The U.S. Congress is currently writing a new version of the Farm Bill, a massive piece of legislation that will determine the future of food and agriculture for the next four years. Senator Pat Roberts, the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, could use his position to undermine the power of the National Organic Standards Board. The Board is a valuable source of democratic representation in the regulatory process for agriculture across the United States.
Industrial Agriculture
Camel Meat: From the Australian Outback to the American Midwest
Over the last twenty years, an spike in immigration from Somalia has had a surprising outcome for the American food system: an increased market for camel meat. This article explores the intricate connections for food economics that underlie this new market.
Op-ed: Can Food Retailers Develop Policies That Drive Sustainable Agriculture?
While U.S. retailers have struggled to create policies that drive sustainability on the farm, a recent Stanford study reports on the success of one South African retailer.
Op-Ed: The Future of Food
The food system cannot sustain prolonged impacts from climate change and unchecked population growth. Professor Sayed Azam-Ali shares his insights about creating a sustainable future for food through the generation of a long-lasting, nutritional food source.
Live Webinar: Unravelling the Food-Health Nexus with the Global Alliance for the Future of Food
The Global Alliance for the Future of Food (GAFF) will host a webinar on December 12, 2017, at 11 am EST to highlight the findings of their recent report, Unravelling the Food-Health Nexus: Addressing Practices, Political Economy, and Power Relations to Build Healthier Food Systems.
Vote With Your Turkey: How Your Holiday Purchase Can Save Lives
Americans eat approximately 40 million turkeys on Thanksgiving and another 22 million for Christmas. Consumers have an opportunity this holiday season to help move turkey producers away from misusing life-saving medicines.
“Food Evolution” Documentary Supports GMOs, but Not Science
The recently released documentary “Food Evolution” fails at exploring the central issue of the safety of the most common genetically engineered (GE) crops. Any reasonable discussion about the science of GMOs and the products they were designed to use must include such debate.
Thirst for Avocado Leaves Plantations Dry
United States avocado consumption has doubled in the last decade straining local environments in exporting regions such as Michoacán, Mexico, where a loss of forest cover and underground water reserves has increased their risk of fires.
New Investigative Series: Indonesia For Sale
Indonesia for Sale, an in-depth series on politicians, palm oil plantation companies, and deforestation in Indonesia, highlights the country’s current conflict over land.
Total Health Costs of Industrial Food Systems Are “Staggering,” Says New Report
An international team of experts has released a report documenting the “staggering” health costs of industrial food systems globally and the extent to which negative health impacts are experienced unequally.
Interactive Toolkits Unpack the Histories of Pesticides
A team of researchers with the Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN) has created a series of interactive educational tools to explore the histories of widely-used pesticides, including glyphosate, dicamba, and 2,4-D.
Herbicide Dicamba Can Stay Volatile for 36 Hours, Arkansas Researchers Say
Farmers in nearly a dozen states are complaining about dicamba, the primary ingredient of a new Monsanto herbicide, blowing into their fields and allegedly ruining their crops.
Justin Kamine: “Society needs to move toward the notion of a circular economy”
Justin Kamine, Co-Founder and Partner of KDC Ag, believes looking to nature to form large scale infrastructure solutions is the quickest and most effective way eliminate food waste.
Loren Cardeli: “Agriculture got us here, and agriculture can also save us”
Loren Cardeli, Founder and President of A Growing Culture (AGC), has worked closely with smallholder farmers around the world and helps consumers to reevaluate how their relationships with farmers.
Did Monsanto Write Malawi’s Seed Policy?
Malawi’s new draft seed policy, crafted in part by a Monsanto official, defines ‘seed’ as one that is quality certified, overriding the common cultural understanding of the term seed, and preventing local farmers from selling or displaying farm-saved seed at local seed fairs.
The Trump Administration’s False Promise to Rural America
If future GMO crops are to play positive environmental and social roles, they must be developed and deployed under policies and other conditions that favor and value agro-ecology, rural society, food sovereignty, and the environment over corporate control and excessive profit.
We Don’t Need to Double Food Production by 2050, Says New Study
A study by U.S. academics challenges the assertion that we need to double food production by 2050. Rather than questioning the assumptions in the famous calculations that first suggested a doubling was necessary, the new team of academics updated the data used.
Monsanto Faces Labor Law Violations Class Action Suit
Seed-corn workers brought a first of its kind class action suit against seed giant Monsanto for violations to two federal labor laws the day after the release of a two-year investigation into labor violations in the seed-corn industry.
Grasshoppers Jump into the United States Food Market
Your next protein shake might be made with grasshoppers thanks to a new company, Hargol FoodTech, and their sustainable, humane insect farming techniques.
Research Raises Concerns for Pregnancy Complications from Pesticide Exposure
Researchers discover a correlation between glyphosate pesticide exposure during pregnancy and complications including low birth weight, raising another health concern for the world’s most commonly used and increasingly controversial pesticide.
