies, to demonstrate where these different advocacy agents, organizations, and agendas fit in this process of advancing a HRF sensibility." from Authors' AbstractFood policy, Human rights, Right to food, malnutrition, Social welfare,

Conflict, food insecurity, and globalization:

"For more than two centuries, proponents and critics of an open global economy have debated whether the free flows of goods, services, and capital make the world more peaceful and food secure or instead exacerbate inequalities and hardships, fanning interclass or interethnic violence motivated by grievance and greed. Food security and pri-mary agricultural commodities have been largely left out of these discussions; the authors begin to fill these gaps... the paper recommends four agendas for further food policy consideration: first, more attention to equitable outcomes in food distribution and food production and trade programs, so that such food security programs do not further contribute to ethnic divisions favoring violence-prone grievance and greed. Second, more careful scrutiny of national marketing and financial policies that influence farmer and middlemen income, and who benefits from agricultural export crops. Third, the design of some type of compensation fund for sudden or certain “losers” in globalization, who face loss of livelihood and recruitment to violence when cash crops like coffee fail to deliver expected livelihoods. Fourth, and in sum, more systematic use of livelihood-security and rights-based frameworks that address local-level food security in the context of national food policy planning " from TextHunger, Conflict, war, Globalization, Crops, exports, coffee, Cotton, Human rights, Right to food, Fair trade,

Breaking the links between conflict and hunger in Africa

"Armed conflicts frequently lead to the destruction of food systems. Often, warring parties manipulate starvation as a deliberate tactic, using their control over access to food to attract and reward friends and humble and punish enemies. Such conflicts are “food wars,” not only because hunger is used as a weapon but also because food insecurity is both an effect and cause of conflict....National governments in Africa, together with global investors, whether private or public (aid donors), must include conflict-prevention considerations in the planning, implementation, and evaluation of development programs and projects.They should calculate savings from conflict avoidance as part of the returns to development spending. Such an approach can help break the links between conflict and food insecurity. " from TextConflict ,Access to food ,Hunger ,Conflict prevention ,development projects ,Food markets ,

Food from peace: breaking the links between conflict and hunger

"In this paper, Ellen Messer, Marc J. Cohen, and Jashinta D'Costa show how hunger is often a direct result of violence ... [and] how hunger can reciprocally cause conflict. ... The authors call for including conflict prevention in food security and development efforts, as well as new linkages between food security and development on the one hand, and emergency relief on the other" Foreword.Social conflict., Hunger., Conflict management.,

A pharmacological mouse model suggests a novel risk pathway for postpartum psychosis

Postpartum psychosis (PP) is a severe psychiatric disorder affecting a small proportion of new mothers shortly after childbirth. The molecular pathophysiology underlying the disorder is currently poorly understood, and there are no amenable animal models for the condition; maternal deficiency for the enzyme steroid sulfatase has been proposed as a potential risk mechanism. Here we show that inhibition of steroid sulfatase with 667-COUMATE (10 mg/kg p.o.) in new mouse mothers results in behavioural abnormalities that can be partially alleviated by the administration of the clinically-efficacious antipsychotic ziprasidone (0.3–1.0 mg/kg i.p.). The pattern of behavioural abnormalities in 667-COUMATE-treated mice implicated a genetic substrate at 21–23cm on chromosome 15; of the 17 genes within this chromosomal interval, only one (Nov/Ccn3) was significantly differentially expressed in the brains of vehicle and 667-COUMATE-treated mice. Two additional members of the Ccn family (Ccn2/Ctgf and Ccn4/Wisp1) were also significantly differentially expressed between the two groups, as were three further genes co-expressed with Nov/Ccn3 in brain (Arhgdig) or previously implicated in disorder risk by clinical studies (Adcy8 and Ccl2). The expression of Nov/Ccn3, but not of the other differentially-expressed genes, could be normalised by ziprasidone administration (1.0 mg/kg). NOV/CCN3 lies directly under a linkage peak for PP risk at 8q24, and the associated protein possesses numerous characteristics that make it an excellent candidate mediator of PP risk. Our data suggest the 667-COUMATE-treated mouse as a model for PP with some degree of face, construct, and predictive validity, and implicate a novel, and biologically-plausible, molecular risk pathway for P

The Virtual Sociality of Rights: The Case of Women\u27s Rights are Human Rights

This essay traces the relationship between activists and academics involved in the campaign for women\u27s rights as human rights as a case study of the relationship between different classes of what I call knowledge professionals self-consciously acting in a transnational domain. The puzzle that animates this essay is the following: how was it that at the very moment at which a critique of rights and a reimagination of rights as rights talk proved to be such fertile ground for academic scholarship did the same rights prove to be an equally fertile ground for activist networking and lobbying activities? The paper answers this question with respect to the work of self-reflexivity in creating a virtual sociality of rights