A3. Agroecology

The research report is based on study involving 150 surveys and 80 in-depth interviews with families, prioritizing the participation of women and diverse rural and Indigenous populations.

The post Argentina: MNCI Somos Tierra presents its research report on “Rural Women, Care and Climate Crisis” appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.

Can Conflict Drive a Transition to Sustainable Packaging?

As the war in Iran continues and oil prices stay high, plastic prices are soaring. That’s becoming a problem in China, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, which consume roughly a third of the world’s plastics. According to OECD data, their plastic use has increased from 17 million tonnes in 1990 to 152 million tonnes in 2022.

With the material so expensive, countries are worried the material will become far less accessible. In Tokyo, for example, wholesalers are already warning that there may be a shortage of plastic trays and bags. That’s driving a search for alternatives. 

In Malaysia, one dairy producer has temporarily switched from plastic containers to paper-based milk cartons. And in South Korea, packaging firms have seen a spike in demand for paper tubes and pouches. 

As more companies pivot, analysts are wondering if the shift to more sustainable options can be sustained in the long-term, ultimately reducing our reliance on plastics.

2025 Floods May Have Affected 3.3 Million Jobs in Pakistan

New estimates from the International Labor Organisation (ILO) show that around 3.3 million jobs may have been affected by the 2025 floods in Pakistan, which led to more than 1,000 deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands of people. 

Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London says the country is a “hotspot for increases in extreme rainfall” and it’s “undoubtedly on the front line of climate change.”

The ILO finds that the agriculture sector was hit the hardest, with rural communities bearing the brunt of the impacts. 

While provincial compensation measures helped with some of the most immediate needs, the Organization is calling for more comprehensive support to restore livelihoods in affected areas. This includes cash-for-work programs, skill-training, and subsidized credit which can help households restart their farms as well and other income-generating activities.

Women Fishers Challenge Taboos in Kenya

As told by Al Jazeera, women in Kisumul Kenya near Lake Victoria are defying gender norms.

Traditionally, women in the region worked as fishmongers, while fishing was reserved solely for men. These gender roles stem from deep seated beliefs held by members of Lake Victoria communities. But in the early 2000s, Rhoda Ongoche Akech realized that her income was dwindling and selling fish was no longer enough to support her family. Something needed to change.

One day, women from a neighboring county arrived in Akech’s village and she watched, surprised, as they went fishing. Even though it was a novel sight, it pushed Akech to learn how to fish herself. While those around Akech warned her that women didn’t belong on the water, she insisted on continuing because she knew her family depended on the income.

She spent 16 years as the only fisherwoman in her village. Then in 2018, Faith Awuor Ang’awo braved the social stigma and joined Akech on the water. In the years that followed a few more women joined the pair.

According to village elder William Okedo the taboo preventing women from fishing has broken down and attitudes among male fishers have shifted as well. But systemic hurdles still remain. Susan Claire, acting director of fisheries and blue economy for Kisumu County, refuses to officially recognize the work that women fishers are doing even though it’s the same as their male counterparts.

While the climate crisis and declining fish stocks pose additional challenges, Akech and her team are still making enough of a living on the water. And for now, they’re still fishing. 

President Trump Pushes for Cuts to WIC

For the second year in the row, President Trump is pushing to cut benefits for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

His fiscal year 2027 budget calls for a reduction in the fruit and vegetable component of WIC. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that it could take away US$1.4 billion in benefits from 5.4 million parents and young children. 

Under the proposed plan, monthly benefits for toddlers and preschoolers would drop from US$26 to US$10. Benefits for pregnant and non-breastfeeding postpartum mothers would fall from US$47 to US$13. And benefits for breastfeeding mothers would drop from US$52 to US$13. 

For the last three decades, presidents and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have fully funded the program to ensure that eligible families receive their full benefits because they understand how critical it is. WIC provides nutritious foods, counseling on healthy eating, breastfeeding support, and health care referrals to almost 7 million low-income expecting and postpartum people, infants, and young children at nutritional risk.

Anti-Immigration Bills Fail to Gain Traction

A new analysis from the Washington Post finds that of the roughly 200 bills targeting immigration communities across the country fewer than two dozen have made it into law so far.

One bill in Utah would have prevented undocumented pregnant mothers from accessing public assistance for food. Another bill in Idaho would have forced employers to use the government’s E-Verify system to keep undocumented people from securing jobs.In Tennessee, a third would have limited undocumented students’ access to education.

More than 80 measures like these have died, some were vetoed, and several have made little progress in states’ legislative spring season. Businesses and religious groups, alongside other advocates, have helped to stop these bills from moving forward, recognizing that the attacks only harm their communities.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Kabiur Rahman Riyad, Unsplash

The post Food Tank’s Weekly News Roundup: Kenyan Women Defy Gender Norms, President Trump Calls for Cuts to WIC, Anti-Immigration Policies Fail appeared first on Food Tank.

The Pentagon has requested more than US$200 billion to expand the war with Iran. Meanwhile, only two in five young Americans meet basic eligibility requirements for service, with poor health, often tied to diet, among the leading disqualifiers. To invest in national security requires investing in universal nutritional security.

Tens of millions of Americans struggle to consistently access healthy food. Diet-related diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension now drive approximately 85 percent of U.S. healthcare spending. For roughly the same cost as expanding the war with Iran, the United States could make a generational investment in nutrition security—and build the nation’s strength, resilience, and well-being through healthy food.

