Food and Agriculture

Prisoners Are A Hidden Workforce Linked To Popular Food Brands

February 3, 2024 Margie Mason and Robin McDowell, New York Amsterdam News. Educate! Big Ag, Criminal Justice and Prisons, Food and Agriculture, Prison Labor, Slavery, Wages, Worker Rights

Angola, LA - A hidden path to America’s dinner tables begins here, at an unlikely source – a former Southern slave plantation that is now the country’s largest maximum-security prison. Unmarked trucks packed with prison-raised cattle roll out of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, where men are sentenced to hard labor and forced to work, for pennies an hour or sometimes nothing at all. After rumbling down a country road to an auction house, the cows are bought by a local rancher and then followed by The Associated Press another 600 miles to a Texas slaughterhouse that feeds into the supply chains of giants like McDonald’s, Walmart and Cargill.

Why Fair Trade Produce Labels Are Bogus

January 16, 2024 Anna Canning and James Daria, Labor Notes. Educate! Fair Trade, Farmworkers, Food and Agriculture, Worker Rights and Jobs

Any U.S. consumer walking down the supermarket aisle will find berries, tomatoes, and other vegetables that are labeled “responsibly grown,” “farmworker-assured,” and “fair-trade certified.” But behind the labels, the Mexican workers who harvest these fruits and vegetables live and labor in conditions they call “twenty-first century slavery.” We interviewed 200 workers for our new report “Certified Exploitation: How Equitable Food Initiative and Fair Trade USA Fail to Protect Farmworkers in the Mexican Produce Industry.” They detailed widespread wage theft, sexual harassment, rampant retaliation, and, in the most extreme cases, forced labor.

Carbon Farming: A Sustainable Agriculture Technique

January 14, 2024 John J. Berger, Resilience.org. Create! Carbon sequestration, climate crisis, Farming, Food and Agriculture

What if there were a way to safely pull billions of tons of carbon out of the atmosphere to substantially reduce or even eliminate global warming? What if this approach costs relatively little and could be used around the world? What if it also put billions of dollars in cash into the hands of countless working Americans and people worldwide? What if it even slashed fossil fuel consumption and made the world more resilient to climate stress? Well, it turns out there is a system that can do all that. It’s called carbon farming, and it just might be key to restabilizing the climate. In the process, it can revitalize rural economies while also producing healthier, more nutritious crops. And amazingly, it’s also low-cost, low-tech, and low-risk.

Deregulation Is Turning Oklahoma Into A Factory Farm Sacrifice Zone

January 2, 2024 Ben Felder, In These Times. Educate! Deregulation, Factory Farms, Food and Agriculture, Oklahoma, sacrifice zone

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.”

Sustainable Food Systems Need Intergenerational Cooperation

January 2, 2024 KatrĪNa Idū, Resilience. Strategize! Food and Agriculture, Multigenerational, Sustainability

“There is a growing fear of insecurity about food in our societies. We fear losing control of what we will be able to eat in the future. But we also see many local initiatives across Europe working on new food systems. However, to be honest, real change is coming too slowly. One important reason seems to be an absence of exchange, understanding and trust between generations. Elders tend to hold on to their habits, the younger generation wants to try out and take risks. We need to overcome that gap in order to move on to common action on our farming and food systems of the future. We work for a new intergenerational agreement. Food must come back to the centre of our lives”, says Katrina Idu (age 33), President of Forum Synergies, a partner organisation of ARC2020.

War In Sudan Engulfs Agricultural Heartland Amid Record Hunger

January 1, 2024 Pavan Kulkarni, People's Dispatch. Educate! Food and Agriculture, Hunger, Sudan, Wars and Militarism, World Food Program

Agricultural production has come to a halt in Sudan’s breadbasket, Gezira. This is at a time when hunger in the war-torn country is at the highest level ever recorded during the harvest season between October and February, with nearly 40% of the population facing “acute hunger.” The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) are on the retreat after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) stormed across Gezira last week, disrupting harvest in this State which produces half of all the wheat grown in Sudan. Farmers are too terrified to return to their fields, and have in some areas “gone so far as to flood canals and sacrifice their harvest in order to make it difficult for RSF to enter,” said Jamal (name changed), spokesperson of the Resistance Committees (RC) in Hasahisa city.

Animal Pharma Industry Resists Curbing Overuse Of Antibiotics

December 23, 2023 Michaela Herrmann and Clare Carlile, DeSmog. Educate! Animals, antibiotics, Food and Agriculture, Health Care

Two years after landmark European Union legislation designed to curb the overuse of antibiotics on farms came into force, new analysis from DeSmog reveals eight key narratives the veterinary medicine and farming lobbies deploy to defend the billion-dollar market for the drugs. Aiming to combat the emergence of deadly treatment-resistant bacteria in humans, known in medical jargon as “antimicrobial resistance,” or AMR, the new rules are the world’s most rigorous legislation governing farm antibiotics. The regulations banned the “routine” use of antibiotics on farms for whole herds of healthy animals, including outlawing the practice of using antibiotics to compensate for illnesses caused by poor animal welfare and hygiene.

At COP28, Family Farmers Who Feed The World Went Unheard

December 19, 2023 Ibrahima Hathie, DeSmog. Educate! Big Ag, COP28, Farmers, Food and Agriculture

In the run-up to this year’s COP28 summit in Dubai, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres railed against the scourge of global hunger and climate devastation fuelled by farming. “Global food systems are broken, and billions of people are paying the price,” he said – and he was right. Our food system is responsible for a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, yet fails to feed the world, with a tenth of humanity experiencing hunger. For years, this issue has been sidelined at climate summits, but at COP28 it was catapulted to centre stage, with an entire day of the agenda dedicated to food and agriculture.

