66 articles
Gleaning
Gleaning is the collection of surplus food, traditionally crops left after harvest, for redistribution to people in need; also called food recovery or rescue. Ancient roots in Leviticus and Ruth, modern US liability law (Emerson Act 1996, FDIA 2023), and documented programs from county projects to Farm to Family.
Global Hunger Index
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a peer-reviewed annual composite index, originally by IFPRI and now published by Welthungerhilfe, IFHV, and Helvetas, scoring countries 0-100 on undernourishment, child stunting, wasting, and mortality; the 2026 global score is 18.1 (moderate).
Great Bengal famine of 1770
Great Bengal famine of 1770, Chhiattor-er Monnontor (Famine of '76), a catastrophic famine in Company-ruled Bengal killing about 10 million, one third of the population, while the East India Company kept collecting revenue.
Great Chinese Famine
Great Chinese Famine (三年大饥荒), 1959–1961 famine during the Great Leap Forward; largest in human history with an estimated 16.5–45 million excess deaths, driven mainly by procurement and Leap policies rather than weather.
Great Famine of 1315–1317
The Great Famine of 1315–1317, also called the European Great Famine, was the worst subsistence crisis in European history, hitting northern Europe from Ireland to Poland after torrential rains of 1314–1316 ruined harvests and raised English wheat prices eightfold, killing roughly 10–20 percent of England's population.
Great Famine of 1876–1878
The Great Famine of 1876–1878, also called the Madras famine, was a famine in British India that killed more than five million people after the monsoon failed.
Heifer International
Heifer International, founded 1944 by Dan West as Heifers for Relief, is a Little Rock, Arkansas 501(c)(3) charity providing livestock and training to smallholder farmers, known for its Passing on the Gift model.
Holodomor
Holodomor (Голодомор), the man-made famine of 1932–1933 in Soviet Ukraine under Stalin, caused by forced collectivization and grain requisition; killed at least 4 million; recognized as genocide by Ukraine, disputed internationally.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the food industry
COVID-19's impact on the food industry: simultaneous supply and demand shocks to food supply chains, meat plant closures, food-service collapse, transport disruption, and hunger risk from lost income.
Land grabbing
Land grabbing, also called the global land rush or large-scale land acquisitions, is the large-scale transfer of land rights that dispossesses local users, triggered by the 2007-2008 food crisis, measured by the Land Matrix, and marked by weak consultation, food insecurity, and new carbon-offset deals.
Local food
Local food: food produced, processed, and sold within a defined area via short supply chains; no standard geographic definition exists. Evidence shows no inherent sustainability advantage over global food; outcomes depend on supply chain, product, and country.
Meals on Wheels
Meals on Wheels: international network of local programs delivering nutritious meals to homebound older adults and people with disabilities, with safety checks and social contact; originated in WWII Britain, first US program in Philadelphia, 1954.
Minimum support price (India)
Minimum Support Price (MSP) is a price fixed by the Government of India to guarantee purchase of notified crops, protecting farmers from distress sales and ensuring food grain procurement.
Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce
The Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce (農商務省) was a ministry of the Empire of Japan, based in Tokyo, that administered agriculture, forestry, commerce, and industry from 1881 to 1925.
Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) was a UK government department overseeing agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, and food from 1955 until 2001, when it was abolished and replaced by Defra.
National Food Security Act, 2013
National Food Security Act, 2013 (NFSA), India's Right to Food Act: 2013 law entitling 67% of Indians (75% rural, 50% urban) to 5 kg monthly subsidized foodgrains at Rs 1/2/3 per kg, plus child nutrition and maternity benefits.
Norwegian butter crisis
The Norwegian butter crisis was a late-2011 butter shortage in Norway caused by rainy-summer milk shortfalls, low-carb diet demand, and high dairy import tariffs, with prices reportedly reaching €350 per 500-gram pack before a temporary duty cut.
Operation Feed the Nation
Operation Feed the Nation was a mass agricultural campaign launched by Nigeria's military government under General Obasanjo in 1976 to raise food production; it was replaced in 1979.
Pagpag
Pagpag (also tirtir, from tira-tira) is leftover fast-food and restaurant food scavenged from Philippine garbage, washed and recooked or resold in poor Metro Manila communities such as Tondo and Baseco, at PHP 10–40/kg, with documented salmonella and malnutrition risks.
Paraguayan postwar famine
The Paraguayan postwar famine was the hunger that engulfed Paraguay at the end of the War of the Triple Alliance (1864–1870), which left cattle herds and agriculture destroyed.
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (प्रधानमंत्री गरीब कल्याण अन्न योजना)
Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY, प्रधानमंत्री गरीब कल्याण अन्न योजना) is India's free food grain scheme under NFSA 2013: launched April 2020 as COVID relief giving 5 kg extra grain monthly to ~80 crore beneficiaries, renamed in 2023 for free NFSA distribution, and extended five years to December 2028 with ₹11.80 lakh crore outlay.
Pradhan Mantri Matri Vandana Yojana
Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) is India's national maternity benefit scheme, launched 1 January 2017 under the NFSA 2013, paying ₹5,000 via DBT for a first child and ₹6,000 for a second girl child under Mission Shakti's PMMVY 2.0.
Right to food
The right to food is a human right, enshrined in ICESCR Article 11 (1966) and UDHR Article 25, binding for 172 states, obliging respect, protection, and fulfillment of adequate food access.
Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (सम्पूर्ण ग्रामीण रोजगार योजना)
Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana (SGRY), a 2001 Indian rural wage-employment scheme merging EAS and JGSY, with Rs 10,000 crore annual outlay, 5 kg food grain wages, 20:30:50 panchayat allocation, and merger into NREGA by 2008.
School meal
School meal: meals or snacks schools provide students, also called school feeding or school lunch programs. Covers global coverage (84% of countries), US NSLP scale, Cochrane evidence on health and education effects, nutrition standards, and universal free meal policies.
Soup kitchen
A soup kitchen, also called a meal center, is a charitable or public institution serving free ready-to-eat meals, traditionally soup with bread, to needy people, widespread since the 1700s.
Tenmei riots
The Tenmei riots (天明の騒動) were the wave of food riots and peasant uprisings that shook Japan during the Tenmei famine, peaking in the great urban riots of 1787.
Too Good To Go
Too Good To Go is a Danish surplus-food marketplace app founded in Copenhagen in 2015, selling Surprise Bags of unsold food at about one third of retail price; 150 million registered users, 200,000 partners, 20 countries, over 500 million meals saved.
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), founded May 15, 1862 under Lincoln and called the People's Department, is the cabinet agency overseeing farming, forestry, food safety, rural development, and nutrition programs.
United States Secretary of Agriculture
United States Secretary of Agriculture: head of the USDA, a Cabinet post created in 1889 when the 1862 department's Commissioner became Secretary; 33rd Secretary is Brooke L. Rollins (2025).