Food and Agriculture

The Public Good: Reports From The Front Lines

October 27, 2017 David Morris, www.ilsr.org Create! Children, Food and Agriculture, health, Schools

By David Morris for ILSR - In 2010, Congress passed the Healthy, Hunger Free Kids Act, a law championed by first lady Michelle Obama. Among other provisions, the law offers universal federally subsidized lunch and breakfasts for schools with a significant proportion of low-income students. Eligible schools must have at least 40 percent of the student body automatically qualify for free lunch because they’re homeless, or in foster care, enrolled in Head Start, or live in households which receive food stamps. About 21.5 million students in the U.S. receive free or reduced-price school lunch on any given school day. About 12.1 million receive free or reduced-price school breakfasts. The new program was created to overcome a significant shortcoming in the existing means-tested program. Many students don’t take advantage of the program because of the social stigma attached. In New York City, for example, 75 percent of public school students are eligible for free or reduced prices but one in three skips lunch. In 2016, Brooklyn high school senior Aminata Abdouramane explained why in Chalkbeat, “The free and reduced-price lunch program creates a social class system that is reinforced daily by the school lunch line. Some students get lunch for free, some get it for a reduced price, and some pay the whole cost. Imagine you’re on the lunch line and another student sees you getting free lunch and takes advantage of this.

Chocolate Barons Devastate National Parks In West Africa

October 23, 2017 Davis Harper, www.ecowatch.com Create! Africa, Capitalism, Farming, Food and Agriculture, Ghana

By Davis Harper for Eco Watch - For several years, chocolate barons have devastated forests to make room to plant cocoa, a crop that naturally grows in shade. Now, a report from Mighty Earth—a nonprofit that works to conserve threatened landscapes—shows new evidence that illegal deforestation is occurring in protected areas; specifically, in the national parks of West Africa. The Ivory Coast and Ghana produce a combined 2.6 million tons of chocolate—60 percent of the world's supply. It's no wonder so many of these nations' protected lands are at risk. According to Mighty Earth's report, 10 percent of Ghana's tree cover has been replaced by cocoa monocultures. The Ivory Coast, once heavily forested and extremely biodiverse, has lost seven of its 23 protected areas to cocoa. Due to habitat loss, its chimpanzees are now endangered, and its elephants are nearly extinct. This means that companies like Mars, Nestlé, Hersey's and Godiva are on the hot seat for making products using cocoa grown by uncertified sources. "Chocolate companies have taken advantage of corrupt governance in Ghana and the Ivory Coast to deforest parklands," saic Glenn Horowitz, CEO of Mighty Earth. With a rising demand for the world's guiltiest pleasure, chocolate companies are also taking advantage of farmers—on average, these growers are paid less than 80 cents a day.

Radically Changing How We Face Food Insecurity And Climate Change

October 18, 2017 Josianne Gauthi, www.cidse.org Create! Climate Change, Food and Agriculture, New Economy

By Josianne Gauthi the Secretary General CIDSE - What we need is a profound and radical transformation, or dare we say, conversion of the world food system. Around the world, people are migrating within and across borders, and for many of them, hunger and food insecurity are driving them. We know that climate change, conflict, and political instability are adversely affecting food security, but if communities are still facing hunger today it is because of the flawed and damaging way in which we produce and distribute food around the world. Indeed, at the heart of the problem, and perhaps the solution, is our very relationship to food and the land it grows on. Food insecurity is largely driven by a food system that is highly controlled by agribusiness, believed to be the only model capable of producing large volumes of food – and waste. But more food is not the same as less hunger! The figures are clear: in 2016 the number of undernourished people in the world came to an estimated 815 million—from 777 million people in 2015. In addition, 75% of the world’s poor rely on agriculture and natural resources for their livelihoods yet, despite this, they are also the most food insecure, leading many to migrate to urban areas or other countries in search for better living conditions with great uncertainty for their own and their children’s futures. Hunger is not diminishing, it is increasing. We must be tackling its root causes, not increasing production.