Policy must move beyond short term food aid and prioritize system design. Providing access to healthy food, integrating it into every aspect of the healthcare system, and building infrastructure to process and deliver healthy food represent a three-pronged strategy to build long-term nutritional security.

First, access. Today’s unhealthy food system results not simply from individual choices but policy choices that limit access. Expanding support to fully cover the cost of a nutritious diet through Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) healthy fruit and vegetable incentives —paired with universal healthy school meals—would reduce food insecurity and create a stable baseline of demand for healthier foods.

The evidence shows clear benefits. A U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) pilot program that provided Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) families with a 30-cent-on-the-dollar fruit and vegetable incentive resulted in a 26 percent increase in fruit and vegetable consumption. A study of more than 23,000 SNAP participants found healthy incentives improved key health outcomes.

Second, health care. Medically tailored meals and produce prescriptions reduce hospitalizations and overall costs for patients with chronic disease. Yet these programs remain small and inconsistently funded. Integrating nutrition into standard reimbursements through Medicare, Medicaid and private insurers would shift the system from treating disease to preventing it.

Food as medicine programs, when supporting local farm ecosystems, also drive economic growth. According to The Rockefeller Foundation, supporting local farmers through food is medicine programming would provide more than US$45 billion in annual economic benefits. Underlying all this research is a simple point: food is medicine, and food systems must be better designed to produce and deliver the medicine where it’s needed most. That is not just better care; it is a more efficient use of public dollars.

Third, infrastructure and production. The current food system excels at producing and distributing shelf-stable, highly processed foods. It is far less effective at producing and moving fresh, nutritious food at scale. That is not a failure of farmers. It is the result of policies that support factory farms and feedlots over family farms growing nourishing food. Strategic investment in regional processing, cold storage and distribution, paired with support for farmers transitioning to fruits, vegetables and diversified crops, would make healthy food more available and more affordable.

These three pillars reinforce one another. When families can afford healthy food, demand rises. When health systems and institutions commit to purchasing it, markets stabilize. When infrastructure and farms can meet that demand, accessibility improves. Over time, the system starts to sustain itself.

This is what security looks like when it is built, not just defended. The U.S. faces real threats and military readiness matters. But security is not a single line item in the federal budget. It is the product of a society’s overall resilience: its health, its economic stability, and its capacity to withstand shocks. Our fragile, unhealthy food system supply chains fail each of these priorities. We don’t need to wait for another COVID-19 sized failure to recognize the system fails Americans every day.

Economist Paul Collier once wrote that “war is development in reverse” pointing to the immense poverty and hunger in war-torn regions. The same consequences occur in countries who choose to fund war instead of feeding their people.

Congress will debate whether this war is worth the cost. It should also ask a parallel question: What would it look like to invest at the same scale in preventing the diet-related disease crisis that kills Americans every day and undermines our nation’s health and strength?

The U.S has demonstrated that it can mobilize hundreds of billions of dollars when it decides something is urgent. The challenge now is deciding whether the long-term health and resilience of the American people qualifies.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy Unsplash

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In Portugal, peasants have won important victories enshrined in the April Revolution and in the Constitution of the Republic through constant struggle over the last hundred years.

The post 17 April | Portugal: The April Constitution and the Struggles for Peasants’ Rights appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

2.5% of landowners concentrate 85% of agricultural land, while more than 300,000 peasant families live without land or with insecure tenure.

The post 17 April | Paraguay: On International Peasant Struggles Day, Social Movements Spotlight Land Inequality appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Protein is having a moment with good reason. It is a fundamental building block of life, shaping muscle strength, metabolism, and overall health. Beyond its role in muscle synthesis, proteins give rise to bioactive peptides that are being explored for their potential to influence diverse biological pathways, including those related to satiety and metabolic regulation, such as GLP-1 signaling.

At the same time, how we produce protein has profound implications for the planet. From agricultural systems to processing methods, protein sits at the intersection of human and ecosystem health. I walked into the 2nd Protein Summit expecting to hear talks and panels centered exactly on this. While health and sustainability were certainly key drivers of the conversation, it kept circling back to something more experiential—taste. 

Food enterprises have long understood the power of taste. They have cultivated for it in fields and formulas by sometimes sourcing the most delicious ingredients from regenerative farms and sometimes by optimizing for fat, salt, and sugar in ways that drive overconsumption and contribute to poor health outcomes.

The conversation here felt different. We’re amid a value-based and health-based global protein transition, reshaping what we produce, how we produce it, and how we deliver it at scale for the health of people and planet. Tyler Lorenzen, CEO of Puris, stated it clearly: Taste is the on-ramp to healthier habits. As a former NFL player, a target market for performance nutrition, he deeply understands protein foods for muscle synthesis. Yes, leucine may be the key amino acid for muscle growth, but muscles can’t tell where amino acids come from. People, not muscles, choose foods and they choose for taste. More than 80 percent of Americans are estimated to prioritize taste when making food choices. 

Food enterprises across the protein spectrum from regenerative beef ranchers to fermentation, insect, plant-based, and blue food innovators are converging on this realization: We cannot compromise on taste, convenience, or affordability if we want health and sustainability solutions to scale.

