The following editorial and opinion piece address issues surrounding global hunger.

• The Lancet: The 2013 Global Hunger Index “argues that the central reason that people are unable to escape poverty and hunger is their vulnerability to shocks and stressors such as floods, price hikes, and civil unrest,” and it “focuses on the concept of resilience as the solution” to food insecurity, the editorial states. “However, the report acknowledges that the concept and science of resilience is still in its infancy — there is no consensus on the best interventions to promote resilience or even its definition,” the editorial continues. “Ultimately, however, hunger is a complex condition affected by social inequality, low nutrition, education, and social status of women, climate change, poverty, food systems as well as the resilience of populations to unexpected and unpredictable events,” The Lancet states, adding, “How well all these concepts are articulated and addressed in the post-2015 development goals is therefore likely to have the biggest effect on global progress against hunger” (10/26).
• John Lechleiter, Forbes: “If we’re going to improve human health, we must defeat a scourge that kills more people each year than AIDS, malaria, and TB combined”: hunger, Lechleiter, chair, president and CEO of Eli Lilly and Company and chair of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), writes. He adds, “Lilly is pursuing research to make food safer and more abundant — by protecting animals against disease and improving productivity — through our animal health business, Elanco.” Noting the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) “estimates that global food demand in 2050 will require a 60 percent increase in agricultural production,” he writes, “Innovation is the key to meeting this demand; according to the FAO, 70 percent of the additional food needed to feed the world’s mid-century population must come from innovation.” Lechleiter outlines several examples of how innovation can improve production, adding, “Working together, we can meet the challenge of sustainably feeding a growing world population — and thus improving global health — but it’s going to take innovation” (10/24).