We at Homelands Productions have been talking about doing a series on hunger and food security since before the WORKING series finished in 2009. We’re finally there, with the first two pieces scheduled to air today on American Public Media’s Marketplace. First will be a little intro piece launching the series, mixed by our friend Chris Brookes and narrated by show host Kai Ryssdal. Then comes a story I reported from Mexico about the role of agricultural research and development in meeting the world’s food needs. (A ridiculously broad topic for a seven-minute piece, I found!)

This is a soft launch. Our partners at the Center for Investigative Reporting are beavering away on TV segments for PBS NewsHour. Plus, we’ve got big plans for a website with maps, timelines, animations, infographics, blogs, etc. We’ll make a splashy announcement when there’s something to look at.

In the meantime, I hope you get to listen tonight. Feedback is always welcome!

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Jonathan Miller is executive director of Homelands Productions, a journalism cooperative specializing in public radio features and documentaries. As a freelance journalist, he has reported from Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe and the U.S. for NPR, BBC, CBC, American Public Media's Marketplace, Monitor Radio, VOA, Radio Netherlands and Radio Deutsche Welle. He also has written for The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, Parents, American Way, The Christian Science Monitor and many other publications. For 13 years, he lived and worked in the Philippines and Peru. 

Jon is currently serving as executive producer of "Food for 9 Billion," a collaborative project of Homelands Productions, the Center for Investigative Reporting, American Public Media's Marketplace, PRI's The World, and PBS NewsHour. He was executive producer of Homelands' award-winning "WORKING" project profiling workers in the global economy (2007-09) and the "Worlds of Difference" series about the responses of traditional societies to rapid cultural change (2002-05).