Food and Agriculture

Lessons In Freedom: Agroecology, Localisation And Food Sovereignty

July 1, 2023 Colin Todhunter, Dissident Voice. Create! Agroecology, Cuba, Food and Agriculture, Food Sovereignty

Industry figures and scientists claim pesticide use and GMOs are necessary in ‘modern agriculture’. But this is not the case: there is now sufficient evidence to suggest otherwise. It is simply not necessary to have our bodies contaminated with toxic agrochemicals, regardless of how much global agribusiness firms try to reassure us that they are present in ‘safe’ levels. There is also the industry-promoted narrative that if you question the need for synthetic pesticides or GMOs in ‘modern agriculture’, you are somehow ignorant or even ‘anti-science’. This is again not true. What does ‘modern agriculture’ even mean?

Big Dairy Is Milking California Dry

June 22, 2023 Ian Whitaker, In These Times. Resist! California, Dairy, Environment, Food and Agriculture

Planada, Calif. — Rita Rodriguez had prepared everything for her 57th birthday, a backyard family cookout with wine, hot dogs, popcorn, kebabs and a projector to watch Pete’s Dragon under the stars. Then came the smell of manure. “It just hits and you can’t really do anything about it,” Rodriguez says, recalling how they were forced to move inside because of the industrial Hillcrest Dairy nearby. “It was just so toxic that we couldn’t sit out there.” When Hillcrest Dairy arrived in Merced County in 2002 — originally permitted for a herd of 3,885 cows — lifelong residents Rita and husband David thought nothing of it. By 2012, though, the number of cows had more than doubled.

US ‘Exports Obesity’

June 21, 2023 Timothy A. Wise, Consortium News. Educate! Food and Agriculture, GMOs, health, Mexico, Trade, US Imperialism

The U.S. government has escalated its conflict with Mexico over that country’s restrictions on genetically modified corn, initiating the formal dispute-resolution process under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. It is only the latest in a decades-long U.S. assault on Mexico’s food sovereignty using the blunt instrument of a trade agreement that has inundated Mexico with cheap corn, wheat, and other staples, undermining Mexico’s ability to produce its own food. With the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador showing no signs of backing down, the conflict may well test the extent to which a major exporter can use a trade agreement to force a sovereign nation to abandon measures it deems necessary to protect public health and the environment.

Five Facts About Producer Organizations And Rural Development

June 18, 2023 Jorge Sellare, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Educate! Food and Agriculture, Markets, Poverty, rural communities

Producer organizations (POs) receive substantial attention and policy support, given their potential to contribute to pro-poor rural development. Here, we first synthesize decades of empirical research in the form of five stylized facts—common and largely unchallenged conclusions—about POs. Then, we explore these stylized facts using several secondary and primary data sets. We confirm some stylized facts, challenge others, and highlight which ones lack empirical evidence to derive policy implications and directions for future research. We highlight largely overlooked low and regionally biased participation rates and suggest that future research should pay more attention to the diverse forms and characteristics of POs.

California’s ‘Local Food Producers’ Hope New Label Will Boost Support

June 13, 2023 Naoki Nitta, Modern Farmer. Create! California, Farming, Food and Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, Local Economy

Despite offices being closed, Sundays are the busiest day of the week at the Marin County Civic Center. Located half an hour north of San Francisco—and within a couple of hundred miles of California’s many agricultural regions, including the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and the North and Central coasts—the Sunday Marin Farmers Market is the third largest among the state’s 655 open-air greenmarkets. On busy weekends, crowds of locavores routinely swell to 15,000. “Customers come from all over,” says Gha Xiong, owner of Xiong Farm. He’s one of nearly 150 regional farmers, ranchers and food purveyors who set up Sunday shop in the sprawling parking lot, in clear view of the Prairie-style dome and spire designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

For Argentina’s Small Farmers, Land Is Predictable But Markets Are Not

June 9, 2023 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Educate! Argentina, Drought, Food and Agriculture, Land Reform

Thirty years ago, in my economics textbook in India, the section on international trade referred to Argentina. It would be better, according to the textbook, for Argentina to concentrate on the production and export of beef, while Germany should direct its resources towards the production of electronics. This example was used to illustrate Adam Smith’s ‘absolute advantage’ principle – countries should focus on what they do ‘best’, rather than diversify their economies. It seemed churlish to me, that developing countries such as Argentina should only produce raw materials, while wealthy countries such as Germany went ahead with technological development.

From Bayanihan To Talkoot

May 30, 2023 Jeffrey Andreoni, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Organize! Community, Food and Agriculture, Infrastructure, Mutual Aid

For all of human history, societies have depended on communal work to sustain themselves into the (often unpredictable) future. However, at a certain point, that all changed. Market forces took over, and communal projects ceased to have the same significance. The individual took precedence over the community, and large public works became the purview of burgeoning states. The classic North American example of such communal work projects is the Amish tradition of barn-raising, wherein the community gathers to help a neighbor erect their barn without remuneration or any expectation of reciprocity because, as we’ll see, these acts of generosity benefited everyone, not just the barn owner.

Britain’s Broken Food System

May 27, 2023 Red Pepper. Organize! Food and Agriculture, Inflation, United Kingdom (UK), Worker Rights and Jobs

Multimillionaire food-writer Jamie Oliver has some advice for the one in five households, including 9.3 million adults and 4 million children currently experiencing food insecurity in the UK: check out his £1 Wonder website for ‘thrifty tips, helpful hacks and delicious recipes that won’t blow the budget’. Mind you, the energy costs are not included, access to white goods like a freezer is assumed, and you will need to put aside 2 hours and 40 minutes to cook your spag-bol. Even the BBC are at it with a page on their website dedicated to £1 meals. Like many other personalised responses to the spiraling cost-of-living crisis focused entirely on money-saving frugality, Oliver and the BBC miss the bigger picture behind food inequality across the country.

