How do we ‘do food better?’ Better Food. Better World. poses this very question to listeners working in food policy and concerned global citizens alike. Over the course of 6 episodes, author Elizabeth Nyamayaro paints an audio picture of food systems around the world and the people involved from production to consumption, from farm to plate. In a world where 811 million people go to bed hungry every single night, while enough food to feed 2 billion people is wasted every single year, this podcast challenges all of us to think differently about food.
Better Food. Better World. is a United Nations World Food Programme initiative. WFP works across 88 countries to bring life-saving food to a hundred million people displaced by conflict, disasters, and climate change. In 2020, the WFP was awarded the Noble Peace Prize for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas, and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war.
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“Every act of eating involves some element of choice.”
Every day people around the world go to the store to purchase food and then sit down to a meal with their families. The meal may include bread made with wheat from Peru, salad with lettuce from California, and beef from Australia. All of these products end up on our plates through a vast interconnected global supply chain. While the supply chain creates a large number of food choices in wealthier countries, it does not always produce more nutritious food or get food to those in dire need.
In Episode 6 of Better Food. Better World., Elizabeth Nyamayaro is joined by WFP Director of Supply Chain Operations Division, Alex Marinelli, food journalist Mark Bittman, Purnima Menon of IFPRI-New Delhi, and Yemeni Food Science & Nutrition Advocate, Esra Shaiban. They explore the supply chain’s connection to our food systems, look at who is affected by poor nutrition, and share what we can do to improve the quality of the food we consume. Elizabeth and her guests understand the heavy burden our world is facing and believe that we can choose to do food better.
Key Moments:
1:25 - In the introduction, Elizabeth asks everyday people from privileged parts of the world about their relationship to food.
2:27 - Alex Marinelli explains how the supply chain links to our food systems.
8:00 - Elizabeth continues to talk with people on the street about what food is for.
8:32 - Mark Bittman discusses how despite appearing broken, our food systems benefit corporate interests.
12:14 - Elizabeth shares more from her interviews with people on the street reminiscing about food during their childhood.
13:34 - Purnima Menon centers food systems on people, especially the people most affected by poor diets — women and children.
22:25 - More voices from the street describing how they decide to eat.
23:20 - Esra Shaiban shares how we can improve the quality of food and add nutrition.
29:37 - Esra Shaiban, Alex Marinelli, and Elizabeth share their wishes for a world with better food.
Humanitarian and author of ‘I am a Girl From Africa’, Elizabeth Nyamayaro is the Special Advisor for the UN World Food Programme. Over the past two decades, she has worked at the forefront of global development and has held leadership roles at the World Bank, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UN Women, and Merck. Her track record building and leading public-private partnerships is a key asset to WFP as it advocates for global solidarity to end world hunger.
Alex Marianelli - WFP Director of Supply Chain Operations Division
With an expansive range of work experiences in humanitarian settings, spanning deep field operations to regional bureaux and headquarters, Alex Marianelli is responsible for the supply chain operations of the world’s largest humanitarian agency. He has led numerous emergency responses across natural disasters, conflicts and health emergencies. Mr. Marinelli has also used his expertise to work with national disaster management agencies and governments around the world.
Mark Bittman is an award winning journalist, best selling author and the star of four television series. A Special Advisor on Food Policy at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, Bittman is the recipient of six James Beard Awards and an IACP Award. The former lead food writer at the New York Times, is also the founder of the Bittman Project. A group founded on the shared belief, “that food should be fair to people and animals, affordable for everyone, nutritious, and produced in a way that respects nature and the environment.”
Based in New Delhi, India, Purnima Menon is a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. She is also the theme leader for South Asia Nutrition Programs in IFPRI’s Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division. In her work in India, Dr. Menon directs POSHAN (Partnerships and Opportunities to Strengthen and Harmonize Actions for Nutrition in India), an initiative to support more use of evidence for nutrition in India. In addition to her research, Dr. Menon co-convenes a global nutrition policy course with the Institute for Development Studies in the United Kingdom, teaching adaptations of the course in India as well. Dr. Menon has a PhD in International Nutrition from Cornell University and an MSc in Nutrition from the University of Delhi.
Esra Shaiban - Food Science & Nutrition Advocate from Yemen
Esra Shaiban is a graduate of the Food Science and Nutrition program at University Malaysia Sabah. Currently, working as a Quality Assurance professional in Turkey, she has been volunteering, primarily in Yemen since 2013. Driven by her interest in food security, Esra is a virtual volunteer for AIESEC, was a Continuous Professional Development Executive at HEYA 2020 and a Borneo Project participant. Shaiban is interested in educating people about food safety, food security, food labelling information, and customers’ rights pertaining to food production.
