PUBLIC HEALTH
PUBLIC HEALTH
RIVERBLINDNESS IN AFRICA
FEEDING THE WORLD WELL
Taming the Lion’s Stare
A Framework for Ethical Food Systems
BRUCE BENTON
edited by ALAN M. GOLDBERG
foreword by JAMES D. WOLFENSOHN
LEADING EXPERTS REVEAL WAYS THAT THE FUTURE OF FOOD PRODUCTION FOR THE WORLD’S BURGEONING POPULATION CAN (AND MUST) BE BOTH SUSTAINABLE AND ETHICAL.
THE REMARKABLE STORY OF HOW A LARGE PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP WORKED TO CONTROL AND DEFEAT RIVERBLINDNESS. Riverblindness—a pervasive neglected disease that causes horrific itching,
In the United States, food is abundant
disfigurement, and loss of vision—has
and cheap but loaded with hidden costs
destroyed countless lives for generations,
to the environment, human health, ani-
particularly in Africa. Its effects are
mal welfare, and the people who work
so devastating that the area around
in our food systems. Feeding the World Well examines these costs
rivers where it is most common end up
from an ethics perspective while presenting a unique framework
abandoned as villages move farther away, uphill, into more arid
for ethical food systems: the Core Ethical Commitments, which are
environments in order to escape the flies that cause the disease.
designed to guide consumers in choosing foods aligned with their
Riverblindness devastates communities: a large portion of each
values, while helping producers enhance the ethics of their prac-
stricken community’s population goes blind, and efforts to escape
tices and products. The edited volume features contributions from
infection force people to move to areas where farming is harder.
leading ethicists and food systems experts that address complex
To defeat riverblindness would release these communities from
issues and discusses the forces that have shaped our food systems.
the heavy toll of the disease and open fertile areas in Africa to be
Alan M. Goldberg (BALTIMORE, MD) is principal of the Global Food
inhabited and farmed. These were the goals of the World Bank when it began its fight against riverblindness more than forty years ago. In this book, Bruce Benton tells the remarkable story of its success. Bruce Benton (BETHESDA, MD) is a consultant for the World Bank on the Riverblindness and Malaria Booster Programs. DECEMBER
304 pages 6 x 9 26 b&w photos, 11 line drawings 978-1-4214-3966-2 $49.95 ( s) £37.00 h c Also available as an e-book
Ethics Project at Johns Hopkins University, a professor of toxicology in the Department of Environmental Health and Engineering at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and the founding director (emeritus) of the Johns Hopkins Center for Alternatives to Animal Testing. OCTOBER
336 pages 6 x 9 18 line drawings 978-1-4214-3934-1 $64.95 ( s) £48.00 h c Also available as an e-book JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
press.jhu.edu 39