The problem of hunger remains a persistent phenomenon across both the developing and developed world. Inadequate governance, policy and systems are often at the root of the problem. These issues find expression in everything from spiraling health costs in Canada to persistent hunger in many areas of the developing world.

The tragedy of world hunger can be alleviated by advanced management expertise together with transdisciplinary knowledge and approaches from other key fields. UTSC is poised to play such a convening role through the creation of the Canadian Centre for World hunger.

With generous support for chairs, scholarships and experiential learning, the centre will engage biologists to examine the genetics, genomics and breeding of crop plants, as well as environmental issues of agro-ecosystems. We will also carry out detailed studies of food policy; enlist medical scientists who study the deleterious health effects from deficiencies in iron, vitamin a, iodine and zinc; and task social scientists with helping us understand the socio-economics of hunger.