A3. Agroecology

For Paula Swaner Sargetakis, co-owner of Frog Bench Farms in Salt Lake City, Utah, farming began with curiosity. She grew up on her family’s ranch, spending countless hours exploring the natural world. The first time she saw tree frogs, she recalls falling in love with the animals and collecting them in a bucket with leaves, rocks, and water to take home.

“There were no frogs left in the pot by the time we got home, because there was no lid on the pot,” says Sargetakis, joking that “we did have to get rid of that car.” Experiences like this, and generations of family gardeners before her, planted the seeds for what would become a career in farming.

Today, Sargetakis and her husband co-own Frog Bench Farms—a name inspired in part by her lifelong love of frogs. Using regenerative practices adapted to an urban setting, the small, 1.5-acre farm grows produce for local markets, community programs, and 22 restaurants in the Salt Lake City area.

When Sargetakis and her husband searched for land to build a farm, they looked near schools, knowing they wanted their farm to also serve as a classroom to teach students where their food comes from.

“They’re always surprised that there’s a farm right next door,” says Sargetakis. “But there’s joy in it, and they will ask questions, and they learn.”

When children visit, they are sometimes very nervous to taste unfamiliar vegetables like microgreens, she adds. But like in her own childhood, curiosity usually wins, “and most of them like it.”

Alongside education, reducing waste is central to Sargetakis’s work at Frog Bench Farms: “Everything we grow on site, we don’t waste anything.”

The farm donates surplus produce to the University of Utah’s student pantry and the Utah Food Bank. Crops that aren’t sold fresh are made into teas and other value-added products, while visitors learn how to preserve food using affordable tools available at local hardware stores.

That philosophy reflects Sargetakis’ broader understanding of sustainability—not simply protecting natural resources but strengthening local food systems and sharing knowledge. At the farm, she collects water, sources ingredients locally for value-added products whenever possible, and continually looks for ways to keep resources circulating within the community.

Running a small farm, however, comes with difficult financial realities. Frog Bench Farms is committed to paying employees a living wage, even though doing so adds another layer of economic pressure to an already challenging business.

“You don’t make money farming, you make it in other sides of the product,” says Sargetakis.

Sargetakis says diversification, education, and community partnerships make it possible to continue farming while staying true to the farm’s values. Ultimately, though, she hopes more people come to understand what farming truly requires, and why it matters.

“I’m hoping one day… [that] people understand and appreciate the hard work that goes into farming and how much fun we have doing it,” says Sargetakis.

On a small urban farm surrounded by classrooms and city streets, Sargetakis aims to show that agriculture doesn’t need large acreage to make a lasting impact. For her, all it takes is an acre and a half, a handful of curious students, and someone willing to keep getting their hands in the dirt.

This article is part of Food Tank’s ongoing Farmer Friday series, produced in partnership with Niman Ranch, a champion for independent U.S. family farmers. The series highlights the stories of farmers working toward a more sustainable, equitable food system. Niman Ranch partners with over 500 small-scale U.S. family farmers and is committed to preserving rural agricultural communities and their way of life.

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Photo courtesy of Paula Swaner Sargetakis

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In his latest book Abiding Hunger: An American Paradox, author and journalist Roger Thurow asks why hunger persists in the world’s wealthiest country.

“Throughout our history, we’ve abided hunger,” Thurow tells Food Tank. “It’s essentially become part of our national fabric, our national character. We’ve accepted it. We tolerate it. We’ve grown comfortable with it. It’s a stain on our collective conscience.”

The book had been on Thurow’s mind for years. As a foreign correspondent, he spent decades reporting on hunger and famine around the world. But he knew he wanted to report on what was happening at home, in a country that instinctively sweeps the crisis aside.

The United States “deploys the most efficient commercial agriculture system and the most productive farms and farmers the world has ever known,” Thurow writes. Yet the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that nearly 48 million people live in food insecure households. And many of the counties facing the highest levels of hunger lie in regions with the richest soils.

Abiding Hunger explores how this came to be, going back to the starvation endured in colonial Jamestown. From there it looks at how hunger was allowed to persist, from the weaponization of food during the genocide of Indigenous communities to the effects of systemic discrimination Black farmers have faced from the USDA.

The second half of the book brings readers closer to the present, exploring the repercussions of COVID-19.  Thurow then turns to the impacts of the Trump-Vance Administration’s policies and funding cuts, which have deepened the country’s hunger crisis. 

“You can draw a line through all this history through [Hurricane] Katrina, through COVID, through today and see how our history of injustice, inequality, inequity bears today and manifests in this abiding hunger that we have in America,” Thurow tells Food Tank.

Today, lines at food pantries are already longer than ever as millions of families grapple with the recent loss of nutrition assistance benefits. And Thurow worries this is just the beginning.

He argues that this reality should inspire horror, but it should also spur action. And as the midterm elections approach, he sees an opportunity. “It should be that every person who cares about this—and hopefully that’s all of us—doesn’t allow any encounter with a candidate to end without somebody asking: What are you doing about this hunger issue in this country?”

Listen to the full conversation with Roger Thurow on “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg” to hear about the smallholder farmers that bear the brunt of this crisis, the politicization of these issues, and the small family farmers giving him hope.

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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.

Antimicrobials are medicines used to treat infectious diseases caused by microorganisms like bacteria, fungi, viruses and parasites. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when disease-causing microorganisms develop resistance to the medicines designed to treat them. As a result, infections become difficult or impossible to treat, increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness, and death.

Public health agencies and researchers worldwide agree that AMR poses an urgent threat to global health. The World Health Organization (WHO) ranks AMR among the top 10 global public health threats, while the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and researchers writing in The Lancet, Healthcare, Science, and JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance have each warned of its consequences for global health.

An estimated 5 million deaths were associated with drug-resistant infections in 2019, including 1.27 million deaths directly attributable to AMR, according to a Lancet study. The CDC estimates that more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur in the U.S. each year, resulting in more than 35,000 deaths.

AMR also poses a significant threat to global economic stability, according to the Center for Global Development. AMR drives health-care costs largely through longer hospital stays and increased need for intensive care. It can require additional diagnostic testing and reliance on second-line antibiotics. AMR was associated with almost US$700 billion in hospital costs globally in 2019, according to research published in BMJ Global Health.

Researchers warn that the burden of AMR could increase substantially in the coming decades. By 2050, drug-resistant infections could claim 10 million lives each year, while imposing trillions of dollars in economic costs.

AMR can develop through a range of interconnected factors. It can develop naturally as microorganisms adapt to their environments. But according to FAO and research published in JAC-Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare, the primary driver of AMR is antimicrobial use. When exposed to these medicines, susceptible microorganisms may be killed while resistant ones survive and multiply.

Evidence has linked the development and spread of resistance with the misuse and overuse of antimicrobials in human health, animal health, and food production. Meanwhile, global human antibiotic consumption increased by 65 percent between 2000 and 2015. And a Science study found that the proportion of animals carrying resistant bacteria in low- and middle-income countries nearly tripled between 2000 and 2018.

Antimicrobials have played an essential role in agriculture for decades, helping treat diseases in livestock, crops, and aquaculture. But the scale and manner of their use have raised concerns about agriculture’s contribution to AMR.

