Quite a lot has been written in search of the root causes of the recent global increase in food prices. While bio fuels have taken their fair share of criticism, they are proving not to be the only contributor. Widespread, long-term severe weather patterns—like the Australian drought responsible for rice shortages—are high on the list, as well as increased demand from India and China—a country experiencing tremendous demand for grain to fuel industrial cattle farming. Regardless of the causes, finding a solution is the next real challenge. While it likely won't be as simple as finding a new food staple to take the place of grains, one candidate could prove to be a viable option: the potato.

Global food shortages have taken everyone by surprise. What is to be done?

With the price of food skyrocketing around the world, desperately poor and overpopulated Bangladesh is considered one of the world's most vulnerable nations.

We certainly are in a health care crisis. If we had set out to design the worst system that we could imagine, we couldn't have imagined on as bad as we have. Here's a system in which we spend over twice what the next most expensive country spends on health care -- that's Switzerland. We spend roughly $4500 for every American, whether they have insurance or not. Switzerland spends maybe $2500 for every citizen.

More volume does not make a bad guitar player better – only louder and more obnoxious. Likewise, more technology can amplify a business – but if it’s not properly managed, it can boost losses just as easily as gains. Just consider the current mortgage crisis. Bank of America’s purchase of the once highflying Countrywide for the bargain price of $4 billion is just the latest incarnation of the problem.

Americans have always risen to meet the most important challenges to our nation’s and the world’s future.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), established in 1998 by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), is the leading international body monitoring conflict-induced internal displacement worldwide.