Food and Agriculture

Revealed: Far-Right Links Of Polish Farmer Hunger Strikers

May 28, 2024 Marta Kasztelan, Claire Carlile and Phoebe Cooke, DeSmog. Educate! European Union (EU), Far Right, Farmers, Food and Agriculture, Hunger Strikes, Poland, Politics and Policy, Worker Rights and Jobs

An obscure far-right linked farmers group has risen to prominence in Poland after it was championed by populist politicians ahead of the EU elections, DeSmog can reveal. Orka, a new farmers’ movement that materialised earlier this month, entered Warsaw’s parliament building on May 9 to protest against EU climate plans and Ukrainian food imports. Protesters suspended a 10-day hunger strike last week after winning the attention of Polish President Andrzej Duda, who invited them to talks, and reportedly offered one member a role on his council for agriculture. The protest group was accompanied by the far-right Confederation Party’s Marta Chech, who is running as a candidate in the June 6-9 EU ballot.

Fertiliser Giant Yara Must Tackle Massive Emissions, Shareholders Say

May 25, 2024 Clare Carlile, DeSmog. Resist! carbon footprint, climate crisis, emissions, Fertilizers, Food and Agriculture, greenhouse gases, Shareholder activism

Investors are calling for Yara, Europe’s largest fertiliser manufacturer, to make deep cuts to polluting emissions of greenhouse gases. Five shareholders in the company have filed a vote calling for Yara to strengthen its climate targets at its AGM later this month (28 May). If successful, the motion would see the corporation forced to set climate targets in line with a 1.5C warmed world – the vital internationally agreed goal for limiting temperature rise. The Norwegian chemical giant is the largest natural gas user in the EU. At almost 63 tonnes a year, its carbon footprint is equivalent to the annual emissions of over 16 coal-fired power plants – according to sustainable finance organisation ShareAction, the group behind the investor call.

Half Of Pasture Lands On Earth Degraded By Climate Change, Overuse

May 23, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Pasture Land, Report

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) has found that as much as half of the natural pasture land on Earth has been degraded by the impacts of climate change and overexploitation, putting a sixth of the planet’s food supplies at risk. The new UNCCD report — Global Land Outlook Thematic Report on Rangelands and Pastoralists — emphasizes the importance of rangelands and points to ways to better manage and restore them while protecting pastoralism. “Degradation of Earth’s extensive, often immense natural pastures and other rangelands due to overuse, misuse, climate change and biodiversity loss poses a severe threat to humanity’s food supply and the wellbeing or survival of billions of people,” a press release from UNCCD said.

Cooperatives In China And Prospects For Their Significant Growth

May 14, 2024 Ali Al-Assam, Orinoco Tribune. Create! China, Cooperatives, Food and Agriculture, New Economy, Socialism

During my recent visit to China from April 14th to 24th, 2024, I had the opportunity to engage with seasoned members of the cooperative movement, among whom were British nationals who live in China. A highlight of my trip was spending a substantial part of a day, together with colleagues from ‘Friends of Socialist China’, exploring an agricultural cooperative in the north-eastern Jilin province. The law on Specialised Farmer Cooperatives was passed by the National People’s Congress, coming into effect on July 1 2007. As stated by Tim Zachernuk In his excellent study of cooperatives in China: “The law acknowledges international cooperative experience as codified in the cooperative principles formulated by the International Cooperative Alliance.

Deregulation Is Turning Oklahoma Into A Factory Farm Sacrifice Zone

May 13, 2024 Ben Felder, In These Times. Strategize! Factory Farming, Food and Agriculture, Oklahoma, pollution

As Barbara Dozhier prepared a ham before the arrival of her great-grandchildren and the rest of her family last Christmas Eve, she prayed for a weather forecast with wind out of the south. A breeze in the opposite direction meant her home four miles outside the east Oklahoma town of Kansas would be overcome with the stench of chicken litter. Ever since a six-building poultry farm opened across the street in 2018 — where 336,000 birds are raised at a time — family gatherings at the Dozhier home have been forced inside. “Sometimes the wind is out of the north and you just hurry up, get in the house and shut your door,” Dozhier said. “At first I was upset all the time but after all these years there is nothing you can do.”

Pakistani Farmers Launch A Nationwide Movement

May 8, 2024 Abdul Rahman, People's Dispatch. Resist! Farmers, Food and Agriculture, Mass Action, Pakistan, Prices

Thousands of farmers in Pakistan have launched a nationwide movement demanding increased government procurement of wheat. The campaign will kick off with national mobilizations on Friday, May 10, Khalid Khokhar, the leader of Pakistan Kissan Ittehad (Pakistan Farmer Movement or PKI), a united body of most of the farmers’ unions in the country, said in a press conference on Sunday. The mobilizations are set to kick off in Multan, Punjab and would be a continuation of the last month’s agitation in several parts of the country. Khokhar claimed that an even greater number of farmers’ organizations and groups would be participating in the campaign and mobilizations.

The Refillery Is Coming For Your Grocery Store Routine

May 7, 2024 Kate Ray, Portside. Create! Food and Agriculture, Grocery Stores, Packaging, Refilleries, Sustainability

“This is slow shopping,” says Roque Rodriguez about his refillery grocery store, Seed and Oil, in Woodside, Queens. “It’s about slowing down, being more present, being more aware: What’s the impact of the choice I just made? We educate folks when they come in, we talk to them, and you see people getting into the rhythm of it.” I don’t think it’s that much slower to shop at package-free stores like Seed and Oil—you bring your own container and weigh it, then you fill it up with the amount of rice or walnuts or Peanut M&Ms that you want to take home. But I get what he means.