More than 70 percent of antibiotics worldwide are used in animals raised for food, and resistance in food animals has risen sharply. Part of the concern centers on antimicrobials used for purposes other than treating disease.

Several reports indicate that antimicrobials are used imprudently in agriculture, often being given to healthy animals for growth promotion and prophylactic purposes.

Experts suggest limiting antimicrobial use in food-producing animals when it is not needed to treat disease. WHO has called for restrictions on medically important antibiotics used for growth promotion and routine disease prevention in healthy animals.

FAO recommends reducing the conditions that create demand for these drugs. For example, by improving hygiene, biosecurity, and ventilation animal welfare, reducing crowding and stress, and farming breeds better adapted to local conditions.

Increasingly, experts approach these measures through a One Health approach, which treats human, animal, and environmental health as interconnected. A resistant bacterium that develops in livestock, for example, may spread through manure into soil and water, creating pathways for resistance to move between agricultural systems, animals, and people. Addressing AMR therefore requires coordination across sectors rather than focusing exclusively on antimicrobial use in human medicine or agriculture.

“One-Health is pivotal to combating AMR,” Haileyesus Getahun, Director of Global Coordination for the Joint Secretariat on AMR, tells Food Tank. “No sector or country acting alone can tackle AMR.” The Joint Secretariat—comprising FAO, WHO, the U.N. Environment Programme, and the World Organisation for Animal Health—coordinates international efforts to address AMR across human, animal, and environmental health.

Consumers can also influence antimicrobial demand in agriculture through their food choices. One study co-authored by Ramanan Laxminarayan found that limiting meat consumption to 40 grams per person per day could reduce antimicrobial use in livestock by 66 percent.

His advice to consumers is straightforward: “Don’t purchase meat raised on antibiotics. Reduce consumption of meat. Ask questions about where your food comes from,” Laxminarayan tells Food Tank.

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Sugar Coated, a new book by Marion Nestle and Lisa Sunderland, reveals the influence American cereal companies have on food policy and public health.

Nestle, a nutritionist and Professor Emerita at New York University, has been collecting cereal boxes for years, drawn to the “ridiculous health claims” they once displayed.

Consumer advocacy and government interventions have forced companies to alter their marketing over the years. But Nestle and Sunderland—the former Vice President of Nutrition at Kellogg Company—still see so much reflected in their design.

“The boxes are so big, they’re like billboards,” Nestle tells Food Tank. And because they change so frequently, “they can respond to every health claim in the world.”

Sugar Coated explores these health claims along with the ingredients and marketing strategies that Big Cereal companies have embraced to sell products and cover up their negative health effects. Throughout the book are full-color images of boxes over the years.

Nestle and Sunderland trace the history of cereal back to what they call its “bizarre start” in the 1860s, when early breakfast cereals emerged from health reform movements that promoted bland, grain-based foods as a path to better physical—and even moral—health. From there, they follow cereal’s evolution into a highly marketed staple and the public health debates that continue today. A section on color additives likely wouldn’t have existed if U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. hadn’t taken up the issue, Nestle explains.

Companies have worked hard to entice eaters from an early age—an important tactic for the sector and one they’re particularly good at, Sugar Coated shows. “The Big Four cereal companies were among the first to target marketing directly to young children,” the authors write.

When did it become okay to feed kids vitamin-supplemented cookies for breakfast, “which is basically what kids’ cereals are?” Nestle asks.

Cartoon characters, toys, and prizes have been used to draw children to sugary breakfast foods. For a time, toys disappeared in response to concern from eaters, but now they’re back,  Nestle says. “It’s time for [advocates] to get busy again.”

But these efforts must go beyond plastic prizes, Nestle says, arguing that nothing substantive will change until corporations hold less influence over government. “Get money out of politics.”

Sugar Coated: Unboxing the Hidden Forces Shaping America’s Favorite Breakfast Food is now available from the University of California Press.

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Glyphosate is the most common weed killer in the United States. Known as the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup, it’s used so heavily on crops that residues show up in many foods and beverages, including beer. In February, Green America tested five of the most popular beers in the U.S. for glyphosate and aminomethylphosphonic acid (AMPA), a breakdown product of glyphosate. Contamination was detected in every sample, and the highest level measured was 3.33 ng/g (Heineken).

While this concentration is below the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) acceptable levels, even low-level residues matter because pesticide exposure can build up in our bodies over time. Studies have shown that lower-dose, repeated exposures are likely more harmful than acute exposures. Other research has tied glyphosate exposure directly to cancer.

Glyphosate residues in beer alone are concerning because it’s such a popular beverage. However, beer isn’t the only food product that can expose people to glyphosate—it may also be in many other foods and drinks we consume.

Bayer, which acquired Monsanto in 2018, removed glyphosate from its home and garden products after facing tens of thousands of lawsuits filed by farmers and others exposed to glyphosate, claiming that the company didn’t warn them of the potential risk of cancer. One case brought by a farmer who used Roundup for decades and developed non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) is currently being heard by the Supreme Court.

Despite these clear risks, glyphosate is still used in Monsanto’s agricultural or professional products.

And just last year, the major 2000 study that supposedly demonstrated the safety of glyphosate was retracted for being ghost-written by Monsanto scientists. In the “scathing retraction notice,” Martin van den Berg, toxicologist and co–editor-in-chief of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, wrote:

The article’s conclusions regarding the carcinogenicity of glyphosate are solely based on unpublished studies from Monsanto, which have failed to demonstrate tumorigenic potential. The handling (co) Editor-in-Chief also became aware that by the time of writing of this article in the journal, the authors did not include multiple other long-term chronic toxicity and carcinogenicity studies, that were already done at the time of writing their review in 1999.

Naomi Oreskes, a historian of science at Harvard University and best-selling author of Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate Change, said: “My worry is that people will keep citing it.” She and fellow researcher Alexander Kaurov published a report last year finding that over 800 scientific papers cited the retracted Monsanto study since it was published.

In 2019, the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) tested 20 beers and wines, 19 of which contained glyphosate. At the time, critics relied on the U.S. EPA’s approved pesticide levels to argue that the contamination was unlikely to affect human health, and that the costs were outweighed by the benefits of “higher yields, economic gains for farmers and a decrease in other more toxic herbicides.” Quoting an industry spokesperson, one article claimed that “an adult would have to drink more than 140 glasses of wine a day” to ingest a dangerous level of glyphosate.

But the EPA does not fully account for cumulative, long-term exposure, nor the potential effects of chemical mixtures over time. The EPA’s position that glyphosate does not pose harmful risks to human health when used according to label instructions has been the subject of sustained criticism, including documented concerns about regulatory capture and industry influence (e.g. Merchants of Poison).

On average, Americans drink 26.5 gallons of beer per year. That high consumption rate and broad reach mean many people are exposed to a substantial cumulative concentration of pesticides in beer. Furthermore, the U.S. is the number 1 exporter of hops (unless you count the EU as a whole) and the U.S. is the number 7 exporter of barley. Given beer’s popularity, this could potentially harm millions of Americans and beer-drinkers worldwide, and pesticides used on beer crops could expose growers, farmworkers, beer producers, local communities, and the environment to toxic pesticides as well.