Beneath this transition sits a deeper scientific question: How do we ensure protein quality, and can we make it delicious? For decades, protein has been measured through total protein that we see at the back of a nutrition label. More recently the dialogue has expanded to amino acids and digestibility. Yet these measures do not fully capture protein quality, defined by the diversity and interactions of proteins with the food matrix, human physiology, and the environment, including: biomolecular diversity, including bioactive peptides; food matrix interactions that influence digestion and function; functional properties that shape texture, stability, and nutrient release; bioavailability, digestibility, and metabolism; and biological responses across pathways such as muscle synthesis, inflammation, and gut health.

Critically, proteins shape taste. Peptides contribute to flavor including umami. Interactions within the food matrix determine how flavors are released and perceived over time.

The next frontier of protein is moving from crude measures to high-resolution data that drives desirability in our psyches and mouths, and functionality in our bodies. The Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI) maps food molecular diversity, revealing how protein quality, and more broadly how food quality varies across crops, environments, and production methods.

A recent study led by PTFI Center of Excellence Javeriana University and the Future Seeds gene bank makes this clear across bean varieties. Beans are often treated as uniform protein sources, valued for accessibility, soil-enhancing properties, and low ecological footprint. This study reveals that different bean varieties carry distinct protein and enzyme profiles, and links to metabolic pathways that influence ecological resilience, nutrition, health, and taste.

This points toward a new way forward. There is no single best protein. There is a landscape of protein diversity that meets each of our values, desires, and microbiomes. Within this diversity is the potential to design foods that deliver on function and flavor with precision. And this knowledge must translate into food environments where the most desirable protein choice is healthy, affordable, and culturally relevant.

This is where new AI tools bridge the gap upstream, removing the burden from the consumer. Heritable Agriculture uses AI to design and breed healthier, more resilient crops. PTFI’s Swap It Smart tool led by the American Heart Association in collaboration with UC Davis and funded by a Bezos Earth Fund AI Grand Challenges Award uses AI to optimize meal quality across ecological sustainability, nutrition, health, affordability, and taste. In parallel, advances in sensory modeling, including efforts led by NECTAR, are predicting how molecules translate into flavor. Together, these efforts move us toward shaping desirable food systems grounded in data.

We must start with what we want to experience. We can build food systems where place-based biodiversity is celebrated, protein is understood in its complexity, and where the foods that enable us to thrive are the foods we crave and can access. The future of protein is delicious. 

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Shayda Torabi, Unsplash

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The guest blog by Michael Happ of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) below provides an overview of what...

The post USDA’s new Regenerative Agriculture Initiative: A step forward or greenwashing? appeared first on CalCAN - California Climate & Agriculture Network.

On June 25, Food Tank, Google Cloud, and the U.N. Environment Programme are hosting the 3rd annual Food Tank London Climate Action Week Summit at Google London.

Building on the success of our 2024 and 2025 programming, the event will bring together more than 180 CEOs, CSOs, Founders, and Impact Officers from leading food and agriculture brands during London Climate Action Week to discuss the solutions they can advance to shape the future of sustainable food systems. Check back here for more details about the program as they become available!

To request an invitation, suggest a speaker, or explore partnership opportunities, please reach out to Food Tank’s Events Director Kenzie Wade at kenzie@foodtank.com.

The post Join Food Tank at London Climate Action Week appeared first on Food Tank.

The North American Marine Alliance (NAMA) is pushing back against corporate control of fisheries to build vibrant, community-driven blue food systems.

There is a tendency to separate aquatic and terrestrial food systems, but Niaz Dorry, Coordinating Director for NAMA, sees the same trends shaping the two. 

“What has affected the world’s ability to feed itself and communities in a sovereign way to feed themselves, is we’ve taken land away and commodified it,” Dorry says. “We’ve taken fishing rights away and commodified it. We’ve taken seeds away and commodified it. We’ve now taken the water column away and commodified it.”

Increasing consolidation is posing additional challenges, affecting both farmed and wild fisheries. “Our food is being dominated by these industrial operations,” says Dorry, who worries about the companies like Cargill and ConAgra that are moving into the aquaculture sector. 

This results in seafood and land-based agriculture systems that are designed for those “who can produce the most at the lowest cost of production to feed global economies of scale,” Dorry says. And that doesn’t bode well for the health and wellness of communities. “Thos are two completely different priorities,” she states.  

But NAMA believes it doesn’t have to stay this way. “The world was fully capable and is fully capable of feeding itself…Let’s give people their seeds back. Let’s give people their land back, their fishing rights back,” Dorry tells Food Tank. “Let’s recreate that regional food system in order to feed ourselves and not make anything other than feeding ourselves good food inevitable.”

The organization is a steering committee member of the Don’t Cage Our Oceans campaign, which is fighting against the threat of offshore industrial fish farming in the United States. 

They also convene the Catch Share Reform Coalition, which advocates for policies that center the priorities of small fishers. Through the Community-Supported Fisheries model that NAMA helped develop, they are working to empower local fishers to help them receive more for their catch while increasing local and regional access to seafood. 

“We need to really, truly have a democratic system that is creating policies that are…for the people, by the people.”