New Groundbreaking Research Shows Glyphosate Persists In Soil

October 17, 2017 Staff, www.sustainablepulse.com Educate! Food and Agriculture, glyphosate, Soil

By Staff of Sustainable Pulse - In contrast to what its manufactures purport, glyphosate persists in soils affecting not only soil fertility and crop quality, but also human and environmental health. The research study by the Dutch University of Wageningen and Rikilt laboratories, jointly with the JRC, reveals that among 317 EU soil samples of arable land, 42% contained AMPA, the most toxic metabolite of glyphosate, while glyphosate was found in 21% of the soils; 18% of the samples had both. The study was conducted in six crop systems along 11 EU member states comprising soils under different geographical and climatic conditions. Denmark, the UK and Portugal are the worst in this spectrum, with the highest detection frequency, while Italy and Greece seem to be the ones using less glyphosate on their crops. However, and most notably, these 2 molecules could be found in every tested member state. All tested crops presented glyphosate and AMPA residues. By far, the worst case was that of Portuguese vineyards, while no crops exhibited patterns of reduced reliance on glyphosate compared to others. The results prove that the accumulation and persistence of glyphosate in soil is underestimated by European authorities, as is the harm it may cause to environmental ecosystems. The concentrations of glyphosate and AMPA found in the study have been shown to be toxic to soil organisms such as earthworms, beneficial bacteria and fungi , as glyphosate weakens down plants’ natural defences making them susceptible to pathogens.

NAFTA Renegotiation: What’s At Stake For Food, Farmers And The Land?

October 17, 2017 Staff, www.iatp.org Educate! Farming, Food and Agriculture, Land, NAFTA

By Staff of IATP - The re-negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the U.S., Mexico and Canada begins on August 16, and there is much at stake for farmers and rural communities in all three countries. Despite promised gains for farmers, NAFTA’s benefits over the last 23 years have gone primarily to multinational agribusiness firms. NAFTA is about much more than trade. It set rules on investment, farm exports, food safety, access to seeds, and markets. NAFTA, combined with the formation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the 1996 Farm Bill, led the charge to greater consolidation among agribusiness firms, the loss of many small and mid-sized farms and independent ranchers, the rapid growth of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and further corporate control of animal production through often unfair, restrictive contracts with producers. The Trump administration’s negotiating objectives reflect relatively small tweaks to NAFTA, while adopting deregulatory elements of the defeated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Family farm groups have called for the existing NAFTA to be scrapped and propose a fundamentally new agreement with a goal of improving the lives of family farmers and rural communities in all three countries.

Community Market Stand Small Part Of Patching Big Hole

October 14, 2017 Staff, www.capitolhillseattle.com Create! Farming, Food and Agriculture

By Staff for Capitol Hill Seattle Blog - When the Central District Red Apple closed this month as Vulcan readies plans to redevelop the store’s corner of 23rd and Jackson, residents of the CD lost a community resource and one of the only big grocery markets in the area. Lottie Cross, the director of Clean Greens, a nonprofit market stand and CSA, and 55-year resident of the Central District, came to the rescue. Providing no-pesticide, herbicide-free collard greens, potatoes, tomatoes, cantaloupe, pumpkins, sweet corn, and many other vegetables, Clean Greens is filling a small part of the big hole left by Red Apple’s closure. “They (Vulcan) came to me,” Cross tells CHS. “Last Saturday was our first day in the new location — we sold way more than usual. At least 50 people stopped by and almost bought us out.” Formerly located at New Hope Missionary Baptist Church on Saturdays, the Clean Green market stand now pops up across the parking lot from the old Red Apple, near the Walgreens. According to Cross, Vulcan partnered with Clean Greens to provide access to healthy food “for as long as possible.” It’s up to the weather to decide how long the stand is there, but Cross expects to have a presence through December, and maybe after. Cross tells CHS that any leftover vegetables go to Operation Sack Lunch, a nonprofit that provides free vegetarian meals throughout Seattle. Vulcan supplies a tent, and funding for one person to run the market stand, but other than that, it’s a purely volunteer organization.

Rajasthan Farmers Sit Neck-Deep to Protest Land Deal

October 7, 2017 Saif Khalid, Resist! Farmers, Food and Agriculture, India, Land

By Saif Khalid for Al Jazeera. Hundreds of farmers in the state of Rajasthan, India, have been protesting against the government's plan to acquire their land, with scores of them digging up holes and burying themselves as part of the protest. Farmers have been holding the sit-in at Nindar village, about 20km from Jaipur, the state capital, for the past two weeks but adopted this unique method of protest on Monday - the birth anniversary of India's independence leader Mahatma Gandhi. Nagender Shekhawat, the leader of the protest, told Al Jazeera that "nearly 5,000 families, including farmers, are going to be affected by the acquisition". He added that the protesters have been occupying the land for the past 18 days. "Farmers have been protesting since the land acquisition notice was issued in 2010. They do not want to give up their land as they use it for agriculture and animals," he said.

