One of the Millennium Development Goals is to halve the proportion of hungry people by 2015. Sadly, this is unlikely to be realised because the causes of hunger are many and complex. One problem is the spread of the relevant literature over many journals. In order to overcome this, the International Society for Plant Pathology and the publisher, Springer, have launched a new journal, Food Security: the Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food. Its objective is to take a synthetic approach to the many relevant disciplines so that an overview is achieved.
The first issue of the journal is freely available online at http://www.springer.com/life+sci/agriculture/journal/12571. It contains a foreword by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Norman Borlaug, in which he says “It is timely that ISPP and Springer are launching this journal with its topical title and with the breadth of coverage indicated by its subtitle.” There are then 10 papers addressing food security from physical, biological and socio-political viewpoints – including climate change, global resources of soil and water, maintenance of biodiversity, seed, biofuels, famines, and the emerging African Green Revolution.
The discounted annual subscription for ISPP Members and Members of Associated Societies is EUR 30. See the ISPP website for more details.
Nutrition, health and food security 