The Transition Care Farm With Room For All

May 27, 2023 Chris McCartney, Resilience. Create! Education, Farming, Food and Agriculture, Transition Town

It all started with four people from a small Transition group and a derelict former farm site. Four people, an old farm, and an idea to grow a bit of food, maybe teach local kids about nature. Today, Greenslate community-run farm is a hive of community activity, with hundreds of people visiting, volunteering and learning each month. It’s home to rescue and heritage animals, a social enterprise cafe, drug recovery service, a community project incubator, a men’s shed and Rhiannon Jones, one of those founding four Transitioners and today, project co-ordinator who lives on the bustling site.

A GreenStar For All

May 24, 2023 Emma Karnes, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Create! Cooperatives, Equity, Food and Agriculture, Grocery Coop

In my hometown of Ithaca, New York, GreenStar has been, for many, a symbol and a center of ethical food retail since its birth in the early 1970s. When its Bylaws were first written in 1971, the GreenStar operation consisted of Ithaca volunteers driving the 56 miles to Syracuse and back every Saturday morning, transporting healthy and local farm food which they pre-ordered and distributed to community members at just 5% wholesale mark-up. Today, the consumer-owned grocery cooperative boasts three stores across the city, servicing 12,000 member-owners and thousands of non-members who are also free to shop.

The Movement To Stop Dollar Stores From Suffocating Black Communities

May 23, 2023 Aallyah Wright, Next City. Resist! Black America, Dollar Store, Food and Agriculture, Food Insecurity

For years, the Rev. Donald Perryman wondered why the formerly thriving Black downtown of Toledo, Ohio, couldn’t get a grocery store. His suspicions were confirmed after a city study found in 2020 that the opening of new Dollar General stores drove other companies out of business, deterring potential grocers from investing there. He, along with a group of ministers, knew that in order to get a supermarket, they had to stop new chain dollar stores from plaguing their communities. They made great strides when the Toledo City Council passed a moratorium the same year that required new small-box retail stores to apply for a special-use permit.

Circumventing The Blockade: Pueblo A Pueblo Builds Food Sovereignty

May 19, 2023 Cira Pascual Marquina and Chris Gilbert, Venezuelanalysis.com. Create! Economic Blockade, Food and Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, Venezuela

Pueblo a Pueblo [People to People] is a grassroots plan for organizing the production, distribution, and consumption of food, which connects agricultural producers with urban dwellers. In so doing, the project breaks with the despotic dictates of the capitalist market. In Part I of this three-part piece in the Communal Resistance Series, Pueblo a Pueblo’s spokespeople talk about their organization’s history and its objectives. Here, in Part II, associate producers and spokespeople talk about the “Double Participation Ladder” method and about the impact of the US blockade. Double Participation Ladder The ladder image reflects Pueblo a Pueblo’s method for ensuring that rural producers and urban consumers are linked, thus breaking away from the centrifugal forces of the market.

Food Forests Are Bringing Shade And Sustenance To US Cities

May 18, 2023 Karen A. Spiller and Prakash Kashwan, Next City. Create! Boston, Chicago, climate crisis, Food and Agriculture, Food Forest, Food Security

More than half of all people on Earth live in cities, and that share could reach 70% by 2050. But except for public parks, there aren’t many models for nature conservation that focus on caring for nature in urban areas. One new idea that’s gaining attention is the concept of food forests – essentially, edible parks. These projects, often sited on vacant lots, grow large and small trees, vines, shrubs and plants that produce fruits, nuts and other edible products. Unlike community gardens or urban farms, food forests are designed to mimic ecosystems found in nature, with many vertical layers. They shade and cool the land, protecting soil from erosion and providing habitat for insects, animals, birds and bees.

‘Regenerative Agriculture’ Is All The Rage

May 16, 2023 Anja Bless, Resilience. Strategize! Agroecology, Factory Farming, Food and Agriculture, Regenerative Farming

Decades of industrial agriculture have caused environmental and social damage across the globe. Soils have deteriorated and plant and animal species are disappearing. Landscapes are degraded and small-scale farmers are struggling. It’s little wonder we’re looking for more sustainable and just ways of growing food and fibre. Regenerative agriculture is one alternative creating a lot of buzz, especially in rich, industrially developed countries. The term “regenerative agriculture” was coined in the 1970s. It’s generally understood to mean farming that improves, rather than degrades, landscape and ecological processes such as water, nutrient and carbon cycles.

This Food Bank Is Bringing A HelloFresh Approach To Its Pantry

May 16, 2023 Cinnamon Janzer, Next City. Create! Food and Agriculture, Food Banks, health, Wisconsin

The Fritz Food Pantry in Madison prides itself on providing a wide variety of foods and ingredients to accommodate as many diets, allergies and food preferences as possible. Their approach speaks not just to the continuing hunger crisis exacerbated by the pandemic; food pantries like The Fritz have also been shown to have an important influence on the dietary health of their customers. But just because a variety of healthy foods and ingredients are offered doesn’t mean that every visitor has the ability to put recipes together at home. So Abby Warfel, a volunteer turned part-time pantry assistant, had an idea: assembling step-by-step, HelloFresh-inspired meal kits.

«1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 »

Daily movement news and resources