The United States' fiscal future depends on whether the country can limit health-care costs.

The "green revolution" dramatically boosted crop yields throughout the world, but it also bred overconfidence and complacency.

The population of western Europe is aging steadily, and the region's birthrate is well below the replacement level, but Europe's elderly are exceptionally healthy. That means they could be more productive for longer than their predecessors were. If western European governments learn to tap this potential, healthy aging could become the region's next great economic asset.

Supporters of genetically engineered food tout it as a boon at a time of global food shortages, but some critics see signs that modified foods may do more harm than good.

Health experts agree the U.S. health care system needs an overhaul, as a way of shoring up the economy and U.S. competitiveness. But a battle is brewing over the president-elect's designs for a public-sponsored insurance plan.

As concerns grow over the increasing scarcity of fresh water, some experts weigh trading it as a commodity.

With the number of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans already at 1.6 million, soldiers’ advocates say a new U.S. health care crisis looms.  

With the volume of illegal immigrants flowing across the U.S. border fueling an emotional debate in Washington, the impact of immigration policy on foreign health workers has been overshadowed.

Recent discoveries related to avian flu could help control a possible future pandemic, but even as the global community and individual countries develop plans to combat the virus, experts say more work needs to be done.

Niger's long-running cycle of drought threatens to cause a new round of food shortages affecting millions, world relief agencies warn. International agencies, donor states, and NGOs are debating a way to break a different cycle: treating poor African states as short-term crises rather than funding longer-term solutions.

The deadly H5N1 strain of the avian flu virus has now crept well into Europe—infecting birds in Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Germany, Slovenia, Croatia, Austria, and Denmark—and now also threatens Africa. Experts are at a loss over how to best tackle what could be an imminent global pandemic.

Laurie Garrett reviews the complex social, political, and financial issues at play ahead of the U.S. presidential election and their implications for domestic and global health programs.

"The world community is at a crucial juncture" in their implementation of better health coverage, write Laurie Garrett, A. Mushtaque Chowdhury and Ariel Pablos-Méndez.

Laurie Garrett, Daniel Altman, and Alexander S. Preker discuss Universal Health Coverage, shedding light on the healthcare reform debate.

Joseph Coughlin and Kelly Michel discuss how a healthy and active aging population can contribute to economic growth, and the public policy reform, new business strategies, and profound shifts in views on aging necessary to take advantage of this opportunity.