“Conflict and hunger, peace and food security. These are really inextricably linked.”
As Afghans prepare for winter, they are on the brink of another crisis — hunger. War and conflict have shut down the economy, displaced hundreds of thousands, and caused food prices to rise. 22.8 million are facing acute food insecurity. People who have survived years of war are now at risk of dying without a single shot being fired.
People around the world face severe challenges to access food because of war. In Episode 5 of Better Food. Better World., Elizabeth Nyamayaro and her guests explain why conflict and war are some of the leading causes of hunger. First-hand accounts from the assistant executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, Valerie Guarnieri, and Mary-Ellen McGroarty, the World Food Programme country director of Afghanistan, lay out the stark choices of many people, especially women face day in and day out when living in a conflict zone. Yet, there is light to be found even in the darkest times. Opera singer and UN WFP Advocate, Zeina Barhoum shares her message of love and the moments she has experienced that gives us hope.
Key Moments:
1:50 - Mary-Ellen McGroarty opens the episode with an urgent call to action.
3:09 - Elizabeth Nyamayaro introduces this week’s episode.
4:00 - Valerie Guarnieri shares her first-hand experience with communities facing conflict and hunger.
8:47 - Mary-Ellen McGroarty describes her meetings with Afghans during visits to field offices in Fayzabad and Kunduz.
13:48 - Listen to a snippet of “Wings of Love” from Jordan artist Zeina Barhoum.
19:35 - Zeina Barhoum shares what she learned from visiting Syrian refugees in Jordan.
22:49 - Elizabeth asks Zeina Barhoum and Mary-Ellen McGroarty to share their wish for better food and a better world.
“While feeding ourselves, we should feed nature because it's by feeding nature that we will feed ourselves again.”
There was a frenzied tension and intensity at COP26. In the final days of the conference, delegations from around the world were deep in negotiations to address our world’s most dire crisis – climate change. Young people were leading the way. The biggest youth delegation ever called on world leaders to make the drastic changes needed to ensure our planet has a future. But will they listen?
Episode 4 of Better Food. Better World. takes us to the climate conference where Elizabeth Nyamayaro meets with the young people fighting for change. She speaks with Gernot Laganda, the Chief of the Climate Disaster Risk Reduction at the World Food Programme, to discuss the relationship between climate change and hunger before taking the time to talk with two youth leaders, Andrew Tangang of Restless Developments and Marie-Claire Graf of YOUNGO. They are the young leaders of today fighting for our tomorrow.
Key Moments
4:30 - Elizabeth describes how young people are more engaged than ever before on Climate Change.
5:14 - Gernot Laganda, the Chief of the Climate Disaster Risk Reduction at WFP discusses the huge task the WFP has before them and how progress on hunger has been rolled back by a decade due to climate change.
10:03 - Youth leader Tangang Andrew tells Elizabeth fighting climate change should be a lifestyle.
17:15 - Marie-Claire Graf discusses the progress being made and work that still needs to happen.
23:00 - Gernot Laganda returns to highlight how it’s all about the system.
25:00 - Andrew Tangang and Marie-Claire discuss Greta Thunberg’s ‘Blah, Blah, Blah’ speech.
27:28 - Elizabeth and her youth guests share their wishes for a better food and a better world.
“Honduras has the potential to lead on solutions to address climate change”
In the midst of Honduras’ rolling mountains and green forests, there are greenhouses growing mouth-watering fresh vegetables. Communities come together to prepare meals with these vegetables and sell the produce. Recurring droughts, intense floods, bark beetle, and more put Honduras on the frontlines of climate change. Despite the devastation, there is joy and hope to be found. Communities are coming up with solutions like greenhouses that will help them not only survive but also thrive.
Episode 3 of Better Food. Better World. finds Elizabeth Nyamayaro on the ground in Honduras where she falls in love with the community, the people, and the food while investigating the dire effects of a repetitive cycle of drought and flooding on the food system. She speaks with the people working to combat climate shock, Climate Change Country Expert Carlos Javier Rodriguez, Deputy Country Director for WFP in Honduras Etienne Labande, and Community Leaders Iris Sanchez and Gloria Lopez along with community members like Gabriel Gomez. Where some might see only devastation, Elizabeth sees hope, resilience, and lessons we can all use to make better food and a better world.
Key Moments:
1:32 - Elizabeth explains the devastating impact of two hurricanes on Honduras crops
2:52 - Local food, nutrition and environment expert Carlos Rodriguez describes the climate risks Honduras faces.
