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URBANA, Ill. – When international aid organizations respond to hunger crises around the world, they rely on food security early warning and monitoring systems. However, assessments from those systems can lag months behind the actual situation on the ground.

More accurate and timely warnings could greatly improve the global response to food crisis and help alleviate acute problems, according to a team of agricultural economists at the University of Illinois, working in collaboration with the University of Texas, Austin.

By invitation from the World Bank, Dr. Craig Gundersen, ACES Distinguished Professor in the department of agricultural and consumer economics in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES), recently presented on America’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to Egyptian governmental officials.  

“Egypt is thinking about a new approach to food assistance, and they are interested in SNAP as a model,” Gundersen explained.  

When poor households in developing countries receive assistance in the form of livestock, they experience an infusion of assets that may bring them out of poverty in the short term. But do these effects last over time, changing the households’ likelihood of being poor in the future? 

URBANA, Ill. – Experts often recommend that developing countries focus on high-value export crops such as fruits and vegetables. However, the effect of such practices on conflict-affected countries is not clear, and there is a risk that higher export revenue may lead to increased insurgent violence, according to a University of Illinois study.

The research focused on banana production in the Philippines and showed a correlation between higher banana prices and insurgent activity in certain areas, says U of I agricultural economist Benjamin Crost, who is a co-author of the study.

Access to healthy food is a basic human need. Yet, one out of eight people in American is at risk for hunger, and the number is even greater for children.

Food insecurity, defined as limited access to adequate food, exists everywhere in the United States. Overall, 40 million people, or 12.5% of the U.S. population, are food insecure. But there is large regional variation in this rate, says Craig Gundersen, ACES distinguished professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the University of Illinois.  

URBANA, Ill. – Gary Schnitkey, a nationally recognized farm management expert, was honored as the Soybean Industry Chair in Agricultural Strategy in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics during an investiture ceremony at the University of Illinois on April 24. 

Schnitkey, a professor of agricultural and consumer economics at U of I, specializes in crop insurance, farm management and farmland economies, and he is a leading expert in the economics of Midwestern crop farms.

URBANA, Ill. – Millions of Americans struggle with food insecurity.

URBANA, Ill. – Adding soy flour to school lunches in Ghana provides a cost-efficient way of increasing the protein level, according to a new study co-authored by a University of Illinois researcher.

Soy is known to be a low-cost protein source, says Peter Goldsmith, professor of agricultural and consumer economics at the U of I. “But the thesis that soy is a good ingredient in a national school lunch program had yet to be proven, though everyone assumed it.”

URBANA, Ill. – Just as a new farm bill sailed its way through the U.S. Senate and House last week, a newly released book by a University of Illinois law and policy expert explores the 100-year history of the farm bill, tracing the political evolution of American farm and food legislation.

URBANA, Ill. – Ethanol production has increased sharply in the United States in the past 10 years, leading to concerns about the expansion of demand for corn resulting in conversion of non-cropland to crop production and the environmental effects of this. However, a new study co-authored by a University of Illinois researcher shows that the overall effects of ethanol production on land-use have been minimal.