Intended to help human, planetary health, EAT-Lancet diet too costly for 1.6 billion people

A new study estimates that the Eat-Lancet Commission reference diet — meant to improve both human and planetary health — would be unaffordable for at least 1.58 billion people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

Geophagy: Eating soil could harm babies

Up to 80% of people in Africa, especially women, regularly eat clayey soil – this habit is known as geophagy.

Children who are given vitamin A may be less likely to develop malaria

Large study in sub-Saharan Africa suggests vitamin A’s protective effectChildren under age 5 living in sub-Saharan Africa were 54 percent less likely to develop malaria if they had been given a…

Ape ancestors’ teeth provide glimpse into their diets and environments

Newly analyzed tooth samples from the great apes of the Miocene indicate that the same dietary specialization that allowed the apes to move from Africa to Eurasia may have led to their extinction…

Reuters Examines Food Prices In Africa

Reuters examines food prices in Africa after the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization last week said its global Food Price Index hit a record high. “The United Nations may have sounded the alarm about soaring global food prices, but in Africa a string of bumper harvests and a changing diet means the political fallout may be more muted than to past price bumps,” the news service reports…

Three-Day African Food Security Forum Opens In Accra

The 26th Annual Meeting of the Food Crisis Prevention Network, “which serves as the platform for deliberation on food production and food security in Africa,” opened on Tuesday in Accra, Ghana, the Ghana News Agency reports…

Crop Experts Embrace One Of Agriculture’s Oldest Legumes As Food For People, Livestock And Astronauts

A long neglected crop with the potential to halt hunger for millions in Africa, sustain the livestock revolution underway in developing countries, rejuvenate nutrient-sapped soils, and even feed astronauts on extended space missions, is attracting scientists from around the world to Senegal this week for the Fifth World Cowpea Research Conference (27 September to 1 October 2010)…