M. Jahi Chappell’s new book, Beginning to End Hunger, presents the story of Belo Horizonte, home to one of the world’s most successful city food security programs. Since 1993, malnutrition in Belo Horizonte has declined dramatically, allowing it to serve as an inspiration for Brazil’s widely-praised Zero Hunger programs. Going beyond merely an in-depth case study, Beginning to End Hunger shows the importance of holistic approaches to food security, offers ideas on how to design successful policies to end hunger, and lays out strategies for how to make policy change happen towards ending hunger, everywhere.
Moving from the seats of Belo Horizonte’s state-run restaurants to the annals of world history, Chappell demonstrates a keen eye for local detail and global relevance. This book is a provocation to new thought and better action to end hunger permanently.
Dr. M. Jahi Chappell is the Executive Director of the Institute for Food & Development Policy, more commonly called Food First. Until 2019, he was Associate Professor of Agroecology and Agricultural Policy at Coventry University’s Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience (CAWR). He has previously worked as Senior Staff Scientist at the Minneapolis-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, and before that, was Assistant Professor of Environmental Science and Justice and Associate Director of the Center for Social and Environmental Justice at Washington State University Vancouver.
Dr. Chappell has published over 40 scientific and popular articles and book chapters, and worked with communities, allies and movements in the United States and internationally.
Chappell’s approach and interests fall under what has been called political agroecology. His academic qualifications include a Ph.D. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and a Bachelor’s of Science in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan, with subsequent postdoctoral work at Cornell University in the Department of Science & Technology Studies.
