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Event

Sharon Schmickle Speaks at LSE on Agribusiness, Food Insecurity in Africa

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November 21, 2013 | 6:05 PM UTC TO 6:55 PM UTC
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Image by Sharon Schmickle. Tanzania, 2013
English

Roiling tensions underlie efforts to improve food security in Africa, often pulling at cross...

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Award-winning journalist Sharon Schmickle visits LSE—the London School of Economics and Political Studies—on Thursday, Nov. 21, to discuss her Pulitzer Center-supported reporting from Africa on food insecurity and genetically modified crops. Her visit is part of the Media Communication and Development Student and Practitioner Seminars.

Through photos and stories from Africa, Schmickle discusses the politics of agriculture in African countries such as Tanzania. She examines the ideological battles that African countries face with European—and sometimes American—organizations pitted against agribusiness and many agricultural scientists. In addition, she discusses how institutions may have failed African farmers, and whether scientists run the risk of losing their breakthroughs if they overlook local tastes and customs.

Schmickle's earlier reporting project for the Pulitzer Center focused on the threat of Ug99, a virulent fungal disease, and its impact on the wheat industry in Africa and Asia. She is a journalist with the MinnPost.com and a former reporter/Washington bureau chief for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. In addition to her reporting, Schmickle has worked separately as a journalism mentor in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda and Tanzania since 2011. Her honors include being a Pulitzer Prize finalist. She also has won the National Press Club's Washington Correspondent of the Year award and an Overseas Press Club of America award.

Thursday November 21
1:05 pm - 1:55 pm
London School of Economics and Political Studies
New Academic Building, LSE Room 2.04
London, UK

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Topic

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Food Security