5:51 - A visit to a casa maya or a greenhouse, which feeds the community and provides a source of income.
6:42 - A drive through the mountains with Etienne Labande to learn what communities and the WFP are doing to combat climate risks.
10:55 - At the market with Iris Sanchez as she sells her produce and describes the impact of climate change on her community.
12:51 - Joining a community meal with Iris at a casa maya.
15:01 - Gloria Lopez, a community leader working with farmers, shares her concerns about climate change.
16:25 - Gabriel Gomez is still smiling after all they have gone through due to climate change.
17:52 - Community members Margarita and Iris share their wishes for better food and a better world.
The ‘Top’ of the Food Chain – We’re Rich, Right?
Season 1 · Episode 2
Thursday, October 14, 2021 • Duration 32:17
“Too much is not a good thing”
Every time we go to the grocery store, we are surrounded by a seemingly infinite bounty of food. We may choose a yogurt thinking it is a healthy option only to realize it has as much sugar as a doughnut. Surrounded by choice, children in America and around the world are not getting the nutrition they need to grow healthy and strong.
In the second episode of Better Food. Better World., we talk about who is at the ‘top’ of the food chain and uncover the growing nutrition crisis raging from food deserts in the US to parts of Africa living on the edge of food security. Host Elizabeth Nyamayaro is in New York for this episode surrounded by an abundance of food choices. But this episode’s guests, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to the 2021 Food Systems Summit; Stephen Grimaldi, Executive Director of New York Common Pantry; and Lauren Bush Lauren, Founder and CEO of FEED, reveal the truth about all of the choice: much of the food we eat lacks nutritional value. What’s worse, children and our climate are paying the price. Finally, David Beasley, Executive Director of the World Food Programme challenges audience members at the UN Food Systems Summit with the question, “If we’re so rich, how come hunger still exists?” From the top of the food chain to the bottom, hunger is an ‘all of us’ issue.
Key Moments
3:35 - Elizabeth shares how an abundance of food choices shaped her childhood and her life in New York City.
6:57 - Dr. Agnes Kalibata alerts listeners to the growing nutritional crisis and food deserts.
10:55 - Elizabeth visits a leading New York food pantry and speaks with Stephen Grimaldi.
17:50 - Lauren Bush Lauren shares why she wanted to make a difference by giving children healthy food.
29:20 - Exec. Director David Beasley's urgent call to action at the UN Food Systems Summit.
Listeners can support New York Common Pantry by donating or volunteering. More information on ways to get involved can be found on the "How to Help" section of their website at .
Did You Know You Live In a Food System?
Season 1 · Episode 1
Thursday, September 23, 2021 • Duration 32:36
“There is no such thing as cheap food.”
For some of us, a typical day’s diet could be oatmeal for breakfast, bean salad for lunch, and fish and chips for dinner. Little do we know, the oatmeal was farmed unethically with illegal pesticides, the beans came from a country suffering from drought and the fish came from a company that illegally overfished foreign waters, destroying a way of life for generations of local fishermen. Like many of us, Special Advisor for the UN World Food Programme, Elizabeth Nyamayaro grew up knowing hunger, despite a childhood filled with freshly picked mangos and cream straight from the goats – her family was badly affected by a drought driven by climate change devastated her village and crops.
In the premiere episode of, “Better Food. Better World”, Elizabeth shares her story and speaks with three leaders of the food security movement. The Father of Food Systems, Dr. Steven Were, gives us an overview of food systems. Chef Arthur Potts Dawson, star of The People’s Supermarket, challenges restauranteurs to educate their customers. Activist and poet Linda Gabriel stresses the importance of indigenous knowledge and shares a poem dedicated to her first food educator, her grandmother. Join us to learn why ‘Food is our greatest asset.’
Key Moments:
0:52 - Intro to “Better Food. Better World” with Elizabeth Nyamayaro
4:50 - Elizabeth shares her story of growing up, going hungry, and being saved by a UN worker.
11:55 - Elizabeth introduces Dr. Were who defines food systems.
17:04 - Elizabeth talks with Chef Arthur Potts Dawson and asks him about his favourite comfort food.
19:12 - Arthur Potts Dawson challenges restaurants and markets to address the terrible crime of food waste. Elizabeth responds with a story about the origins of fish and chips.
25:52 - Elizabeth talks with activist and poet Linda Gabriel who shares her discovery of the correlation between indigenous knowledge systems and permaculture.
29:46 - Linda Gabriel shares a poem dedicated to her grandmother.