Many cities, states, and countries have banned glyphosate or are in the process of banning or restricting it, and most health advocates argue that all exposure to pesticides should be minimized. Previous studies have also found that there are many other pesticides besides glyphosate found in beer. Beyond Pesticides found 58 pesticides on barley alone, 22 of which are acutely toxic; 53 are linked to chronic health problems, including cancer; 18 contaminate streams or groundwater; and 49 are poisonous to wildlife.

Companies should set supplier standards, test routinely, and move sourcing away from glyphosate-dependent practices as part of an overall plan to reduce and eliminate toxic pesticides in their supply chains. That means setting up clear deadlines to phase out harmful pesticides from supply chains, starting with high-impact ingredients like barley and hops.

Brewers can also partner with growers to adopt integrated pest management (IPM) and expand organic farming practices, set ingredient standards, ensure complete supply chain transparency and support farmers and farmworkers to move away from glyphosate.

Consumers also hold power, and it starts with building awareness. We can all save beer by contacting brands and local breweries to ask where they source barley and wheat from. Do they restrict pre-harvest glyphosate? Do they test for glyphosate and AMPA?

Consumers can also choose for organic beers, which tend to have the lowest levels of glyphosate and are already working to end pesticide use and improve agricultural practices in the supply chain. Unless they are organic, craft beers can have higher levels of glyphosate and other pesticides because they are unfiltered and unpasteurized, so pesticide components aren’t broken down as much.

Believe it or not, we can all force progress by choosing beer that’s produced with more care for our environment and our health. Start by supporting better agriculture and buying from producers using verified organic and regenerative practices that restrict pesticide reliance. Get to know your local craft brewers and let them know how important their ingredient sourcing is to you. Even large-scale brewers tend to offer a line of organic beers, so buying those products can send a message that more organic beer can lead to greater company profits.

Beer lovers who want to make a difference can also get involved by signing on to Green America’s action to halt the use of toxic pesticides in beer production and supporting policy proposals that lower pesticide residue tolerances and require more robust, independent testing.

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Photo courtesy of Amie Johnson, Unsplash

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AFSA is set to open its Continental Convening on Strengthening African Civil Society Climate Action on Food Systems and Agriculture Towards COP31 and COP32, bringing farmers, pastoralists, government officials and policymakers from across the continent together in Addis Ababa

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA — September 7, 2026 — The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), the continent’s largest civil society movement working on food systems, food sovereignty and agroecology, is set to open today its Continental Convening on Strengthening African Civil Society Climate Action on Food Systems and Agriculture Towards COP31 and COP32. Organised by AFSA in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Planning and Development, the three-day gathering runs from September 7 to 9, 2026, at the Inter Luxury Hotel in Addis Ababa, and is shaping up to be one of the continent’s most significant climate convenings this year, bringing together farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolk, indigenous communities, youth and women’s networks, researchers, negotiators, government officials and policymakers from across Africa.

Government officials and policymakers are integral participants in the Convening, not merely guests at its opening. The programme’s official opening features H.E. Dr. Fitsum Assefa, Ethiopia’s Minister for Planning and Development, delivering the official opening address, alongside remarks from H.E. Demeke Mekonnen, Nutrition Ambassador and former Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia. A keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Antwi-Boasiako Amoah, Chair of the African Group of Negotiators (AGN). Government representatives continue to participate alongside civil society throughout the three days, including a dedicated Day Two panel with government representatives on national priorities for COP31 and COP32.

Addis Ababa carries particular weight for this gathering: the city is set to host COP32, bringing the United Nations Climate Change Conference back to African soil once again. This Convening marks the formal start of AFSA’s process to build a unified African position, bringing civil society and government together, ahead of COP31 and laying the groundwork for COP32, developed by the communities already living the climate crisis and advancing the solutions.

Over three days, delegates, government representatives and policymakers will address the issues shaping Africa’s climate future together: adaptation and the Global Goal on Adaptation, climate finance, a Just Transition for the continent, and agriculture’s place within the UNFCCC process. Agroecology will sit at the center of the discussions, reflecting a decade of evidence from across Africa that farmer-led, ecologically grounded food systems are not a fallback option but a credible pathway to cooling the planet, restoring degraded land, and feeding communities with dignity. The Convening builds on AFSA’s Agroecology4Climate Action campaign, running continentally since 2019 under AFSA’s Climate Change and Agroecology Working Group.

“For too long, Africa’s response to the climate crisis has been shaped far from the communities who live it every day. This Convening is Africa defining its own terms of engagement, grounded in the knowledge of the farmers, pastoralists and indigenous communities who are already building the solutions. Agroecology is not a fallback; it is Africa’s most credible pathway to a just and livable future, and it will be at the center of what we carry from Addis Ababa to COP32.”

— Dr. Million Belay, AFSA General Coordinator

“Africa cannot afford another climate process where our voices arrive only after the decisions have been made. Over these three days, we are building a unified continental position, rooted in agroecology and in the lived realities of the people who feed this continent, so that our negotiators walk into COP 31 AND COP32 carrying the mandate of Africa’s own communities.”

— Karen Nekesa, AFSA Climate Change and Agroecology Working Group Chair

The Convening will close with a unified African civil society position and a coordinated roadmap toward COP32. AFSA is inviting media, partners and the public to follow proceedings live across its Social Media Channelschannels on LinkedIn, X, Facebook and YouTube, and to join the conversation using #Agroecology4Climate, #AfricaClimateConvening, #COP31 and #COP32.

About AFSA

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is the largest civil society organisation network on the continent, representing major social movements working on food sovereignty, agroecology and climate justice across Africa. AFSA advocates for agroecology as a viable pathway for climate adaptation, mitigation and a just climate transition for the continent.

Media Contact

Kirubel Tadele, Communications Coordinator, AFSA 
kirubel.tadele@afsafrica.org

A Food is Medicine initiative called the Delta GREENS (Growing a Resilient, Enriching, Equitable, Nourishing food System) Project is connecting local agriculture with clinical healthcare to transform community wellness in the Mississippi Delta.

Administered by Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, the initiative aims to tackle high rates of diet-related chronic illnesses like diabetes and heart disease in one of the nation’s most under-resourced regions. Through produce prescription programs and other community-led interventions, this goal is not only attainable, but necessary.

Approximately 17 percent of Mississippi households faced food insecurity between 2022 and 2024, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“People can’t afford healthy food. A lot of people are impoverished… living check to check,” Charity Bruce Sweet, Director of the Economic Justice Campaign at the Mississippi Center for Justice, tells Food Tank. “A lot of people would rather make sure that they have lights or that they have water, and sometimes that means that they are sacrificing their health and wellness.”

The lack of public transportation infrastructure leaves rural residents geographically isolated, explains Sweet. Generations of systemic segregation and discrimination further restrict access to livable incomes, healthcare, and fresh food.

“Realistically, it’s so hard when it’s based in systems that are not built to help people,” Sweet says.

Rebuilding local food access requires reshaping a regional supply chain dominated by industrial commodity farming. “Most of the land is tied up in cotton and soy and other commodity products that are grown to a large degree in that area,” Christina Economos, Dean of the Friedman School, tells Food Tank.