Big Meat And Dairy Delegates Triple At COP28

December 9, 2023 Rachel Sherrington, Clare Carlile and Hazel Healy, DeSmog. Educate! Big Ag, climate crisis, COP28, Corporatism, Farmers, Food and Agriculture, Lobbyists

Dubai, United Arab Emirates - Lobbyists from industrial agriculture companies and trade groups have turned out in record numbers at COP28, which this year has a strong focus on tackling emissions from the food sector. Attendees are present from some of the world’s largest agribusiness firms – such as meatpacker JBS, fertiliser giant Nutrien, food giant Nestlé and pesticide firm Bayer – and powerful industry trade groups. Meat and dairy interests are especially well represented with 120 delegates in Dubai, triple the number that attended COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. Overall the analysis of the delegates list by DeSmog shows that the total number of people representing the interests of agribusiness has more than doubled since 2022 to reach 340.

COP28: Seven Food And Agriculture Innovations To Protect The Climate

December 4, 2023 Paul Winters, Scheer Post. Create! Carbon emissions, COP28, Food and Agriculture, Hunger

For the first time ever, food and agriculture took center stage at the annual United Nations climate conference in 2023. More than 130 countries signed a declaration on Dec. 1, committing to make their food systems – everything from production to consumption – a focal point in national strategies to address climate change. The declaration is thin on concrete actions to adapt to climate change and reduce emissions, but it draws attention to a crucial issue. The global food supply is increasingly facing disruptions from extreme heat and storms. It is also a major contributor to climate change, responsible for one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions from human activities.

Big Meat Unveils Battle Plans For COP28

November 29, 2023 Rachel Sherrington, DeSmog. Educate! Big Ag, climate crisis, COP28, Food and Agriculture, Meat

Major meat companies and industry lobby groups are planning a large presence at COP28 in a few days time, equipped with a communications plan to get a pro-meat message heard by policymakers throughout the summit, DeSmog can reveal. Documents seen by DeSmog and the Guardian show that the meat industry is poised to “tell its story and tell it well” in the lead up and during the Dubai conference, which comes on the heels of the world’s hottest ever year. The files relate how the world’s largest meat company, JBS, is planning to come out in “full force” at the summit, along with other big industry hitters such as the Global Dairy Platform and the North American Meat Institute.

This Thanksgiving, Consider The Wellbeing Of Family Farmers

November 24, 2023 Tommy Enright, Wisconsin Examiner. Educate! Congress, Family Farms, Farm Bill, Farmers, Food and Agriculture, Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving, families across America are gathering around tables to enjoy the season’s bounty. Yet, behind the scenes, a complex web of challenges threatens the agricultural foundation of this tradition. The recent one-year extension of the 2018 Farm Bill by Congress has brought temporary relief, but the call for a new, comprehensive five-year farm bill echoes loudly. Wisconsin Farmers Union is raising its voice, emphasizing the urgent need to address issues plaguing family farmers and the agricultural sector as a whole. Gratitude for the bipartisan support in extending the 2018 Farm Bill is tempered by a pressing reality: the long-term stability of family farmers still hinges on a new, five-year farm bill.

The Policy Paradoxes Of Underutilised Crops

November 14, 2023 Radiant Project Staff, Resilience. Create! Food and Agriculture, Monocrops, Seeds

Why do nearly 50% of our calories come from the same three crops: wheat, rice, and maize? What led to such a homogenisation of our diets? Underutilised crops (UCs) or forgotten crops are less common species, landraces, cultivars, or heritage varieties whose use, production, and consumption is currently limited. Despite their current depreciation, they boast a long history of cultivation in many parts of the world and hold great nutritional and environmental promise for the future of our food systems. What role for policy and a value chain approach which considers access to seeds, the ecological aspects of agricultural production, the power positions of stakeholders, the nutritional value of food, and food security and sovereignty?

New Report Issues Damning Verdict On Food’s Fossil Fuel Addiction

November 2, 2023 Clare Carlile, DeSmog. Educate! climate crisis, Food and Agriculture, Fossil Fuel, Plastics

Food systems are responsible for at least 15 percent of all global fossil fuel consumption, according to a major report launched ahead of the COP28 climate summit. The analysis shows that the production, transport, and storage of food are driving greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of the EU and Russia combined. Ultra processed foods like snacks, drinks and ready meals, along with chemical fertilisers made from natural gas, are singled out as major sources of pollution. Published today (Thursday), the research comes weeks before global leaders gather in Dubai to discuss ways to limit catastrophic global heating.

How Do You Buy Groceries When There’s No Grocery Store?

October 29, 2023 Kennedy Smith, ILSR.org. Create! Food and Agriculture, Food Deserts, Food Security, Grocery Stores

When a new mobile grocery market launched in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, its first stop was Maple City Apartments, a 40-unit complex for low-income, elderly relatives. Maple City’s residents have felt the region’s lack of grocery stores acutely. The nearest full-service grocery store is at least five miles away,[1] which leaves few options for people who don’t have access to a car or good public transit. But the County’s residents can now buy groceries from a farmers market on wheels. It started when the Cooperage Project, a regional nonprofit organization, wanted to get fresh, healthy food to people during the pandemic, rather than having them settle for the shelf-stable, highly processed options that chain dollar stores offer.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

assetto corsa mods

Daily movement news and resources