Globalised Capitalism’s Eating Habits Responsible For One Third Of World’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions

May 7, 2024 HG, The Canary. Educate! Capitalism, climate crisis, Food and Agriculture, greenhouse gases, Report

According to a new report from the World Bank, changing how we farm could cut global emissions by almost one third. Greenhouse gas emissions could be drastically reduced by simply altering how food is produced around the world. The agrifood industry – which combines agriculture and food – takes into account the whole production process. It involves the whole journey, from food to plate including manufacture and retail. It is responsible for nearly a third of all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. This is one sixth more than the whole world’s heat and electric emissions.

Sustainable Food Systems: Feeding Ourselves Across Europe

May 6, 2024 Louise Kelleher, Resilience. Create! European Union (EU), Food and Agriculture, rural communities, Sustainability

Brussels is currently not the most hopeful place for those wishing to see EU food systems in a fair, ecological transition. But hope is on the ground. Not waiting for the impetus to come from above, many communities, food policy councils, solidarity farming initiatives, food cooperatives, as well as rural and urban municipalities have already established their own democratic, economic and social frameworks in order to create sustainable food systems. At Feeding Ourselves 2024, a roundtable on Bottom-Up Approaches to Sustainable Food Systems was a chance to connect partners of two ARC2020 projects, Rural Resilience in France and Rural Europe Takes Action – Germany* with kindred spirits in Ireland.

Cooking Sections’ Singular Stew Of Art, Activism, And Local Food

May 4, 2024 David Bollier. Strategize! Activism, Art, climate crisis, Food and Agriculture, The Commons

What a delight to encounter the work of the British artistic duo Cooking Sections, two British artists whose virtuoso artworks effortlessly blend art with activism, local commoning, and eco-stewardship in the service of climate-friendly foodways. Alon Schwabe and Daniel Fernández Pascual -- Senior Research Fellows at the Royal College of Art in London – create distinctive works of art about modern food that are also enmeshed in the fabric of everyday life: land, intertidal waters, restaurants, buildings, social festivals. The canvas for their art is large and unconventional: the bioregional theaters of the world where food is grown and harvested, from Scotland and Istanbul to southern Italy and South Korea, and beyond.

What Are ‘Food Barons’ And Why Should You Care?

April 30, 2024 Charlie Hope D’Anieri, Portside. Educate! Big Ag, Food and Agriculture, History, Monopolies

I’ve known Austin Frerick since 2019, when he was a researcher at the Open Markets Institute. After he became a fellow at Yale’s Thurmond Arnold Project, another anti-monopoly thinktank, we collaborated to report a feature for Vox on “The Hog Barons.” He’s gone on to expand this idea to a full book, titled Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry, that provides a portrait of our food system through stories of its oligarchs. Austin enlisted me for some editorial consultation while the book was under contract, and today I asked him a few questions about the book and how it helps us understand American food system.

Ten Times More Toxic Pesticide Could End Up On Our Food Under Proposal

April 24, 2024 Sharon Lerner, ProPublica. Educate! Environment, EPA, Food and Agriculture, health, Pesticide

When you bite into a piece of celery, there’s a fair chance that it will be coated with a thin film of a toxic pesticide called acephate. The bug killer — also used on tomatoes, cranberries, Brussels sprouts and other fruits and vegetables — belongs to a class of compounds linked to autism, hyperactivity and reduced scores on intelligence tests in children. But rather than banning the pesticide, as the European Union did more than 20 years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed easing restrictions on acephate.

Bakeries Finally Reopen In Northern Gaza

April 23, 2024 Tareq S. Hajjaj, Mondoweiss. Educate! Food and Agriculture, Gaza, Genocide, Israel, Palestine, Starvation

Lines of thousands of Palestinians with pale faces covered with sweat and smoke. Lean and hungry bodies, standing in a long line for hours, almost the entire day, from morning until night, standing in place. They are all residents and families of the northern Gaza Strip are happy today despite their exhaustion and hunger, which has continued for six months. This is a day of satisfaction, as bakeries finally operated again this past week for the first time since the beginning of the war in October 2023. They were able to distribute bread to people who had been living through a famine during which they lost their loved ones and children.

New Documentary Film Urges Us To Rethink Our Relationship With Soil

April 23, 2024 Siri Chilukuri, In These Times. Create! Earth Day, Environment, Food and Agriculture, Regenerative Farming

Comment on industrial agriculture mostly appears in the mainstream only when something has gone awry. The current avian flu epidemic comes to mind, but it’s rare for the general public to step back from the alarm of novel threats to take a more comprehensive look at why our current system doesn’t work for its supposed purpose of feeding people. Common Ground, a new documentary now screening in AMC theaters across the country (and 2023 Tribeca Film Award winner), isn’t afraid to point its finger at Big Ag for the problems with industrial agriculture.

Farm Organizations Announce National ‘Enough Is Enough Tour’

April 22, 2024 Farm Action. Organize! Big Ag, Congress, Farm Bill, Farmers, Food and Agriculture

Sixteen farm organizations announced the launch of the national Enough Is Enough Tour in protest of government policies that drive consolidation of the food system into the hands of the largest multinational corporations to the detriment of farmers and ranchers. With Congress preparing to debate the farm bill during prime planting and calving season, restricting farmers’ and ranchers’ ability to bring their voices to Washington D.C., farm groups will gather at events in at least five states to call on members of Congress to deliver a bill that levels the playing field.

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