Great Hunger: The Famine Violence Famine Cycle

October 3, 2017 Kathy Kelly, www.vcnv.org Educate! Famine, Food and Agriculture

By Kathy Kelly for VCNV - Earlier this year, the Sisters of St. Brigid invited me to speak at their Feile Bride celebration in Kildare, Ireland. The theme of the gathering was: “Allow the Voice of the Suffering to Speak.” The Sisters have embraced numerous projects to protect the environment, welcome refugees and nonviolently resist wars. I felt grateful to reconnect with people who so vigorously opposed any Irish support for U.S. military wars in Iraq. They had also campaigned to end the economic sanctions against Iraq, knowing that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children suffered and died for lack of food, medicine and clean water. This year, the Sisters asked me to first meet with local teenagers who would commemorate another time of starvation imposed by an imperial power. Joe Murray, who heads Action from Ireland (Afri), arranged for a class from Dublin’s Beneavin De La Salle College to join an Irish historian in a field adjacent to the Dunshaughlin work house on the outskirts of Dublin. Such workhouses dot the landscape of Ireland and England. In the mid-19th century, during the famine years, they were dreaded places. People who went there knew they were near the brink of death due to hunger, disease, and dire poverty. Ominously, behind the workhouse lay the graveyard. The young men couldn’t help poking a bit of fun, at first...

Canceling NAFTA Could Be The Best Way Forward

September 29, 2017 Lois Ross, www.rabble.ca Educate! Farmers, Food and Agriculture, NAFTA, Worker Rights and Jobs

By Lois Ross for Rabble. Have you ever wondered what would happen if you called the bully's bluff? As Liberal members of Parliament return to their seats in the House of Commons, they need to consider the sometimes-veiled opportunities that political bullying provides. Are you listening, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland? More than 20 years ago, I was someone who campaigned and organized against the passage of both the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). I was devastated, like many others, when both passed, first the FTA and then later NAFTA, enabled by the Liberals, and supported over the years by various shades of Conservatives.

Harvest Like Our Ancestors: The Resistance Is Fertile

September 26, 2017 Ruth Hopkins, www.indiancountrymedianetwork.com Create! Food and Agriculture, Indigenous Peoples, Sovereignty

By Ruth Hopkins for Indian Country Today - It’s time for the harvest. Traditionally, the Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) are hunter gatherers. For generations, our children have gotten excited when the chokecherries turn black, because that meant they were ripe for picking. Buffaloberries and wild plums are ready when the chokecherries are. Wild strawberries and raspberries were ready a month previous, along with wild onions; prairie turnips (timpsila) were picked two months before that. The berries and plums can be eaten fresh picked, and are made into jams and jellies. Wojapiis a delicious dessert made from honey or sugar and berries, usually chokecherries. Chokecherries mixed with kidney fat and dried meat are also used to make wasna, ceremonial food. My father, who is a wild game hunter, loves pemmican. We gather first. Hunting will come in another month’s time. It’s time to pick medicine too. The prairie sage is tall. We start collecting sage and sweetgrass ahead of sundance, but we continue to collect enough to last us through the winter, which is well into March in the Dakotas. Do not pull them out by the root, and leave an offering along with a prayer of thanks for your bounty. There are many other Native plants that can be harvested and dried for medicine, like yarrow and purple coneflower. If you’ve never used these wild medicines before, I caution you against doing so unless you’re under the guidance of an elder, medicine person, or ethnobotanist. We like to pick from designated areas as well, as some plants have been exposed to manmade pollution and aren’t suitable for consumption.

A New Generation Of Small Farmers Is Emerging In Atlanta

September 25, 2017 K. Rashid Nuri, www.huffingtonpost.com Create! Atlanta, Food and Agriculture, Urban Farming

By K. Rashid Nuri for The Huffington Post - A political democracy is worthless without an economic democracy. What we have in America, with its 1-10 percent minority in control of 95 percent of the wealth, is closer to an economic monarchy. The fundamental necessities of food, clothing and shelter are largely controlled by business and government interests that are far removed from the people who depend upon them. A community that can’t feed itself is vulnerable to the whims of others. America’s large consumer economy was built at the expense of personal and community autonomy. Few of us can truly decide what we want for dinner, based on what nature offers and the work that we are willing to do to get it. Millions of Americans are learning that the convenience of letting someone else feed us has resulted in widespread side effects: dangerous chemicals in our food, poor nutrition, chronic diseases and damage to the environment. Urban agriculture can change the food landscape and put the power to choose back in the hands of the people. The solution is in the soil close to where people live. For most of human history, food was produced within walking distance of where it was consumed, allowing people to maintain a direct connection with the land and their food. America was 95 percent rural in 1900. Today, 81 percent of Americans live in metropolitan areas.

