October 9, 2000

"Poverty and Hunger: The Tragic Link" will be the topic of a World Food Day teleconference to be held on Monday, Oct. 16, in the Konover Auditorium at the Dodd Center. The teleconference begins at noon and ends at 3 p.m. Members of the University community are welcome to attend any part of the program.

The first hour of the teleconference, which will review basic hunger and poverty issues and explore possible solutions, features a conversation with Amartya Sen, the celebrated Indian scholar who won the 1998 Nobel Prize in Economics. His talk will focus on welfare economics and his theory of global economic development - subjects on which he has written extensively.

During a break in the telecast there will be an hour-long discussion among faculty and students that will center on poverty and hunger issues in Connecticut, as well as in countries represented by faculty and graduate students. Rafael Perez-Escamilla, an assistant professor of nutritional sciences, and Susan Randolph, an associate professor of economics, will moderate the conversation and brainstorm how individuals can help the world's poor and hungry. For the final hour of the telecast, Sen will answer viewers' questions.

The teleconference, sponsored by the the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, is broadcast worldwide from the studios of George Washington University in Washington, D.C. UConn's broadcasting of the teleconference is sponsored by the Departments of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Nutritional Sciences, and Economics.

Continuing education credits are available for clergy, registered dietitians, dietetic technicians, home economists and social workers. Call (860) 486-1783 for more information.

Rebecca Stygar