A recent survey, Greendex 2008, carried out among 14,000 people in 14 countries, studied how environment friendly the behaviour of consumers was

China's average ecological footprint has doubled since the 1960s, says a joint report from the environment group WWF and a Chinese government agency, the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. The average footprint per person, however, is still smaller than the world average, as well as being only a third that of a European and a sixth that of the average US citizen.

The current spike in food prices needs prompt reaction through various forms of social protection to avert poverty and hunger. Prices are soon likely to fall somewhat, but not to their previous levels.

The poverty of an entity is manifest in her deprivation not only in income but also in other dimensions such as health, nutrition and sanitation. Hence, a comprehensive measure of poverty must ideally take into account the performance of an individual across multiple dimensions. Vulnerability to poverty captures the likelihood of an entity falling into poverty, given the current status of the household. Unlike poverty, which describes the status of an entity at a point of time, vulnerability is predictive in nature.

Poverty causes malnutrition, but malnutrition also contributes to poverty through increased morbidity, impaired development in children, and reduced capacity for work and productivity in adults. In rich countries food is a relatively small part of household consumption (10

Strong and new forces of change in the world food equation are transforming food consumption, production and markets. Unlike the pattern prevailing for the past few decades, today's global agricultural system is very much driven by the demand side. With income growth in emerging economies, globalisation and urbanisation, the demand for agricultural products will continue to grow and shift toward high-value commodities. Partly driven by the expansion of biofuels and demand for feed, strong global cereal consumption is likely to continue.

While customers at restaurants in New York City will soon be able to count the calories of their meals in an attempt to curb the obesity epidemic, people in New Delhi are currently counting their grains of rice. From Bolivia to Yemen, people around the world are taking to the streets in protest at the spiralling increases in food prices. Politicians have been sacked, protesters have died, and some governments are imposing extreme measures to ration food and control their hungry populations. (Editorial)