Top Scientist: Widespread Pesticide Use Is Not Safe

September 23, 2017 Damian Carrington, www.theguardian.com Educate! Food and Agriculture, Pesticides, Science

By Damian Carrington for The Guardian - The assumption by regulators around the world that it is safe to use pesticides at industrial scales across landscapes is false, according to a chief scientific adviser to the UK government. The lack of any limit on the total amount of pesticides used and the virtual absence of monitoring of their effects in the environment means it can take years for the impacts to become apparent, say Prof Ian Boyd and his colleague Alice Milner in a new article. The damning assessment of pesticide regulations that are meant to protect the global environment follows a growing number of highly critical reports including research showing farmers could slash their pesticide use without losses and a UN report that denounced the “myth” that pesticides are necessary to feed the world. “The current assumption underlying pesticide regulation – that chemicals that pass a battery of tests in the laboratory or in field trials are environmentally benign when they are used at industrial scales – is false,” state the scientists in their article published in the journal Science. Boyd is chief scientific adviser to the UK’s Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, where Milner also works on secondment, but their criticism reflects their own views. “The effects of dosing whole landscapes with chemicals have been largely ignored by regulatory systems,” the scientists said.

Food Companies Fail to Protect Environmental Activists in Supply Chains

September 17, 2017 Benjamin Dangl, www.towardfreedom.com Resist! Food and Agriculture, Human Rghts, Palm Oil, Rainforest

By Benjamin Dangl for Toward Freedom. Industrial farming of food ingredients such as soy and palm oil, for example, have led to massive deforestation and displacement of rural communities in Indonesia, Brazil, Colombia, and elsewhere throughout the globe. Activists standing up against such industries in defense of forests, rivers, land, and the livelihoods of local communities have been threatened and murdered at an increased rate in recent years. Four environmental activists were murdered each week in 2016 for defending their communities and environment from the impacts of agribusiness, mining, and logging industries, according to a report from the human rights organization Global Witness. In Colombia, activists standing up against the impacts of El Cerrejón, Latin America’s largest open-pit mine, have faced regular threats and violence. Jakeline Romero has organized against the water shortages and displacement caused by this mine, which is owned by Glencore, BHP Billiton, and Anglo-American. “They threaten you so you will shut up,” Romero told Global Witness. “I can’t shut up. I can’t stay silent faced with all that is happening to my people. We are fighting for our lands, for our water, for our lives.”

Solar And Agriculture Can Be Complementary

August 30, 2017 Elizabeth Ouzts, www.southeastenergynews.com Create! Food and Agriculture, New Economy, Solar Energy

By Elizabeth Ouzts for SEN - On a 120-acre farm in Biscoe, North Carolina, near the edge of the Uwharrie National Forest, a flock of hair sheep takes shelter from the summer sun beneath a row of solar panels. Grazing on grasses, clover, and flowering weeds, a chorus of lamb bleats urgently between bites. Ewes nudge their young and blink dispassionately at onlookers. Raised without antibiotics or growth hormones, ultimately the disheveled-looking creatures – their fur characteristically patchy – will end up at a Charlotte farm-to-table restaurant 70 miles away, perhaps in the form of salami or fennel and garlic spiced burgers. For now, they provide a valuable service to O2 emc – the Cornelius-based company that owns this solar installation – by preventing weeds that could block sunlight and decrease the panels’ efficiency. “What we’re trying to do is put agriculture and solar right next to each other,” says Brock Phillips of Sun-Raised Farms, who owns and manages the sheep. “It can be quite symbiotic if implemented correctly.”

Arkansas Farmers Join Cooperatives to Make Small Farming Possible

August 25, 2017 Staff, www.foodtank.com Create! Agrticulture, Cooperatives, Farmers, Food and Agriculture, New Economy, Worker Cooperatives

By Staff for the Food Tank. In addition to providing fresh produce and meat for families in Arkansas, New South Produce Cooperative and Grassroots Farmer’s Cooperative supply financial and agricultural support for their member farms. Based in Little Rock and Clinton, respectively, these farmer-owned and operated co-ops connect members to distribution networks, provide technical assistance, and help small farmers raise capital as a collective. New South Produce Cooperative and Grassroots Farmer’s Cooperative are providing small farmers with the tools they need to keep their small farms up and running. The farmers in these cooperatives have been able to expand their businesses and reach a wider network of consumers thanks to the cooperative business model.

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