How do we ‘do food better?’ Better Food. Better World. poses this very question to listeners working in food policy and concerned global citizens alike. Over the course of 6 episodes, author Elizabeth Nyamayaro paints an audio picture of food systems around the world and the people involved from production to consumption, from farm to plate. In a world, where 811 million people go to bed hungry every single night while enough food to feed 2 billion people is wasted every single year, this podcast challenges all of us to think differently about food.
Better Food. Better World. is a United Nations World Food Programme initiative. WFP works across 88 countries to bring life-saving food to a hundred million people displaced by conflict, disasters, and climate change. In 2020, the WFP was awarded the Noble Peace Prize in recognition of its work.
Humanitarian and author of ‘I am a Girl From Africa’, Elizabeth Nyamayaro is the Special Advisor for the UN World Food Programme. Over the past two decades, she has worked at the forefront of global development and has held leadership roles at the World Bank, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UN Women, and Merck. Her track record building and leading public-private partnerships is a key asset to WFP as it advocates for global solidarity to end world hunger.
Valerie Guarnieri - WFP Assistant Executive Director
Since January 2018, Valerie Newsom Guarnieri has been WFP Assistant Executive Director. In this role, she leads cutting-edge program and policy development to end hunger. This includes spearheading WFP efforts to ensure protection and inclusion, expand school meals and nutrition programmes while empowering women, build resilient food systems, support cash transfers and ensure social protection.
Before WFP, Valerie worked in the U.S. Government, at the National Security Council and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as part of dedicated, interdisciplinary teams trained to save lives and help create conditions for sustainable peace, with a particular focus in Africa.
Mary-Ellen McGroarty - WFP Country Director of Afghanistan
Ireland-born Mary-Ellen McGroarty is the Country Director of Afghanistan at the World Food Programme. A lawyer by trade, Mel began working with the UN World Food Programme in 1997. Mary-Ellen’s roles with the World Food Programme have taken her to numerous countries including Chad, South Sudan, Burundi and now Afghanistan. For her work in Afghanistan, Mary-Ellen has been interviewed and featured in the Irish Times, NY Times, on PBS, NPR and with other numerous media outlets across the world.
Zeina Barhoum is an award-winning Opera singer and UN WFP Advocate. In 2017, she founded the Amman Opera Festival, the first Opera festival in the Arab World, under the Patronage of HRH Princess Muna Al Hussein. Her album Alcantara, released in 2017, was produced with the goal of bridging cultures through music. On the 25th of October 2020, in collaboration with Opera for Peace and UNESCO Zeina represented Jordan at World Opera Day. Zeina has performed on some of the world’s most prestigious stages in Italy, Austria, the UK, France, Ukraine, China, Jordan, UAE and Lebanon.
In 2022, Zeina’s first pop album, "Wings of Love" is scheduled to be released.
Humanitarian and author of ‘I am a Girl From Africa’, Elizabeth Nyamayaro is the Special Advisor for the UN World Food Programme. Over the past two decades, she has worked at the forefront of global development and has held leadership roles at the World Bank, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UN Women, and Merck. Her track record building and leading public-private partnerships is a key asset to WFP as it advocates for global solidarity to end world hunger.
Gernot Laganda - Chief of the Climate Disaster Risk Reduction at WFP
A geoscientist by training, Gernot Laganda has spent the past 20 years working at the nexus between disasters and development. In his role as the Chief of Climate and Disaster Risk Reduction Programs for United Nations’ World Food Programme, Gernot supports WFP country offices and the governments they serve developing food security strategies that benefit from innovation and strategic actions, while working with vulnerable communities. A 2016 Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellow at Yale University, Laganda has worked with the UN and NGOs in Afghanistan, Tajikistan, South Africa and the Asia/Pacific Region.
Andrew Tangang is a member of the Restless Development’s Youth Power Panel - a group of activists holding leaders to account for their global goal commitments. He is a community activist in Cameroon and has worked with ICAD Enterprise (a social enterprise working on climate change) in implementing their ‘Green City’ project in the University town of Dschang, and to set-up a waste recycling centre. Ahead of COP26 Andrew worked with the Local Youth Corner team to mobilise over 1000 young people across Cameroon to engage in initiatives aimed at combating climate change.
Marie-Claire Graf is the Global Focal Point of YOUNGO, the youth constituency to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Graf is also the Co-founder and Advisor of Sustainability Week For Business. As the leader of several organizations, Marie-Claire Graf is a youth advocate who champions numerous causes including climate action, youth and women empowerment, and food system transformations.
