We simply can no longer afford to deny the full potential of one half of the population. The world needs to tap into the talent and wisdom of women. Whether the issue is food security economic recovery health or peace and security the participation of women is needed now more than ever.

I used to work a lot on food issues and every time somebody predicted that production would be inadequate they got egg on their face a year or two later.

There's the issue of hunger and there's an issue of if you're going to cut out food programs. We should be focusing on healthy food. Right now fruits and vegetables are very expensive. So what can we do on the policy side to bring the cost of fruits and vegetables down?

As a chef I had started working with groups like Share Our Strength and various local food banks in New York raising money for hunger-related issues. And not only me but the entire restaurant industry has been very focused on this issue.

Hunger is a political issue and there are several things politically that are keeping people hungry - not funding food stamps adequately not funding school lunches adequately. So there is a political solution to the problem of hunger.

The public should know that the liability issues here have yet to be resolved or even raised. If you're a farmer and you're growing a genetically engineering food crop those genes are going to flow to the other farm.

Food during my early years was a very difficult issue for me. I grew up in an addictive family. My mother had serious problems with alcohol and prescription drugs. I was an overweight kid. I can remember back in those days there weren't the strategies that there are today to deal with those issues.

I think people are smart enough to sort it out. They know when they're watching one of these food fight shows where journalists sit around and yell and scream at each other versus serious issue reporting.

What distinguishes the campaign finance issue from just about every other one being debated these days is that the two sides do not divide along conventional liberal/ conservative lines.

There were a lot of people dreaming about making films and they would finance maybe 6 films a year. Because they were funded by the government the films sort-of had to deal with serious social issues - and as a result nobody went to see those films.

The problem of how we finance the welfare state should not obscure a separate issue: if each person thinks he has an inalienable right to welfare no matter what happens to the world that's not equity it's just creating a society where you can't ask anything of people.

People feel uncomfortable talking about racial issues out of fear that if they express things they will be characterized in a way that's not fair. I think that there is still a need for a dialogue about things racial that we've not engaged in.

I was kind of surprised to learn how controlling I am. I never thought of myself in that way. I think the root of the control issues is usually fear because you want to know what's going to be happening at any given moment.

Forty years ago this country went down a rabbit hole in Vietnam and millions died. I fear we're going down a rabbit hole once again - and if people can stop and think and reflect on some of the ideas and issues in this movie perhaps I've done some damn good here!

Gun crime is a major cause of fear and distress throughout the UK. The problem is deeply entrenched in a wide range of social and cultural factors and therefore not an isolated issue.

If you have an issue with homosexuality then it comes to your own fear and your own darkness.

Follow the path of the unsafe independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the dangers of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity. And on issues that seem important to you stand up and be counted at any cost.

Exploitation films were famous for taking an issue an exploiting it because they could move much faster than a studio could. If there was any hot topic they would run out and make a quick movie and make a buck on it by changing it around and using it in some way to give some relevance.

But you know we have a very normal family. We've had our ups and downs. You know we've had our issues but we've had great cause for celebration.

I want to deal with somebody who comes from another country to the United States and has a family that comes. I don't care if it's a black family from Jamaica or a Hispanic family from Mexico. These issues need to be dealt with but they need to be dealt with in the entertaining way.

Most women are pragmatists who have allowed extremists on the left and right to manipulate the family issue for their own purposes.

The traditional spokespersons for the Evangelicals such as Chuck Colson and James Dobson have become alarmed about this drift away from the 'Family Values' issues that they believe should be the overwhelming concerns of Evangelicals. They have expressed their displeasure in letters of protest circulated through the religious media.

No doubt the White House thinks the American people know Obama's story. But since the Inauguration we've seen only the president's present: his perfect family his Ivy League elegance his effortless mastery of complex issues. We never see him sweat. And we forget that he ever had to struggle.

If you have issues with family friends and people at work try and solve these issues head on so you can move on and concentrate on having the life you want. Think about what you can do so that you are happy with yourself - for instance eating right to feel great and energetic.