Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.
700,000 Dead from USAID’s Dismantling
An estimated 700,000 people have died from the dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development, according to Atul Gawande, USAID’s former Assistant Administrator for Global Health.
During a recent interview on The New Yorker Radio Hour, Gawande discussed what has happened in the aftermath of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts to USAID.
Elon Musk has repeatedly stated there’s no evidence that the cuts caused a single death. But Dr. Gawande says this simply isn’t true. While the closure of USAID means that we also lost some of the best data and tracking systems, it is clear that the abrupt disappearance of aid supporting nutrition security and maternal health has led to devastating consequences.
It takes years to recover the expertise and infrastructure of our global public health systems, eradicate preventable diseases, build surveillance for pandemics, reduce malnutrition, Gawande says. “And if we’re divided about that and it becomes political fodder, the institutions can’t function and we won’t be able to make a way forward. He argues it’s important to return to a place “where we believe that these kinds of institutions are what we all want.”
Ugandan Farmers Push Back against East African Oil Pipeline
A group of farmers in Uganda filed a lawsuit in the UK High Court against the East African Crude Oil Pipeline.
In the lawsuit against the UK-registered company, the farmers allege the $5.6 billion project violates legislation that protects citizens’ right to a clean and healthy environment. They argue it affects more than 100,000 people—mostly producers—through land acquisition and threatens biodiversity by crossing through freshwater systems and protected habitats.
Avaaz, an NGO supporting the farmers, calls the litigation the “first-of-its-kind” and says it is a “global test case for whether new fossil fuel megaprojects can still be forced through despite mounting legal, financial, climate, and community opposition.”
The project is being built to carry crude oil from Ugandan fields to Tanzania. According to developers, the 1,444 kilometer pipeline is nearly 80 percent complete. Avaaz says this is the “final chance to stop one of the worst oil pipelines on the planet.”
U.S. Farmers Win Right to Repair
Farmers in the United States secured the right to repair last week when the Federal Trade Commission reached a settlement with John Deere.
Previously, faulty equipment could only be fixed by dealers authorized by John Deere. The company also kept independent repair companies from accessing the necessary tools. This drove up costs for farmers and increased wait times.
Under the settlement, which was filed as part of a lawsuit in January 2025, this changes. The decision “enables farmers to do what they’ve done for generations—fix their own tractors and other farm equipment—without having to pay an authorized John Deere dealer to do it for them,” says Daniel Guarnera, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition.
‘Super’ El Nino May Cause Food Price Shock into 2028
Economists warn that the extreme weather events expected from El Niño may cause a nearly 16 percent spike in global food commodities that lasts into 2028.
Analysts at Goldman Sachs say countries are already seeing changes—with some regions of India receiving just a quarter of their usual rainfall—and the global impacts are likely to ramp up as we reach the end of 2026.
The Iran war has already pushed world food prices to the highest levels in three years and El Nino means that supply chains now face “two shocks at once.” According to the Italian bank UniCredit, climateflation is “back on the agenda” as El Nino compounds the effects of the climate crisis.
A School Farm Program in Kenya Pays Off
In Kenya’s Kajiado County, one school has more than doubled enrollment thanks to a farm pilot program.
Inaarok Lukuny Comprehensive School is one of four schools in Kajiado and Isiolo counties that were selected to convert unused land into working farms as part of a project led by the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation alongside university partners, government agencies, and local groups. Inaarok converted dry, uncultivated land into a four-acre farm growing maize, beans, cowpeas, green grams, and leafy vegetables.
Inaarok’s head teacher says that the farm has allowed them to integrate more nutritious foods into school meals, which helped boost enrollment from 240 to more than 525 students over the last year.
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Photo courtesy of Unsplash