To overcome this structural hurdle, the Delta GREENS Project targets both ends of the food system simultaneously. On the supply side, the project provides small-scale farmers with the capital needed to cultivate fruits and vegetables locally. It connects study participants to the produce through a year-long produce prescription program that delivers weekly produce boxes alongside nutrition education.

Researchers are also examining if the 12-month intervention creates lasting dietary habits once the program ends. Economos asks, “Once the program is over, do people default back? Or do they figure out how to redistribute their income to stay the course with healthy eating?” She notes that time stress and employment demands make preparing fresh food a daily challenge for working people.

Medicaid Section 1115 demonstration waivers let states pay for services outside conventional medical care, including produce prescriptions and other food-is-medicine programs. Currently, only 13 states have federal approval to do so, according to Tufts University’s Food is Medicine Toolkit. Mississippi is not among them, with no demonstration pending.

States can also cover some nutrition supports through home- and community-based services authorities, but that coverage targets people at risk of institutional care and may be capped at no more than two meals a day. Still, state-level health insurance frameworks remain an important part of food-is-medicine programs not only in Mississippi, but nationwide.

“If you… allow people to have access to healthcare while also working to build infrastructure and give them healthy foods, we can really cut down so many of these diseases,” remarks Sweet.

In the absence of state Medicaid coverage, local non-governmental organizations step in to fill the gaps. Still, providing fresh produce alone does not solve the immediate realities of working families, including time poverty, lack of cooking essentials, or local dietary preferences.

“We’ve got to zoom in and take out all the big picture and think, ‘how do I help Joe and Susie?’” Martha Allen Price, Executive Director of Extra Table, tells Food Tank. “We know half the battle is getting those kids to eat around the dinner table for a mom or dad who’s worked two jobs.”

Extra Table purchases food directly from manufacturers to deliver to pantries across Mississippi, prioritizing shelf-stable, familiar items over perishable produce that requires extensive prep work or goes unused.

“It takes time and effort and spices and knowledge and cooking essentials. And so, our food—it’s always shelf-stable,” Price says, explaining that unfamiliar items like brown rice or black beans are frequently left behind by pantry visitors because they do not fit regional food traditions.

To provide immediate, culturally resonant nutrition, Extra Table developed Extra Full, a shelf-stable red beans and rice meal kit fortified with a custom vitamin mix tailored to Mississippi health statistics.

“In the South, we meet around the table, we meet on the front porches… Food is a hug,” Price says. “And we wanted to create a product, for us, that was a mobile volunteer opportunity [and] got more families around the dinner table.”

Ultimately, building an equitable food system in Mississippi requires both top-down policy research and immediate, ground-level relief—combining legal advocacy for Medicaid-funded food-is-medicine initiatives with practical, culturally tailored community support.

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

Support Relief Efforts in Nepal

More than 1,000 people have died and more than 4,000 are still missing following the devastating flash flood triggered by the collapse of a glacier near the border of Nepal and Tibet. You can help by supporting organizations as they continue their relief efforts. World Central Kitchen is on the ground in Nepal to provide fresh meals to communities. United Nations organizations, including UNICEF, the World Food Programme, and World Health Organization, are mobilizing teams to support the country’s emergency response, distribute food and essential aid, and maintain health services. CARE International preparing emergency supplies including shelter, clean water, and basic hygiene products. And the Nepal Red Cross Society is delivering first aid kits, tents, and mattresses. They have also set up a phone charging station to help people stay connected to loved ones. 

Pacific Island Nations Seek Finance for New Regional Climate Fund

Leaders from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) are looking for support for a new regional fund in the leadup to the 31st U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP31), which will take place in Turkiye this November. The new fund, called the Pacific Resilience Facility (PRF), was launched in May of this year to “serve communities at a community level.”

It is designed to deliver quick, direct disbursements to countries that often struggle to access climate finance, supporting climate adaptation and community capacity building. The fund currently has US$172 million in capital, with just over a third coming from Australia. By the end of the year, they hope to have US$500 million. 

Federal Judge Strikes Down Wage Cut for U.S. Farm Workers

A federal judge ruled last week that wage cuts to seasonal farm workers are unlawful and directed the Department of Labor (DOL) to design a new wage formula. 

Farm worker advocates celebrated the decision, which comes nearly a year after the DOL issued a rule that reduced farm workers wages by US$3-7 per hour. The UFW Foundation criticized the Trump-Vance Administration for creating conditions that are a “recipe for exploitation” that benefited large agricultural corporations.

The DOL must now develop new wage rates consistent with the court’s decision. They must also notify employers that they may be responsible for backpay—something that will be determined once the new rates are set.

EU Announces €15 Million Investment for Afghanistan’s Food Systems

The European Union announced an additional €15 million (US$17.3 million) in funding to support the World Food Programme (WFP) as they work to strengthen food security and climate resilience in Afghanistan.

The funds will advance solutions that improve school feeding programs, boost climate-resilient livelihoods, and help communities sustainably manage natural resources. 

According to WFP, “Afghanistan remains one of the world’s most severe hunger crises” and is experiencing the sharpest surge in malnutrition ever recorded. The United Nations agency welcomes the support, stating it will help create more opportunities for women and young people in this challenging landscape. 

Tanzania Reduces Reliance on Foreign Seed Markets

Tanzania’s Ministry of Agriculture recently announced that up to 81 percent of seeds are now produced domestically. That’s a significant change from 2010, when the majority of commercially available seeds were imported, according to a report published in Gates Open Research. 

The increase in domestic production is helping the country reduce their reliance on foreign markets. Smallholder farmers play a significant role in Tanzania’s seed systems, with more than two-thirds of locally used seeds estimated to come from them—largely through informal systems. 

Groups including the Tanzania Alliance for Biodiversity and PELUM Tanzania are also continuing to promote smallholders’ access to indigenous seed varieties, which advocates say offer greater resilience to pests and climate extremes. 

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 Tim Mossholder, Unsplash

The post Food Tank’s Weekly News Roundup: Relief Efforts in Nepal, a New Regional Climate Fund, Wage Cuts Struck Down appeared first on Food Tank.

There’s no question that, when it comes to the future of food and agriculture, “business as usual” doesn’t work.

At major global events like Climate Week NYC, which coincides with the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, we need to keep the pressure on leaders to act—but we can’t keep having the same conference-room conversations over and over again. We need to show the world that food and ag are key solutions to the climate crisis—but we need to move toward urgent, lifesaving action.

I’m so excited to share the six days of food and agriculture programming that Food Tank and our partners are bringing to New York City during Climate Week NYC, all hosted at WNYC–NPR’s The Greene Space and livestreaming around the world, from September 20–25.

To break out of our routines and break down walls, you’re invited to our “All Things Food and Agriculture” Film Festival. You’re invited to our friend and renowned food expert Marion Nestle’s 90th birthday party. You’re invited to events that place a strong focus on the future, highlighting the next generation of farmers and grappling with educating the next generation of eaters. You’re invited to help us bridge the food movement with the arts, as we invite acclaimed Broadway performers and musicians to raise the emotional stakes.

