Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.
The Dismantlement of USAID Continues to Impact Communities as Global Crises Intensify
Headlines this week highlighted a series of escalating global crises. These are not isolated events. They are interconnected symptoms of larger systemic pressures: climate change, political instability, economic inequality, and weakening global humanitarian infrastructure.
In Somalia, worsening drought and aid reductions are pushing communities toward catastrophe. Because Somalia imports much of its food and agricultural inputs, global supply chain disruptions from the Iran conflict are rapidly translating into higher prices and worsening hunger for ordinary families.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda where Ebola cases have risen significantly, the WHO has declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
This week in an interview with ABC News, Dr. Amesh Adalja from Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, who spoke with Dani on Episode 495 of Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg, said in response to the WHO declaration, “This outbreak needs to have a lot of resources brought to bear to prevent it from getting bigger, to prevent it from killing more people, to prevent it from spreading to neighboring countries.”
USAID was created to address exactly these kinds of global emergencies. As humanitarian needs grow, the dismantlement of USAID leaves vulnerable communities with fewer resources to respond and recover.
In Kenya last month, Dani experienced this gap firsthand. Changing rainfall patterns due to climate change have contributed to rising malaria cases and growing food insecurity. The link between health and hunger is direct: when farmers are unable to work during critical growing seasons, families lose both income and food security. Scaled across entire regions, these disruptions become barriers to education, livelihoods, economic growth, and long-term resilience.
Millions of vulnerable people are being pushed deeper into hunger and poverty while the international system that once responded to humanitarian emergencies is shrinking.
The Fuel Crisis in Cuba is a Food Systems Crisis
The ongoing war in Iran continues to disrupt global fuel markets. In Cuba, the fuel shortage is no longer just an energy crisis but a food systems one.
Shortages of oil and diesel are disrupting every stage of Cuba’s food supply chain. Without reliable fuel, getting food from the field to the table becomes increasingly difficult, resulting in shortages, inflation, and food insecurity across the country.
A lack of diesel has left tractors, harvesters, irrigation systems, and transportation vehicles unusable. Farmers are increasingly forced to rely on manual labor, dramatically slowing production and reducing yields.
Farmers like Obiols Sobredo in the Cuban town of Las Minas produces crops like tomatoes, sorghum, and cassava. Farm work that used to take him 15 minutes with fuel now takes him three days by hand, significantly impacting his ability to feed his community.
Milk from Sobredo’s goats was once delivered to nearby schools, but fuel shortages now make transportation unreliable and refrigeration difficult, increasing the risk of spoilage before the milk can reach children.
The crisis highlights a broader global reality: food security depends on stable energy infrastructure. When fuel systems fail, the effects ripple across agriculture and public health.
The U.S. House Advances Year-Round Sale of Ethanol Blend, E15
In response to the ongoing fuel crisis, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would allow the year-round sale of E15, a fuel blend that contains 15% ethanol produced from U.S. corn.
The bill passed in a narrow bipartisan vote and now moves to the Senate.
Supporters argue the measure could lower fuel prices for consumers, strengthen rural economies, increase demand for U.S. corn, and reduce dependence on imported energy during a period of heightened global oil market volatility. Expanding year-round E15 sales would likely increase domestic demand for corn-based ethanol, creating an additional market for American corn growers at a time when many farmers are struggling.
Critics, however, argue that expanding corn ethanol could increase fertilizer runoff, water pollution, and land-use pressures while delivering only modest climate benefits.
The Senate is expected to become the key battleground for the legislation. The bill will likely need 60 votes to overcome procedural hurdles, and opposition from senators representing refinery interests.
China Restores Trade for U.S. Agriculture Products
Donald Trump met with Xi Jinping in Beijing last week where agricultural trade was front and center in negotiations. The meeting pointed to a renewed effort to stabilize trade relations between the world’s two largest economies after years of volatility that heavily impacted farmers.
The U.S. and China finalized an agricultural trade framework aimed at expanding Chinese purchases of American farm products, primarily U.S. beef, poultry, and soybeans. China has committed to purchasing at least $17 billion in U.S. agricultural products each year, marking one of the largest agricultural purchasing agreements between the two countries in recent years.
As part of the agreement, China has restored market access for U.S. beef and approved hundreds of beef processing facilities for export eligibility. The country has also resumed imports of American poultry from states deemed clear of bird flu, and renewed their commitment to purchase at least 25 million tons of U.S. soybeans.
American farmers are cautiously optimistic, following years of uncertainty, retaliatory tariffs, and supply chain disruptions.
The agreement last week may give some hope to farmers and rural communities hoping for stabilization, though long-term uncertainty remains as U.S.-China relations continue to evolve.
Undamming Across the U.S. is a Win for Fish, Ecological Systems, and Native Communities
More miles of American rivers were reconnected through the removal of dams last year than ever before. This represents a big win for fish, ecological systems, and native communities.
Dam removal projects improve biodiversity, healthier waterways, and migratory fish patterns. They also help restore river access to the local communities who have longstanding relationships with these once-dammed rivers.
Indigenous communities are leading these efforts. This month, the largest American dam removal project was successfully completed on California’s Klamath River, led by a coalition of Yurok, Karuk, Klamath, Hoopa Valley, and Shasta tribes.
This project represented decades of advocacy to restore salmon populations that are central to these communities’ cultures, food systems, ceremonies, economies, and livelihoods.
There is still work to do but the Klamath project is being seen as a national model for future river restoration efforts spearheaded by Native communities alongside environmental organizations, scientists, and policymakers.
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Photo courtesy of Nia Sihle, Unsplash