Listen to the full conversation with Niaz Dorry on Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg to hear more how NAMA is pushing back against corporate control of the world’s fisheries, why diversifying the seafood we eat offers a way to honor the gifts of the ocean, and what is needed to best support the next generation of fishers.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of NOAA, Unsplash

The post Fighting Corporate Control of Fisheries: NAMA’s Vision for Blue Food Systems appeared first on Food Tank.

This article is part of Food Tank’s primer series, “Food Tank Explains.” Each installment unpacks the ideas, innovations, and challenges shaping today’s food and agriculture systems, offering clear insights into complex topics. To explore more articles in the series, click here.

Food sovereignty is the right of peoples, communities, and countries to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through socially just, ecologically sound, and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own policies, strategies, and systems for food production, distribution, and consumption.

While food security names the destination, food sovereignty defines a democratic path to reach it. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), food security is a condition in which everyone has reliable access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food.

Food sovereignty accepts that objective but shifts the focus to power and governance, arguing that achieving lasting food security requires placing decision-making in the hands of the people who produce, distribute, and consume food, rather than markets or dominant governments.

Food sovereignty emerged in the 1980s and 1990s as a response and challenge to the social, economic, and environmental consequences of globalization and industrialized agriculture. 44 percent of the world’s population was living in extreme poverty in 1981, and the number of hungry people grew by 15 million between 1970 and 1980, even as surplus food flooded global markets.

Mechanization of agricultural tasks like sowing seeds, harvesting crops, milking cows greatly reduced and sometimes eliminated the need for human and animal labor, leaving many without jobs. The share of the U.S. workforce employed in agriculture fell from 41 percent in 1900 to 2 percent by 2000, and between 1950 and 1997 the average farm more than doubled in size while nearly half of farms disappeared.

The 1980s marked a sharp increase in global temperatures and, in 1988, NASA scientist James Hansen told Congress he was “99 percent sure” that global warming was upon us. Indigenous, rural, peasant, and small-scale farming communities were left facing overlapping crises of poverty, environmental degradation, and hunger.

Recognizing urgent necessity for an organized, collective, and internationalist response, La Via Campesina coined the term food sovereignty at the 1996 World Food Summit. A decade later, 700 delegates from five continents gathered at the 2007 International Forum for Food Sovereignty in Nyéléni, Mali to further deepen collective understanding on the topic, developing the six pillars of food sovereignty.

The framework centers food as a human need rather than a commodity, supports sustainable livelihoods for food providers, and localizes food systems and shortens the distance between producers and consumers. It places decision-making power in the hands of local communities, builds on traditional knowledge strengthened by research, and works with nature instead of industrial, energy-intensive models.

During Canada’s subsequent People’s Food Policy process, members of the Indigenous Circle added a seventh pillar, which states that “food is sacred,” asserting that food is a gift of life and must not be reduced to a commodity.

Nearly three decades after La Via Campesina introduced food sovereignty, the hunger, poverty, ecological degradation, and concentrated market power it sought to confront persist. Today’s industrial food system generates record levels of calories, yet nearly one-third of the global population remains food insecure. Food systems contribute up to one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions, and agriculture threatens more than 80 percent of species at risk of extinction.

Corporate consolidation has deepened across the food system, with four firms controlling nearly 70 percent of the global pesticide and seed market. And small-scale and family farmers comprise over 98 percent of farms, but control just 53 percent of agricultural land.

Beyond codifying the right to food and control over food systems, and recognizing the contribution of indigenous peoples, pastoralists, forest dwellers, workers and fishers to the food system, food sovereignty offers a framework to address the harms of industrial agriculture.

By localizing production and prioritizing agroecological methods, food sovereignty can shorten supply chains and reduce emissions while restoring soil health and biodiversity. Research also finds that food sovereignty–based approaches, such as strengthening school food systems, improving soil fertility, advancing gender equity, and confronting structural racism, can support long-term health equity.

Scaling food sovereignty requires structural reforms that confront concentrated power and expand equitable access to land. IPES emphasizes the need to democratize governance and counter corporate control of the food system through stronger conflict-of-interest safeguards, revitalized antitrust enforcement to reduce market concentration, and stricter transparency and lobbying rules.

Others like the National Young Farmers Coalition call for eliminating inequities in land ownership, protecting farmland, securing affordable land tenure, and supporting farm viability and transition.

“If people don’t control the food, they don’t control the power,” Morgan Ody, General Coordinator for La Via Campesina, tells Food Tank.

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Earth Day is this week, on Wednesday, April 22. From my vantage point, two of the most impactful forces shaping the health of our planet are converging—the climate crisis and urbanization—and it’s up to us whether it’ll be a cataclysmic collision or a chance to collaborate on change.

We’ve just lived through the three hottest years ever on record: 2023, ‘24, and ‘25. Ocean temps were higher than ever last year. And the global population is not only growing but getting more dense: According to United Nations data, close to 70 percent of the world’s population will live in cities by 2030.

What does this mean? In my view, this cements the power—and the responsibility!—of local food and ag systems to lead the charge toward more sustainability and climate resilience on a global scale.

“With bold investments and good planning and design, cities offer immense opportunities to slash greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the effects of climate change, and sustainably support urban populations,” says António Guterres, Secretary-General of the U.N.

Through efforts like the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP)—signed by more than 330 cities worldwide—local leaders can share knowledge and experiences in strengthening equitable food systems. Earlier this year, I had the honor of emceeing a MUFPP Regional Forum, and the collective food system power we have in each of our communities is electric and unbelievably inspiring.