In short: You’re invited to a series of Food Tank Summits that bring together more than 225 luminary speakers and performers—countless diverse visionaries, creative thinkers, and problem-solvers.

And if you’re unable to join us in person, nearly every event will be livestreamed, with videos immediately posted after the event concludes. You can find livestream links—and a way to set up notifications—via our YouTube page HERE. I’ll also send out reminder emails that include livestream links, so you won’t miss a moment.

Check out our full schedule by scrolling down or CLICKING HERE. 

Our Climate Week events are selling out quickly! If you want to bypass the waitlist on a sold-out event, Food Tank members get access to special promo codes. You can join at FoodTank.com/Join.

There’s no way we could do this alone, so a big thank-you to all our 2026 event co-hosts: American Farmland Trust; Amy’s Kitchen; Arrell Food Institute; Bel US; Bonterra; CARE; CookUnity; Diestel Family Ranch; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Food Planet Prize; Future Food Institute; Global Traceability Framework for Beef and Leather; Groundswell; Halter; Handsome Brook Farms; The Henry Ford; James Beard Foundation; Mill; New York City Mayor’s Office of Food Policy; New York University; Northstar Recycling; NRDC; Once Upon a Farm; Organic Center; Organic Valley; Organic Voices; Pilot Light; RAAPID; Restaurant Technologies; Rockefeller Foundation; Rodale Institute; Stonyfield; Strong Roots; Support + Feed; Kat Taylor, President of TomKat Foundation; United Nations Environment Programme; and Whole Foods Market.

Here’s the lineup, with links to secure your spot:

Sunday, Sept. 20

EVENING: “Putting Farmers First: How Young Farmers are Shaping the Future of Food,” with Whole Foods Market. 6:30PM reception; 7–8:30PM program. Register HERE.

The evening will explore how the next generation of farmers is shaping the future of food, the barriers they continue to face, and the investments, partnerships, and policies needed to ensure they can thrive. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Jason Buechel, Whole Foods Market; Tristen Buettel, Broadway Actor, Singer, and Dancer; Amalia Colón-Nava, Dirtbaby Farm; Cullen Curth, Pianist, Music Director, and Conductor; Emily Grant, Rise and Shine Acres; Michelle Hughes, National Young Farmers Coalition; Sarah Jones, Jones Farms Organic; DeVonne Jackson Perez, Brooklyn-based Urban Farmer and Sustainability Educator; Caitlin Leibert, Whole Foods Market; Brita Lundberg, Lundberg Family Farms; Becca Millstein, Fishwife; Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, Whole Foods Market; Anna Turrell, Mars Snacking; and many more to be announced soon!

Monday, Sept. 21

MORNING: “Solving Food Waste is a Key Solution to the Climate Crisis,” with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Food Planet Prize, NRDC, Restaurant Technologies, CookUnity, and Mill. 9AM breakfast and musical guest; 9:30AM program; 11AM lunch. Register HERE.

The morning will bring together leaders from across the food value chain to explore innovative solutions, successful partnerships, and scalable strategies that are preventing waste before it happens, recovering surplus food, and creating a more circular food system. Confirmed speakers and performers include: María Bengochea, CookUnity; Veleké Brown, E-RoadMap Corporation (Operation No Food Gap); Cullen Curth, New York City-based Pianist; Julie Gehrki, Walmart Foundation; Diana Geseking, Restaurant Technologies; Robert Jones, Culinary Institute of America; Matthew Jozwiak, Rethink; Madeline Keating, NRDC; Martin Krause, UN Environment Programme; Nathan Lucrezio, Broadway Actor; Adalberto Maluf Filho, Brazil’s National Secretary for Urban Environment, Water Resources and Environmental Quality; Emily Norford, Food Planet Prize; Lou Pieh, Mill; Gwyneth Rampton, Compass Group USA; U.S. Representative Andrea Salinas, Oregon’s 6th Congressional District; Tia Schwab, C40 Cities; Jackie Suggitt, Walmart; and many more to be announced soon!

AFTERNOON: “Mission Driven Brands Sustainability Summit.” 1:30PM lunch and musical guest; 2PM program; 3:30PM reception. If you work in this space, register HERE.

This annual event convenes leaders from across the food, retail, and hospitality sectors to explore how businesses can drive meaningful environmental and social impact. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Jordan Catalana, Tapestry Foundation; Stephen Cronk, Maison Mirabeau and The Regenerative Viticulture Foundation; Dana Cowin, Progressive Hedonist; Ryan Fielding Garrett, New York City-based Composer, Music Director, Orchestrator, and Musician; Ann Marie Hourigan, Whole Foods Market; Mark Kaplan, Wholechain; Shawna Laczko, Northstar Recycling; Elaina Leibee, Erewhon Natural Food Market; Peter McGuinness, Bel US; Sarah McMullin, Target Owned Brands; Daniel Quadrino, Broadway Actor; Rob Samuels, 8th-Generation Whisky Maker, Maker’s Mark; Beatrix Scolari, Bonterra Organic Estates; Jason Weller, JBS; and many more to be announced soon.

EVENING: “All Things Food and Agriculture” Film Festival, with TomKat Foundation; Halter; The Rockefeller Foundation; The Henry Ford; and Groundswell. 6:30PM doors and musical guest; 7PM program; 8:30PM reception. Register HERE.

This special event will showcase powerful short films and documentaries highlighting the people, innovations, and ideas transforming our food system. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Xiye Bastida, Re-Earth Initiative; Brandon Burks, Broadway Actor, Singer, and Dancer; Elijah Caldwell, OBIE Award-winning Actor, Singer, Pianist, and Music Director; Sara Farley, The Rockefeller Foundation; Andrew Fraser, Halter; Spence Medford, The Henry Ford; Kacie Scherler-Abney, Fifth-Generation Rancher; Zach Scherler-Abney, Scherler-Abney Land & Cattle; Jennifer Sherman, Alice Waters Institute; Kat Taylor, TomKat Ranch and TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation; Rebecca Harrell Tickell, Director and Producer, Groundswell; and Haven Worley, Director, Irish Farmers: A Love Story.

Tuesday, Sept. 22

MORNING: “Thriving Farms and Ranches,” with American Farmland Trust. Register HERE.

We’ll explore solutions that empower farmers and ranchers while building a more sustainable and secure food system for future generations. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Hillary Barile, Rabbit Hill Farms; Amanda Beal, Maine Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry; John Chester, Farm Lore Films; Oliver English, Common Table Creative; Simon English, Common Table Creative; Heidi Exline, American Farmland Trust; Tim Fink, American Farmland Trust; Olivia Fuller, Fuller Farm; Dominick Grant, Dirt Capital Partners; Will Harris, White Oak Pastures; Brooks Lamb, Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator; Caitlin Leibert, Amazon Worldwide Grocery; Bianca Moebius-Clune, PhD, American Farmland Trust; Jenny Lester Moffitt, American Farmland Trust; Heather Oppel, General Mills; Madison Claire Parks, Broadway Actress; John Piotti, American Farmland Trust; Karen Ross, California Secretary of Food and Agriculture; Deydra Steans, S3 Legacy Ranch; Kat Taylor, TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation; Jeff Tkach, Rodale Institute; Noah Turner, Broadway Music Director; and many more to be announced soon.

