Welcome to the first edition of SMERU's regular monthly newsletter. Why a newsletter? Because we believe that having information spread and discussed as widely as possible is a central part of creating the social conditions for addressing the social crisis. This newsletter hopes to not only distribute as widely as possible our qualitative and quantitative findings but also the views and findings of other individuals and groups, including some we may not agree with in the spirit of open discussion. In addition to the newsletter we hope to make much of the detailed background material available at our future website.

In our first newsletter we examine several aspects of the all important food security issue, especially the problem of rice marketing and availability. In next month's issue we will focus on field assessments currently being conducted by SMERU of the government's 'Special Market Operations' program, which is aiming to provide emergency food assistance to the poorest sections of society.