Already, so many municipalities and local governments and advocates are stepping up to the plate, which is amazing to see and learn from. This Earth Day, I want to highlight some success stories that are turning cities into sites of big-picture transformation:

On the subject of procurement: Last year, Seoul, South Korea launched a new Climate-Friendly Meal Service initiative to expand nutrition education for students and improve the sustainability of food grown for the country’s universal school meals.

“Because school meals are universal and publicly funded, they embody social equity, while simultaneously shaping demand for eco-friendly and local agricultural products,” says Seulgi Son, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Yonsei University.

New York City is prioritizing plant-based meals in public institutions such as schools, where students participate in Meatless Mondays and have “plant-powered” options, and hospitals, where vegetarian options are default. In just the first year of this transition, the city reported a 36 percent reduction in carbon emissions!

When it comes to fighting food waste: Milan, Italy, has launched an award-winning food waste hub model to help the country halve food waste by 2030 by facilitating food recovery and distribution, and each of five hubs within the model have recovered the equivalent of over 260,000 meals per year.

Or, take Baltimore, where the Baltimore Zero Waste Coalition is dedicated to promoting waste diversion practices that minimize landfill or incineration use and maximize recovery work through education, collaboration, and advocacy. Meanwhile, the city is also focusing on better managing the waste that does occur. The city’s Department of Public Works adopted a 10-Year Solid Waste Management Plan in 2024, aimed at increasing organics recycling and promoting backyard and community composting.

And cities can also vitally support farmers and food production: In Brazil, São Paulo’s Connect the Dots program brings together urban buyers for organic produce, helps train the family farms growing those crops in more sustainable practices, and safeguards farms and forests from urban development.

In Xochimilco, in Mexico City, researchers, farmers, and government entities have partnered to create a sustainable certification program that has helped to restore 40+ floating farms, protect endangered axolotls, and connect producers to premium markets while improving local livelihoods.

And across the world in Kenya, we’re seeing action on the county level, too. Several Kenyan counties have adopted policies to expand agroecological production and help farmers access markets.

As U.N. Habitat analysts write, “While the overlapping challenges of environmental stress and rapid urbanization are uniquely daunting, it is precisely this intersection that makes urban climate action so opportune.”

If cities or other local governments where you live are taking bold action on food systems and climate, share their stories. And if your city is not doing its part, then it’s time for us as citizen eaters to use Earth Day as an opportunity to push for change! Reach out to your local elected officials and community advocates this week to share these success stories from other cities. And do reach out to me via email too, to let me know how Food Tank can use our resources to help.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The post Earth Day Is Global—But We Know Food and Climate Solutions Start Locally appeared first on Food Tank.

Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.

Development Aid Plummeted in 2025

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), preliminary data show that last year, ODA from member countries and associates of the Development Assistance Committee fell by nearly a quarter compared to 2024.

This is the largest decline in foreign aid in history and it marks the second consecutive year that ODA has fallen. According to the OECD, this means that development assistance is back to where it was when the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was first released.

The United States alone drove the majority of the decline, where ODA fell by nearly 60 percent compared to 2024. Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, and France are also responsible. Together with the U.S. these countries accounted for more than 95 percent of the total decline in ODA. Bilateral aid—financial assistance given from one government to another—and U.N. funding have been hit the hardest.

Carsten Staur, DAC Chair at the OECD says that the world is seeing the exact opposite of what it needs, stating, “We are in a time of increasing humanitarian needs; strong pressures on the poorest and most fragile countries; and facing growing global uncertainties and massive insecurity. In this situation, the world needs more ODA, not less.”

Low Staffing at USDA Slows Progress on Regenerative Agriculture

Politico reports that staffing cuts in the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) have left farmers with little to no support as they try to transition to more regenerative practices.

The NRCS has lost more than 2,500 workers—over a fifth of its staff across the country. That’s the second-highest number of any branch at the USDA, which has suffered more than many government agencies. According to an analysis from Inside Climate News, the entire federal government saw a 12 percent reduction in its workforce since President Trump took office, but the USDA lost 21 percent of its staff.

The shortage at NRCS means fewer program applicants, fewer approvals, and more payment delays for conservation work. Gabe Averson, a beef and grain producer in Minnesota, described his local NRCS office as “a ghost town.” And when talking about an employee in his region’s NRCS office, he said they are “spread so thin that they can’t even think straight.”

Other farmers say that they have had to wait weeks to receive basic information on farming practices and grant programs, which has impeded their ability to move forward with conservation projects on their land.

At the end of last year, the USDA announced a US$700 million pilot program to scale regenerative agriculture. At the time, advocates such as Sarah Starman of Friends of the Earth expressed concern that the program can only be effective if the USDA reverses their cuts to conservation staff.

Now producers like Averson, who is a member of the pilot, see why. He says that he has been waiting three or four months “just to get the basic information” about it.

Rwanda’s Capital Takes Steps to Protect Farmland, Scale Urban Agriculture

The city of Kigali is taking steps to protect farmland from development, the Associated Press reports.

Land data from the mayor’s office reveal that the city plans to dedicate 22 percent of land to agriculture. In September, the government began mapping agricultural land and they soon plan to deploy drones for real-time monitoring as they track any developments encroaching on farmland and forests.