AFTERNOON: “Nourishing the Future: How Farming Practices Shape the Food We Eat, the Health We Build, and the Longevity We Seek,” with Diestel Family Ranch. Begins 1:30PM. Register HERE.

Through farmer stories and more, we’ll examine why the next frontier in food systems may be measuring value not just by cost, yield, or convenience, but by nourishment. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Elder Raymond Bryant, San Antonio Million Gardens Project; Melissa Clark, The New York Times and NYT Cooking; Heidi Diestel, Fourth-Generation Farmer, Diestel Family Ranch; Mercedes Diane Griffin Forbes, Forbes Food & Ag; Clair Rachel Howell, Broadway Performer; Anne Marie Hourigan, Whole Foods Market; Noah Turner, Broadway Music Director; Chef Andrew Zimmern; and many more to be announced soon!

EVENING: “People-Focused. Climate-Friendly. Food-Forward New York City,” with Support + Feed, Strong Roots, and the NYC Mayor’s Office. Begins 6:30PM. Registration page HERE.

What does people-focused, climate-friendly, and plant-forward urban food policy look like? Confirmed speakers and performers include: Maggie Baird, Support + Feed; Maria Caputo, New York-based Composer; Emma Curtis, Strong Roots; Kaitlyn Davidson, Broadway Actor; Shyria Donawa, NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygeine; Ora Kemp, New York City Mayor’s Office of Food Policy; Kevin Nakagawa, Open Doors; Norman Priester, NYC Department of Corrections; Siddhartha Sanchez, New York City Mayor’s Office of Food Policy; and many more to be announced soon!

Wednesday, Sept. 23

ALL DAY: “The Roots of Organic: From Soil to Shelf,” with Organic Valley, Once Upon a Farm, Handsome Brook Farms, Stonyfield, Amy’s Kitchen, and in collaboration with Organic Voices, the Organic Center, and the Rodale Institute. More info and registration for this all-day event is HERE.

Confirmed speakers and performers include: Benjamin Bartley, UNFI; Alexis Bramley, Organic Trade Association; William Brinkerhoff, Soil Scientist, Chef, and Science Communicator; Marcia Brown, POLITICO; Amy Bruch, Cyclone Farms; Duron Chavis, Happily Natural Day and Sankofa Community Orchard; Taylor Clayton, Adams Group; Cullen Curth, Pianist, Music Director, and Conductor; Beatriz Daim, Tradin Organic; Kathleen Davis, Science Friday; Matthew Dillon, Organic Trade Association; Abianne Falla, CatSpring Yaupon; Tracy Favre, Handsome Brook Farms; Ryan Fielding Garrett, Broadway Music Director; Christopher Gergen, Regenerative Organic Alliance; David Gonthier, University of Kentucky; Alison Grantham, Grow Well Consulting; Stephanie Grotta, Target; Taylor Hurd, Singer-Songwriter; Chef Johanna Hellrigl, AMA and 2026 James Beard Award Semifinalist; Celia Hottenstein, Wicked on Broadway; Steven Jennings, Ahold Delhaize USA; Jane Kuhn, Once Upon a Farm; Annie Leeson, AgriCarbon; Brandon Lombardi, Sprouts Farmers Market; Jessica Luhning, Organic Valley; Britt Lundgren, Stonyfield; Chef Joshua McFadden, Farmer and James Beard Award-Winning Author of Six Seasons; Kousha Navidar, Climate One; Shawna Nelson, Organic Valley; Chef Priyanka Naik, Food Network Champion, TV Host, and Author of The Modern Tiffin; Leah Penniman, Farmer, Author, and Food Justice Activist, Soul Fire Farm; Sandy Pfaff, Organic Trade Association; Gwyneth Rampton, Compass Group USA; Maria Rodale, Rodale, Inc.; Amber Rubarth, Singer-Songwriter; Paul Schiefer, Amy’s Kitchen; Amber Sciligo, The Organic Center; Suzanne Sengelmann, Lundberg Family Farms; Erin Silva, UW-Madison; Sarela Herrada, SIMPLi; Travis Taber, Wicked on Broadway; Annie Watson, Organic Dairy Farmer, Sheepscot Valley Farm and Stonyfield Producer; Jake Wedeberg, Organic Dairy Farmer; Stefanie Wilbur, Lazy Dog Farm; Jayke Workman, Chicago on Broadway; Nijia Zhou, Amazon Worldwide Grocery and more to be announced soon!

Also all day via livestream at FoodTank.com, we’ll have additional exclusive online content including interviews with Selena Ahmed, Periodic Table of Food Initiative and American Heart Association; Shannon Cappellazzi, Oregon State University; John Foraker, Once Upon a Farm; Seth Goldman, Eat the Change and JUST Ice Tea; Brad Heins, University of Minnesota; Stephanie Jerger, Organic Trade Association; Keefe Keeley, Savanna Institute; Vernon Martin, Crystal Spring Farm and Handsome Brook Farms; Kathleen Merrigan, Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at Arizona State University; Chellie Pingree, U.S. House of Representatives; David Rosmann, Rosmann Family Farms; Rachel Stroer, The Land Institute; and Brise Tencer, Organic Farming Research Foundation.

Thursday, Sept. 24

MORNING: “Chefs Save the World,” with The James Beard Foundation and CARE. Begins 9AM; register HERE.

This annual event highlights how culinary leaders are using their platforms to drive meaningful impact in their communities and beyond. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Chef Fariyal Abdullahi, Hav & Mar, Chef Bleu Adams, IndigeHub; Elijah Caldwell, Actor, Singer; Nick T. Daly, Broadway Actor, Singer; Erica Helms, James Beard Foundation; Emily Janoch, CARE; Ellie Krieger, Dietitian and Nutritionist; Anne E. McBride, PhD, James Beard Foundation; Taylor Montgomery, Montgomery Sky Farm; Liz Murray, The Marlow Collective; Chris Noble, CARE; Chef Grace Ramirez, La Latina Cocina, Chef Sean Sherman, NĀTIFS; Chef Andrew Zimmern, and many more to be announced soon!

AFTERNOON: “Acting at the Speed of Crisis: Challenges & Opportunities for Food Security and Rapid Response,” with RAAPID and Arrell Food Institute. Begins 1:30PM; registration page HERE.

This timely program will explore how organizations can rapidly mobilize resources, leverage innovation, and build more resilient systems to meet urgent food security needs. Confirmed speakers and performers include; Inbal Becker-Reshef, RAAPID; Ertharin Cousin, Food Systems for the Future; Evan Fraser, Arrell Food Institute; Ruth Hill, CGIAR; Melissa Mahtani, International Affairs Journalist Oluchi Nwaokorie, Broadway Actor and Singer; Ambassador Philip Thigo, Office of the President of Kenya; Máximo Torero Cullen, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Noah Turner, Broadway Music Director; Michael Werz, Council on Foreign Relations; Simon Winter, Rockefeller Foundation Catalytic Capital; Andrew Zolli, Planet; and many more to be announced soon!

EVENING: Marion Nestle’s 90th Birthday Party, with New York University and Rodale Institute. RSVP HERE.

