University of California Launches Program to Reduce World Hunger and Improve the Global Food System
Efforts to reduce world hunger just got a whole lot smarter: the University of California system is launching a massive global food initiative.
The ten-campus school in the nation’s largest agricultural state has announced that it’s focusing significant research efforts towards reducing world hunger as well as improving the nutrition quality of foods and supporting farmers who are being challenged by global warming–a growing problem worldwide.
The Los Angeles Times reports that UC President Janet Napolitano detailed the university’s plans to utilize its campuses, large agricultural programs and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab that UC manages to help in this ambitious initiative. “Building on UC’s already strong research on such varied topics as soils, citrus fruit and water purity, the effort will work ‘toward putting the world on a path to sustainably and nutritiously feed itself’,” the Times reported on the UC announcement.
Napolitano made the announcement in Berkeley alongside renowned chef, author and activist, Alice Waters. Waters founded the Edible Schoolyard project and the famed Chez Panisse restaurant.
While the specific details of the program haven’t yet been released, the Times explains that UC campuses are expected “to take lead roles in one or more of the topics, depending on the expertise of their faculty, and the interests and needs of their communities.”
Additionally, three $2,500 student fellowships on each of the ten campuses will be funded by the UC president’s office for undergraduates or graduate students working on issues related to food sustainability and ways to reduce world hunger.
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