Nicholas D. Kristof of the New York Times "gets It' about micronutrient malnutition, including the need to fortify salt with iodine. And he's doing a great job educating the American public as his "The Hidden Hunger" column today illustrates. His choice of Guinea-Bissau, he makes clear, is a situation of vast extent.

Kristof writes:

"The World Bank has estimated that United Nations goals for overcoming global poverty have been set back seven years by the global crisis. It calculates that increased malnutrition last year may have caused an additional 44 million children to suffer permanent physical or mental impairment.

"Yet one of the great Western misconceptions is that severe malnutrition is simply about not getting enough to eat. Often it’s about not getting the right micronutrients — iron, zinc, vitamin A, iodine — and one of the most cost-effective ways outsiders can combat poverty is to fight this 'hidden hunger.'”