As Marion celebrates her 90th birthday, we will honor her extraordinary legacy of advancing evidence-based nutrition, championing transparency in the food system, and empowering people to ask critical questions about the food we eat. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Jennifer Berg, NYU Food Studies; Mark Bittman, Author and Food Journalist; Maria Caputo, New York-based Composer; Nancy Easton, Wellness in the Schools; Kathleen Finlay, Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming; Cathy Kaufman, Culinary Historians; Frances Moore Lappé, Small Planet Institute; Marion Nestle, New York University; Kristie Patten, NYU Steinhardt; Jake Pedersen, Broadway and Television Actor; Ruth Reichl, Author and Food Journalist; Maria Rodale, Rodale Inc.; Amber Rubarth, Singer-Songwriter; Kim Severson, The New York Times; Max Sinsheimer, Sinsheimer Literary, LLC; Lisa Sutherland, Jacksonville University; and more to be announced soon!

Friday, Sept. 25

MORNING: “Planet Aqua, Planet Peace: The Paideia Vision For Integral Ecology, Food Systems, Public Health, and Global Justice,” with the Future Food Institute and the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Event page HERE.

Water connects every aspect of our food systems, public health, ecosystems, and communities. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Blu Allen, Broadway Actor, Singer; Elijah Caldwell, Actor, Singer, Jenn Kemmerly, Monterey Bay Aquarium; David Laborde, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Kaveh Madani, United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health; Kathleen McDavitt, Aquaculture Stewardship Council; Laura McDearis, Marine Stewardship Council; Wendy Norden, Monterey Bay Aquarium; Sara Roversi, Future Food Institute; Brendan Shane, Trust for Public Lands; Simone Venturini, Mayor of Venice; and many more to be announced soon!

AFTERNOON: “The Future of Food Education,” with Pilot Light and with support from Nielsen Massey. Sign up HERE.

To close out Climate Week, the afternoon will bring together educators, school leaders, policymakers, chefs, nonprofit organizations, and advocates to explore how meaningful food education in schools can empower young people to make healthier choices, strengthen connections to food and agriculture, and inspire the next generation of climate leaders. Confirmed speakers and performers include: Jenna Bainbridge, Broadway Actor and Disability Rights Advocate; Linda Carmen Bryant, San Antonio Million Gardens Project; Maria Caputo, New York-based Composer; Alexandra DeSorbo-Quinn, Pilot Light; Nancy Easton, Wellness in the Schools; Gerardo Martinez, Wild Kid Acres; Taylor Meredith, Pilot Light; Shanon Morris, Harlem Grown; Liz Neumark, Great Performances, The Sylvia Center; Kim Severson, The New York Times; Amanda Torres; Public School Educator; Jeremy Walter, New York City Department of Education; Karen Washington, Food Justice Advocate, Farmer, and Author, Lyndsey Waugh, Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation; and many more to be announced soon!

Our Climate Week programming is 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 Unsplash

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ECVC together with other agricultural organisations met with Commissioner Hansen and Irish Minister Heydon to discuss this summer’s severe weather events and expressed concern over the authorities’ lack of preparedness for this foreseeable crisis.

The post Europe | Meeting with Hansen and Heydon: ECVC calls for immediate support to ensure no farms are lost appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

"This man lived fully and happily. He strongly believed he could transform the world—and he did.”

The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) and our entire community are shocked and deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Sena Alouka, Executive Director of Jeunes Volontaires pour l’Environnement (JVE-Togo) and founding Chair of AFSA’s Climate and Agroecology Working Group.

AFSA Chair Reverend Thomas Tolbert Jallah said: “Sena was a mentor, an inspiration and a guide—one of the pillars upon which AFSA was built. On behalf of the young people he called his children, the farmers whose soil he fought to protect, the fisherfolk whose rivers he defended and the pastoralists whose lands he held sacred, we mourn him with broken hearts.”

Sena often told us that his name meant “Gift from God.” His mother, Davé, had prayed for a daughter and received instead a son who would go on to mother a continent. He was indeed a gift. For more than two decades, he devoted himself to Africa’s environment, climate, biodiversity, food and culture—and, above all, to its young people, calling generation after generation to rise, learn and lead.

His life’s work began with a fire on a mountain above his childhood village of Kpélé Tsiko in 1999. The whole community went out to fight it, returning with burned cassava and yams in their hands—and something new burning within Sena. From those ashes, with neither money nor a map, he founded Young Volunteers for the Environment. What began with children raising tree seedlings in a small Togolese village grew into one of Africa’s largest youth-led environmental movements, now rooted in more than thirty countries.

“Sena Alouka was a rare kind of leader. He breathed life back into youth volunteerism and activism for Africa’s environment, biodiversity, culture and indigenous knowledge at a time when few believed young people could lead this fight. He was instrumental in starting AFSA’s Agroecology and Climate Working Group, and he was the one who insisted, again and again, that we create a Youth Working Group of our own. He was a driving force for change, always seeking new opportunities, expanding the frontiers of possibility for Africa’s youth and shifting mindsets towards a proactive, impactful life. His loss leaves a huge gap in youth activism across this continent—a grief we feel deeply today. But his legacy will not be buried with him. We will carry it forward and ensure that it is celebrated for as long as this movement lives.”  — Dr Million Belay, General Coordinator, AFSA

An unrelenting Pan-Africanist, Sena drew strength from Africa’s liberation leaders and carried the continent’s history with extraordinary passion. He understood that a movement without memory is a movement without direction, and he constantly reminded young people that Africa’s unfinished struggle for dignity was now theirs to carry forward.

His influence reached far beyond Togo. He chaired the Climate and Agroecology Working Group of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa; served as facilitator of CAN International’s Energy Working Group; and was a strategic advisor to the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, a trustee of the African Biodiversity Network and Global Coordinator of Ashoka Africa’s ICON nutrition programme—all while serving as patron of the Young Environmental Negotiators Academy and mentoring the very generation he now leaves to carry the torch. In 2014, Ashoka named him a Fellow among the world’s changemakers, twelve years after the IUCN–Reuters Award first recognised his voice as a young environmental journalist. But he had already been a changemaker as a teenager, when he built a community radio station from a car battery and scrap metal on a tin roof and called it Radio Hakuna Matata.

Sena also stood at the birth of YOUNGO, the official youth constituency of the United Nations climate negotiations. After finding himself the only Francophone African at a meeting in Montreal in 2005, he resolved that it would never happen again. The following year, he helped establish the African Youth Initiative on Climate Change and went on to guide generations of young Africans into international policy spaces from which they had long been excluded. There is hardly a young African climate leader today who does not owe some part of their path to his hand at their back.

Sena was that rare breed of leader whose actions were as forceful as his words—an electrifying advocate who spoke boldly yet acted with equal resolve, turning conviction into reality. His organising helped Togo reject a national energy law that would have entrenched coal and nuclear power and become the first country in the world to ban glyphosate. Long before agroecology became widely known, he championed it as an inherently African wisdom inherited from our ancestors. He persisted until it became part of Togo’s national strategy—not because he claimed to have invented it, but because he refused to let the world forget that it was already ours.