Authorities say that they understand that housing construction is attractive, but projects show “farming will be even more productive,” especially at a time when demand for food is rising and the country’s population is growing.

To encourage local production, city developers are also requiring that developers seeking building permits, include green spaces and gardens in their designs.

Richard Bucyana, an agronomist, says that he wants to see African governments “start thinking how they can be self-sustainable.” He and other young agronomists are training farmers to embrace technologies like hydroponics to get around limited land access and maximize productivity.

Bangladesh Launches New Scheme to Boost Agricultural Productivity for Small Farmers 

This week, the Banladeshi government launched a “Farmers’ Card” scheme, which is designed to support the country’s farmers and help modernize the agricultural sector. The initiative is focused on small farmers, including sharecroppers who often lack access to banks or other forms of institutional support.

During the official launch event Prime Minister Tarique Rahman said, “If farmers of this country are well-off, if the ​farmers of this country survive, then the whole of Bangladesh will do ​well and the people of entire Bangladesh will live well.”

Developed with guidance from the Ministry of Agriculture and in collaboration with Sonali Bank PLC, the card integrates identification with digital payment capabilities, helping farmers access government services and benefits more efficiently, according to a press release.

Those registered in the program will receive access to subsidized fertilizers and seeds, agricultural machinery, low-interest loans, crop insurance, and advisory services.

Shawkat Ali Khan, Managing Director and CEO of Sonali Bank PLC says that the initiative is “strengthening how financial support is delivered to farmers across Bangladesh.”

The scheme is beginning with a pilot project that includes more than 22,000 farmers. It will then be rolled out in phases over the next five years. By the end, the government hopes to reach all 27.5 million farmers in the country.

U.S. Makes Progress on Food Waste

ReFED’s 2026 U.S. Food Waste Report reveals that in 2024, total surplus food decreased to 70 million tons, representing a 2.2 percent reduction from 2023 levels. That’s equal to a 3.7 percent decrease per capita.

ReFED finds that households are helping to drive this progress. Residential food waste fell by nearly 950,000 tons. This is the first year-to-year reduction in food waste since there was a dip during the COVID-19 pandemic, which the organization calls “a significant milestone in the movement to reduce food waste.”

At a time when eaters are looking for ways to stretch their dollars, Dana Gunders, President of ReFED says, “this is an opportune moment to focus on wasting less food…The wind is at our backs, and it’s time to step on the gas.”

ReFED’s report also digs into the food waste solutions that are working — like centralized composting and smaller portion sizes — and why they’re so impactful. It also outlines opportunities such as legislation and AI that can be unlocked to drive progress even further.

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Photo courtesy of Kabiur Rahman Riyad, Unsplash

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On April 8, dairy producers and advocates from CalCAN and the California Dairy Campaign met with more than twenty legislative offices...

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I want to share some good news about the state of food waste in the United States: According to a new report from ReFED, total surplus food dropped by 2.2 percent between 2023 and 2024, including a 950,000-ton reduction in residential food waste. For me, this is a clear sign of the power of citizen eaters to help steer the global food system!

But we still have a long way to go. The total value of surplus food in 2024 was about US$380 billion, meaning consumers still spend an average of US$762 per person per year on food they ultimately waste—and reducing food waste remains a key solution to a variety of climate and food equity challenges.

This month, Food Tank is co-hosting the 10th Annual Stop Food Waste Day Celebration, with Compass Group and Envision Charlotte, on April 29th at Innovation Barn in Charlotte, North Carolina. I hope you’ll join us as we reflect on the progress we’ve made and continue to strategize for the future!

You can CLICK HERE to find out more about the event, which will be a wonderful day of live music, important conversations, delicious food, and interactive experiences. And if you’re in Charlotte, just email Food Tank’s Events Director Kenzie Wade at kenzie@foodtank.com to request a ticket.

No matter where you live, though, Stop Food Waste Day is a global day of action—so you can join us via livestream as well HERE.

Speakers for this year’s Stop Food Waste Day include Amy Aussieker, Envision Charlotte; Richard Armenia, Feeding Charlotte; Michiel Bakker, Culinary Institute of America; Eliza Blank, Farmlink; Palmer Brown, Compass Group; Cate Brinley, Youth Changemaker; Chris Ivens-Brown, Compass Group; Chayil Johnson, Community Matters Cafe; Chef Sam Kass, Acre Venture Partners and Trove; Amy Keister, Compass Group; Riley Nelson, NASCAR; Kris Steele, Crown Town Compost; Harry Tannenbaum, Mill; Alyssa Wilen, Alyssa’s Kitchen, and Eleanor Zhang, Youth Changemaker; plus a very special surprise musical guest!

“My grandma would always remind me not to waste food, (but) it wasn’t just about the food itself,” Amy Keister, Global Director of Sustainability for Compass Group, told us at Stop Food Waste Day last year. “It was about respect for resources, respect for the folks who grow the food, and an understanding of how interconnected we all are.”

Throughout the afternoon, we’ll celebrate the people, ideas, and innovations helping to reduce food waste and build a better food system—one that keeps good food in our kitchens and communities, instead of in landfills. We’ll hear from producers and youth storytellers who are shaping the next generation of the movement, and we’ll conclude with a delicious reception to help us connect and keep building momentum.

Once again, you can CLICK HERE to grab your tickets to join us starting at 2PM ET on Wednesday, April 29.

