This is a four-part piece about the increasing prevalence of large-scale land acquisition, or "land grabs" in Sub-Saharan Africa originally featured on the Worldwatch Intitute's Nourishing the Planet.

Part I: Innovations in Access to Land: Land Grab or Agricultural Investment?

Background: There has been a documented trend in...

Crossposted from BorderJumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

Our entry begins in Maralal, Kenya, a place mostly known for its wildlife. And as we made the seven hour, bumpy trek from Nairobi--half of it on unpaved roads--we saw our fair share of water buffaloes, rhinos, impala, and giraffes....

Cross posted from Border Jumpers

In the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS, there is no silver bullet.

And as we travel throughout sub-Saharan Africa we are seeing dozens of innovative ways that organizations, governments, and individuals are working to fight the disease.

One of the organizations that stands...

Crossposted from BorderJumpers.

Originally featured in the North Carolina News & Observer.

It's not every day you meet someone from Raleigh while traveling in Lusaka, Zambia. Dale Lewis might not have intended to spend decades in the landlocked African country of 12 million, but his passion...

Full disclosure: We had never heard of the Republic of Mauritius until the day we bought a ticket to go there.

Our pathetic excuse: Lonely Planet doesn't list it in their Africa book.

When we arrived people seemed shocked to meet two people from the United States -- hotel...

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

Bugs. When I remember of Zambia, I think of bugs.

It started when a mysterious little creature bit Dani on the side...

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

When we arrived by bus at the HIV/AIDS Resource Center in Katuna, Uganda (the border between Rwanda and Uganda), twenty men were intently watching a match between Manchester United and Chelsea on a small television. Along with the...

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

The bus ride from Lusaka, Zambia to Harare, Zimbabwe with a company called EasyGo Bus company lasted four hours longer than it should have (total trip was nearly 12 hours). We spent four hours at the border crossing, where...

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

Imagine being one of only five opposition voices in a country of thirteen million people, where all radio, print and television is strictly controlled by the government. That's Ben Madzimure's uphill battle everyday as editor of "The Worker," the...

Cross posted from Border Jumpers, Danielle Nierenberg and Bernard Pollack.

In Harare, on the way to our meeting with Wellington Chibebe, the secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), even our driver was excited for us.

"He is a good, good man. I've only seen...

Cross posted from Border Jumpers.

We love the energy of Maputo.

It's the good kind of energy where we never felt like people were trying to hustle us like in the tourist traps of Arusha and Zanzibar, Tanzania. We also felt safe to wander in the evenings unlike in...

Cross posted from Border Jumpers.

Surrounded by neatly trimmed bushes and flower beds, Johnson Matthey Catalysts in Germiston, South Africa, just outside of Johannesburg, looks more like a botanical garden than a factory. But every day nearly 600 workers pass through its doors to their jobs on an assembly...

Crossposted from Border Jumpers.

We've never traveled anywhere quite like Rwanda.

Fifteen years ago one of the largest modern genocides occurred here.

More than 1 million men, women, and children were senselessly murdered, not by strangers, but by their own government, their own neighbors, and in some...

About 20 men sat on chairs at the HIV/AIDS Resource Center in Katuna, Uganda, intently watching a match between Manchester United and Chelsea on a small television. Along with the pool table, board games, and additional television downstairs, soccer games provide a much needed distraction for the long-distance truckers who...

The following is a three-part series about Danielle Nierenberg's visit with DISC project schools in Mukono District, Uganda. Crossposted from Nourishing the Planet.

Part I: How to Keep Kids "Down on the Farm"

In Mukono District, about an hour outside of Kampala, Uganda, agriculture used to...

The following is a three part series about Danielle's trip to the World Vegetable Centre in Arusha, Tanzania.

Part 1: Breeding Vegetables with Farmers in Mind

As hunger and drought spread across Africa , there's a huge focus on increasing yields of staple crops, such as maize,...

Parents have always had a hard time getting kids to eat their vegetables--whether they live in Beijing, New York City, or Johannesburg. But in a small town in Arusha, Tanzania, a research center is helping Africans gain access to nutritious--and native--sources of vegetables.

As hunger and drought spread across Africa,...

This is a two-part series of our three day visit with the Solidarity Center in Kenya to meet with workers and look at the tea and flower industries.

Part I: Coming Up Roses for Union Members: Flower Workers Improve Workplace Conditions Through Solidarity

Lake Naivasha is known...

Originally posted as a two part series on the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet blog.

Part I:Vertical Farms: Finding Creative Ways to Grow Food in Kibera

Driving through the crowded streets of Kibera, it's nearly impossible to describe how many people live in this area of about...

This is the second of a three-part series about our visit to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and AGRA grantees in Kenya.

"Read our lips," said Joe DeVries, near the end of our conversation with him in his office at the Alliance for a Green...