Humanitarian and author of ‘I am a Girl From Africa’, Elizabeth Nyamayaro is the Special Advisor for the UN World Food Programme. Over the past two decades, she has worked at the forefront of global development and has held leadership roles at the World Bank, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UN Women, and Merck. Her track record building and leading public-private partnerships is a key asset to WFP as it advocates for global solidarity to end world hunger.
Carlos Rodriguez has over 15 years of experience working in food security, nutrition and gender programs. Working in the Honduran dry corridor, he is in charge of three regional food security projects. A graduate of Texas A&M University’s Agricultural Economics department, Mr. Rodriguez is the government’s representative on the Humanitarian Response team in Honduras.
Etienne Labande - Deputy Country Director for WFP in Honduras
Born in the French Alps, after 13 years working in the private sector Etienne joined French NGO Première Urgence as a Program Officer in Guinea during the Guinea Civil War, quickly becoming their country director and eventually their regional director. When refugees from Cote d'Ivoire began to flee to Guinea en masse, he was recruited by the WFP. Now with over twenty years of experience in emergency response and food assistance, Etienne has been involved in critical actions in Guinea, Chad, Syria, Lebanon, and Northern Iraq. Currently, Labande is the Deputy Country Director for WFP in Honduras.
Iris is a community leader in the drought-affected region of Las Mercedes, Opatoro, La Paz.
Gloria Lopez - REDMIAH
Gloria Lopez is the president of Red de Mujeres Indígenas y Afro-hondureñas (REDMIAH), the Network of Indigenous and Afro-Honduran Women. REDMIAH is actively involved in human rights and food security programs in Honduras.
Humanitarian and author of ‘I am a Girl From Africa’, Elizabeth Nyamayaro is the Special Advisor for the UN World Food Programme. Over the past two decades, she has worked at the forefront of global development and has held leadership roles at the World Bank, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UN Women, and Merck. Her track record building and leading public-private partnerships is a key asset to WFP as it advocates for global solidarity to end world hunger.
Dr. Kalibata is the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to the 2021 Food Systems Summit. With a distinguished track record as a policymaker, agricultural scientist, and intellectual, Dr. Kalibata is a past recipient of the Yara Prize, now the Africa Food Prize. Dr. Kalibata has served as the President of AGRA, working with public and private partners to ensure food security in Africa, since 2014.
After witnessing poverty as a child and experiencing poverty and food insecurity as a teenager, native New Yorker Stephen Grimaldi has made it his life’s work to create sustainable solutions to both poverty and food insecurity. Stephen is the Executive Director of New York Common Pantry, and was elected to the Food Bank for New York City’s Strategy Council in 2014.
Mother, acclaimed former fashion designer and model, Lauren Bush Lauren founded the charity FEED in 2007 after travelling with the World Food Programme. Established to fight global childhood hunger, FEED collaborates with artisans from India to Kenya to create fashion collections and coffee products. Proceeds made from sales feed children and create sustainable incomes for the artisans that FEED works with.
The recipient of a Profile in Courage Award from the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation in 2003, David Beasley is a former elected member of the great state of South Carolina’s House of Representatives and one of the youngest people ever elected to the position of Governor in South Carolina history. In 2017, Mr. Beasley was appointed Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) at the Under-Secretary-General level.
Humanitarian and author of ‘I am a Girl From Africa’, Elizabeth Nyamayaro is the Special Advisor for the UN World Food Programme. Over the past two decades, she has worked at the forefront of global development and has held leadership roles at the World Bank, World Health Organization, UNAIDS, UN Women, and Merck. Her track record building and leading public-private partnerships is a key asset to WFP as it advocates for global solidarity to end world hunger.
Dr. Steven Were Omamo is widely considered the “Father of Food Systems.” He is the current Country Representative for Ethiopia, the largest operation for the UN World Food Programme. Past roles with UN WFP include Coordinator of Food Systems Strategy, Policy and Support, and Deputy Director of Policy and Programme at our Rome headquarters. In this inaugural episode, Dr. Omamo gives us a brief education on food systems.
Celebrity chef Arthur Potts Dawson argues that “There is no such thing as cheap food.” We either pay a financial or environmental cost for food. He challenges restaurateurs and markets to educate their consumers, allowing them the opportunity to support local food producers with their wallets.
Poet and advocate Linda Gabriel stresses the importance of indigenous knowledge. While studying permaculture, she realized many of her classes taught knowledge her grandmother had already shared with her. This led Gabriel to seek further agricultural education from her elders. She leaves us with a poem dedicated to her grandmother.
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