As I mentioned—and as the data proves—citizen eaters at the household level have tremendous power to drive real change when it comes to food waste reduction, and I want to hear stories of how you and your communities are helping to bring value back into all parts of the food system!

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently canceled a US$300 million grant program designed to support underserved producers across the United States.

In 2023, the USDA selected grantee projects across 40 states and territories to expand land ownership opportunities for marginalized farmers under the Increasing Land, Capital, and Market Access (ILCMA) Program. Many of these efforts also offered agricultural training, promoted sustainable production practices, and helped farmers connect to markets.

In late March, the agency issued termination letters to 49 of the 50 projects. Farm Service Agency Associate Administrator Steven Peterson called the grants “discriminatory.” And the USDA claimed “most of the awards did little to improve land access” and that there was “excessive spending on outreach and technical assistance.” 

But the projects were hardly allowed to move forward, says Amanda Koehler, Manager of the Land, Capital, and Market Access Network, an independent group that brings together awardees and sub-awardees of the grant program.

“They froze the funding for four months. They cut off communication with awardees,” Koehler tells Food Tank. She says that program officers were trying to purchase land or create mini-grants for producers, but the required pre-approvals from officials never came. “The USDA really undermined this program and made it really challenging for these projects to do what they were designed to do.”

The kind of support that the ILCMA Program offered, however, is crucial to sustaining the agriculture sector, according to the National Young Farmers Coalition. USDA data show that the average age of farmers in the U.S. is on the rise and nearing 60.

The issue isn’t that young people don’t want to farm, Koehler says. It’s that the infrastructure doesn’t exist as they try to enter the sector. “We have a very fragile farm and food system right now, one that young people do want to be a part of, but we have so many barriers against us.”

Land access is the biggest challenges, but consolidation in the agriculture sector, student loan debt, and the rising cost of healthcare and housing are also holding back young and young and beginning farmers. The burden of these obstacles is particularly felt by Black farmers, who make up less than 2 percent of producers today.

But farmers are increasingly speaking out and sharing their stories, helping policmakers see the realities that they face. And Koehler is made optimistic by the solidarity she sees in her own community. The urgency is great, she says, and time is running out, but change is possible.

“Even if we don’t make progress in the next year or two, we will make progress on this in the long run,” Koehler tells Food Tank. “I am hopeful that we can right the ship.”

Listen to or watch the full conversation with Amanda Koehler on “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg” to hear more about the challenges stacked against new and beginning farmers, the land transition that’s needed to support them, and hopes for the next Farm Bill and future agriculture policies.

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Photo courtesy of USDA

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This article is part of Food Tank’s primer series, “Food Tank Explains.” Each installment unpacks the ideas, innovations, and challenges shaping today’s food and agriculture systems, offering clear insights into complex topics. To explore more articles in the series, click here.

Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) are products constructed from industrially produced ingredients and substances that are typically not available for home cooking. UPFs are designed to be hyperpalatable, conveniently accessible, and highly profitable, and include a wide range of commonplace items from soft drinks, chips, and packaged bread to jarred sauces, cereals, and ice cream.

Over the past century, traditional dietary patterns centered on minimally processed foods have gradually given way to diets dominated by ultra-processed items. UPFs make up around 75 percent of the U.S. food supply and more than half of the calories consumed by adults in high-income countries. Among children, and households with lower income and education levels, the rates are higher.

The rise of UPFs is displacing unprocessed or minimally processing foods and long-established dietary patterns, driving the rise of multiple diet-related chronic diseases globally.

Food processing has existed throughout human history. Global communities froze foods to prolong storage times, fermented foods with salt to improve nutrition, and preserved foods in honey or sugar to create new tastes and textures. Unlike historically processed foods, ultra-processed products are not simply altered whole ingredients but are manufactured from refined components and additives.

NOVA, the most widely used food classification system, does not define UPFs as food, but as industrial formulations. UPFs are composed primarily of chemically modified and industrially produced ingredients generally unavailable in home kitchens, like protein isolates or concentrates, hydrogenated fat, and modified starches.

They typically contain additives to enhance taste, texture, appearance, and preservatives to extend shelf-lives and undergo processing techniques that leave the final products bearing little resemblance to the original ingredients.

The ingredients and processes used to manufacture ultra-processed foods make them highly convenient and appealing, but often low in nutritional quality and liable to be over-consumed. UPFs are typically high in added sugars, sodium, modified starches, and saturated fat, and low in fiber, micronutrients, and phytochemicals.

UPFs are designed to be exceptionally appealing to the human palate, and their composition can stimulate the brain’s reward system and overrides satiety signals, making it difficult to stop eating. A study published in Cell Metabolism compared the effects of consuming two nutritionally similar diets differing only in their degree of processing. Participants assigned to an ultra-processed diet ate about 500 more calories per day and gained about 2 pounds more than those on the unprocessed diet.

Ultra-processed foods are associated with worse diet quality and a long and growing list of adverse health outcomes. Multiple studies link greater exposure to ultra-processed food with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, colorectal cancer, and anxiety and depression, demonstrating adverse outcomes across nearly all organ systems.

