Whether your interest is casual or rooted in an impending deadline, you will discover an abundance of food security information in the USAID Knowledge Services Center (KSC). It is the Agency’s hub for up-to-the-minute development scholarship and for 50 years’ worth of materials that reflect the Agency’s development experiences and lessons learned.

KSC has a lot to offer. For starters, it has a robust online library catalog that boasts well-regarded print and e-book publications, periodicals, and video-recordings, including popular titles sold on Amazon.com. It has online access to a rich archive of USAID’s programmatic and technical documents. It even has links to the Agency’s annual series of seminars that address timely development topics. The expert staff can also provide guidance and steer visitors—both employees and those outside the agency—in the right direction.

Food Politics

Here is a sampling of the KSC’s food security resources.

In the Library

A recent search of USAID’s online library services catalog found 151 food-security titles including:

• The End of the Line, directed by Rupert Murray
• Food Politics: What Everyone Needs to Know, Robert Paarlberg
• Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System, Rajeev Patel
• Malawi: A Nation Going Hungry, written by Rodney Rice and directed by Ruth Meehan
• The Politics of Food: The Global Conflict Between Food Security and Food Sovereignty, William D. Schanbacher
• Enough: Why the World’s Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty, Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman
• We Feed the World, written by Erwin Wagenhofer and directed by Helmut Grasser
• Food Security for the Faint of Heart: Keeping Your Larder Full in Lean Times, by Robin Wheeler

In the Archive

A recent search of the USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse online archive found 1,740 food-security titles tied to USAID programming and other technical materials that range from 1968 to 2011. These include:

• 2011 “Feed the Future: Global Food Security Research Strategy” by the Feed the Future Initiative
• 2011 “The True Yields of Food Security” by USAID Office of the Administrator, Rajiv Shah
• 2010 “Food Security and Gender” by USAID
• 2009 “Lessons learned from 25 Years of Food Security Research, Capacity-Building, and Outreach” by Michigan State University and USAID Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade
• 2008 “The President’s Global Food Security Initiative and Trade” by the U.S. Dept. of State
• 1998 “Restoring Soil Fertility in Sub-Saharan Africa: Technical and Economic Issues” by Michigan State University; USAID Bureau for Africa, Office of Sustainable Development; USAID Bureau for Global Programs, Field Support and Research; and Center for Economic Growth and Agricultural Development.
• 1988 “Norman E. Borlaug: A Bibliography of Papers and Publications” by the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center

1968 “The Green Revolution: Accomplishments and Apprehensions,” by former Administrator William Gaud

In the Lecture Room

The USAID Seminar Series, held every summer for nearly 10 years, offers a forum for experts to address pressing development challenges, including food security. Recent food security seminars include:

• August 5, 2008: “Perspectives on the Crisis in Food Security.”
  Panel: representatives from the International Food Policy Research Institute, and USAID’s Bureaus for Africa and Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade.
• July 15, 2010: “Food Security, Climate Change, Water and Health: How can integration better solve complex problems?” 
  Panel: representatives from the Woodrow Wilson Center, the World Bank, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality.
• July 13, 2011: “A Greener Revolution: Improving Productivity and Increasing Food Security by Enhancing Ecosystem Services.”
  Panel: representatives from Ecoagriculture Partners, the World Bank, and USAID’s Bureau for Food Security.

For more information, contact the KSC at ksc@usaid.gov or go to www./results-and-data/information-resources/knowledge-management-support to learn more about the USAID online library catalog, Development Experience Clearinghouse archive, and Seminar Series resources.