News: An Alternative to Famine: Get an Insurance!

Famine in Third World countries generally follows a grim script: first the rains fail, then aid agencies issue dire warnings, and finally the United Nations scrambles to raise money and send food aid as journalists write stories of horror and tragedy. In the worst cases, real alarms don't go off until the starving appear on television screens. Even when peasants are spared death, they often lose everything they own—including animals and seeds.

Does it have to unfold like this? Here is a radical new idea: famine insurance. (Full story)

Picture: courtesy WFP/Goni Boulama. For updated humanitarian news, check out The Other World News.