Food processing is not inherently dangerous, and certain processing methods offer clear benefits. Pasteurization improves food safety and processes like freezing and canning can reduce food waste. Fortified foods, like milk with added vitamin D to aid calcium absorption or cereal enriched with fiber, can improve nutrition and address deficiencies. And some processed foods like whole-grain brain, yogurt, and baked beans are associated with a reduced risk of chronic disease like diabetes and obesity.

Consumers should limit UPFs in their diets, but also understand that there is nuance, says Dr. David Seres, director of medical nutrition and professor of medicine in the Institute of Human Nutrition at Columbia University Medical Center.

Most global policies aimed at reversing the rise of UPFs worldwide have focused on reducing consumption of foods high in added fats, sugar, and sodium, many of which are UPFs. But public health experts have called for stronger and broader policies that provide clear dietary guidance and health objectives, warning labels, and consumer education.

And Marion Nestle, Professor Emerita at New York University, highlights the need for legal authority to regulate television and social media advertising, retail product placements, sales and service in schools, and other promotions directed toward children. UPF marketing, Nestle says, “must be stopped.”

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Photo courtesy of Nico Smit

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In 1946, more than half the world’s population faced hunger. Today, this figure has fallen dramatically—to 8 percent—even as the global population has tripled. Progress the past 20 years has been significant with, for example, Cambodia bringing its hunger levels down from 25 percent in 2000 to 5 percent in 2025.

Unfortunately, progress has not only stalled—it has reversed in some regions. At the same time, we are facing colossal health and environmental problems worldwide because of an approach used to end hunger that focused heavily on a few staple crops: wheat, rice and corn. Today, one out of three people in the world suffer from malnutrition with overweight and obesity rates skyrocketing. An estimated 20 percent of global mortality is now attributed to poor-quality diets.

This is further compounded by an affordability crisis. Healthy diets remain economically out of reach for most people living in low- and middle-income countries, estimated to cost US$4.50 per day (global mean) while 45 percent of the global population lives below US$6.85 a day, and 10 percent lives below US$3.00 a day. Poverty and a lack of access to healthy diets go hand in hand.

These results are not accidental. They reflect decades of policy choices that promote the production and marketing of staple and oilseed crops through price incentives, procurement measures and subsidies. These policies have subsidies overwhelmingly favor staple foods and limited incentives for farmers to diversify their production systems.

The problem is not a lack of calories. It is a lack of diverse foods needed for healthy diets, the discrepancies between where food is produced and where it is consumed, and the inability of vulnerable populations to afford healthy food options. This is the hunger problem we face today.

But this problem can be fixed. Agriculture remains the first line of defense against hunger and malnutrition. Investing in nutrition-sensitive agriculture ensures that these systems deliver not just more food, but more healthy food. This needs to be driven by a multi-sector approach with co-investments in health, education, as well as water, sanitation, and hygiene alongside agriculture and food systems.

A new report published by researchers from CABI, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Shamba Centre for Food & Climate, shows how we can integrate nutrition into current agriculture and food aid programs. It identifies 10 high-impact nutrition-sensitive interventions based on a review of scientific evidence spanning 1,732 individual studies across 83 countries and published in 52 high quality systematic reviews over the past 20 years.

According to the report, we first need to enhance household-level food production to increase the availability of nutrient-dense foods. We do not produce enough fruits, vegetables, and pulses for everyone to be able to access and afford them. And while we produce enough proteins, they remain over-consumed in some places and under-consumed in others. We need to support those that do not produce enough animal source foods to sustainably increase the production of aquaculture and poultry—two animal-source foods that can be relatively cheap, relatively low-emissions, and high in nutrients.

Second, we need to focus on improving access, efficiency, and safety within agriculture and food systems. Infrastructure is lacking—from storage and processing to roads and electricity—to preserve nutritious food for longer, get the missing micronutrients to consumers and ensure that food is safe to eat. This is particularly important when considering fresh fruits and vegetables as well as animal-sourced proteins.

And we need to address consumer choice. As we start to produce and market healthy food options, consumers need to be accompanied and understand the change in their food environment. We need to directly shift and influence diet choices at the household level.

Every intervention brings trade-offs. Poorly designed interventions and policies can reinforce existing inequities. For example, infrastructure investments could uphold the exclusion of marginalized groups. Food safety reforms can unintentionally push small-scale out of formal markets. At the household level, power dynamics can influence who consumes nutrient-dense foods. Environmental sustainability is also key. For this reason, production should focus on agroforestry and diversification towards fruit and vegetables to enhance resilience while improving diets.

The evidence makes clear that single interventions rarely work on their own. We have learned that outcomes and design matter. In practice, this means combining multiple interventions together to reduce costs and enhance effectiveness and being intentional in nutrition objectives. School meals, for example, may be more effective at improving education outcomes than nutrition outcomes. But when designed with nutrition objectives and using local procurement, they can also enhance children’s diet quality and dietary diversity, particularly in low-income countries.

Unfortunately, all too often, agriculture and food security projects omit the integration of nutrition objectives. The report found that 80 percent of agriculture and food security aid projects screened with the OECD nutrition policy marker did not target nutrition—only 20 percent of projects included significant or principal nutrition objectives. Better integration of nutrition objectives in agriculture and food security aid projects is quickly achievable.

We also need to accelerate the nascent blended finance strategies and get better at using aid to catalyze much larger resource flows from the domestic public and private sectors. And let’s make sure that our economies work well so that all producers have the opportunity to thrive.

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