Those who knew Sena will remember a character larger than life—a man who wore his passion on his sleeve and whose commanding presence could fill a room. His speeches were positive and lively, sometimes loud and bold, but never, ever dull. He was known for his distinctive humour, his gift for storytelling and his truly captivating personality. Yet behind that smiling, luminous face lived a quieter seriousness: a fiercely pragmatic activist who could galvanise, mobilise, organise and lead with a fire that made every single moment matter.

Sena wanted one line carved on his tombstone: “This man lived fully and happily. He strongly believed he could transform the world—and he did.”

A forest does not fall silent when one great tree comes down. It grows around the space left behind—and it remembers. We are that forest.

Rest now, Papa Sena, in the soil you spent a lifetime restoring. We will keep alive the fire you lit. We will keep planting, even the trees whose fruit we may never live to eat, exactly as you taught us.

Sena—Gift from God—thank you for being ours.

With broken hearts and unbroken resolve,

Rest in peace, Papa Sena.

“The child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.” — African proverb

Africa stands at a demographic crossroads.

The African Development Bank projects that Africa will be home to 830 million African youth by 2050. But while roughly 12 million young Africans reach working age each year, the continent’s private sector creates only a few million formal jobs annually. This week’s Africa Food Systems Summit in Kigali is confronting that gap head-on: the GoGettaz Agripreneur Prize is putting more than US$160,000 behind young African agrifood innovators, and one of the summit’s five thematic tracks is built entirely around young people building agritech ventures and startup ecosystems that are changing how the continent grows and sells food. It follows the Africa Prosperity Network‘s own gathering earlier this year—the Africa Prosperity Dialogues in Accra, which was themed Empowering SMEs, Women & Youth in Africa’s Single Market. The Dialogues focused on how young entrepreneurs can take advantage of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which is creating a single market connecting 1.3 billion people and a US$3.4 trillion economy. Participants explored ways to expand regional trade and close the skills gaps that prevent many young people from participating. Organizers also launched a youth-led campaign seeking more than 10 million signatures in support of a more borderless continent.

A single market means little to a young farmer, though, if she cannot get her harvest across a border without it rotting in customs. The question is no longer whether Africa can feed itself. It is whether we will finance its young people to do it.

For too long, farming has been cast as a fallback, not a future—a poverty trap pushing rural youth toward overcrowded cities or dangerous migration routes. This narrative is dangerous: unemployed youth fuel instability, while a mobilized, tech-enabled agricultural workforce builds continental power.

The African Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) 2026–2035 offers a continental framework to fund agritech hubs, modernize university curricula, and build youth-focused agricultural extension services across all 55 member states. Nigeria is already showing what implementation looks like: its 42 youth agribusiness innovation centers, converted this year from underused youth development facilities, are training a new generation in climate-smart farming and enterprise-building. Several organizations attending this year’s summit in Kigali already run youth-focused agriculture programs of their own.

That power is also an economic necessity. Farming remains the single largest source of work on the continent—most estimates put it at somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of all African livelihoods. And smallholders alone grow roughly four-fifths of the food Africans eat, even though output per worker still lags far behind global norms. Closing that gap is not charity—it is GDP growth. Consider the scale of what targeted investment can do: the African Development Bank’s ENABLE Youth Programme, launched to put young people to work in agribusiness, has so far reached close to 100,000 young beneficiaries and generated well over 200,000 jobs across 18 countries, on its way to a goal of 300,000 new enterprises. Every youth-led farm, cooperative, or agritech venture funded today compounds into tomorrow’s tax base, export revenue, and reduced import bill.

Fertilizer use across Africa fell by roughly a quarter in 2022 in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that disruption pushed 8 to 13 million more people worldwide into hunger, with sub-Saharan Africa among the regions hit hardest. In East Africa alone, the World Food Programme has tracked a 23 percent rise in the cost of its local food basket in a single year, with Sudan’s costs climbing 92 percent. Now a separate war centered on Iran has choked off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, stalling an estimated third of the world’s fertilizer trade—several million tonnes a month—and analysts expect African grain importers to absorb the impact first. Africa cannot out-produce geopolitics it does not control. It can build youth-led, homegrown food systems resilient enough to absorb the next shock.

This is why global platforms matter. The U.N. General Assembly’s SDG Moment on September 18 this year will convene youth voices alongside world leaders to assess progress on the Sustainable Development Goals—including SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), both of which hinge on whether Africa’s youth are employed in food systems or left out of them. Climate Week NYC, running alongside the Assembly and drawing more than 1,000 events to New York, has folded youth leadership into nearly every one of its themes this year. African youth agripreneurs deserve a seat at both tables, not a passing mention.

The innovation is already here. In Rwanda, AYuTe Africa Challenge finalist AgriResearch Unguka is helping smallholders with seed selection and profitability forecasting. In Kenya, DroFarmer uses data to help farmers cut crop losses and access insurance.

We challenge the African Union, the African Development Bank, multilateral institutions, private investors, and philanthropy: fund Africa’s youth through a genuine do-no-harm approach—investment that strengthens local food sovereignty rather than deepening dependency, drawing on the lesson that global food-policy experts have long urged for crisis response. More importantly, we encourage individual governments to do more.

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 Daniel Kawed, Unsplash

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A new cookbook by Peloton’s Head Instructor Robin Arzón is helping readers fuel their bodies with high-protein, plant-based recipes.

Eat to Hustle includes 75 recipes from breakfast foods like the Shakshuka-Style Tofu Scramble and Sweet Bean-Stuffed French Toast to snacks and sandwiches like Seasoned Kale Chips and Lentil Sloppy Joes. 

Many of the dishes, like the Tofu Chicharrones, incorporate flavors from Arzón’s childhood. Raised in a Cuban and Puerto Rican household, pork was often on the menu when she was young. But transitioning to a plant-based diet didn’t mean abandoning those culinary traditions. She realized she could still nod to the foods she grew up eating.

“I am very proud that I was able to remix these dishes because I want my kids to know where their family came from, but I also really want to maintain the integrity of a plant-based home,” Arzón tells Food Tank. “I didn’t feel like it had to be either-or.”

Throughout Eat to Hustle registered dietitian Dalina Soto offers additional nutrition tips and guidance. “She’s a fellow Latina and she comes from a point of view that you don’t need to relinquish culture in order to have a wellness conversation,” Arzón explains. 

Mythbusting is an important part of the book, which responds to questions about a plant-based lifestyle that Arzón has fielded throughout her career as an instructor. “The number one question [I get] as a vegan athlete is: How do you get your protein, and have you really built muscle eating plants and plant-based foods? The answer is absolutely.”

Eating well and feeling good are important to Arzón, but she also believes that this doesn’t have to come at the expense of joy. Recipes like the Silky Caramel Flan, Strawberry Protein Pops, and Gooey Cinnamon Rolls offer an opportunity to be more indulgent. “Food should be fun,” Arzón tells Food Tank. “It’s not exclusively functional.”

Listen to the full conversation with Robin Arzón on “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg” to hear more about prioritizing consistency and intention over isolated perfection, health and fitness in the era of GLP-1 drugs, and developing meals that work for every body, age, and lifestyle. 

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 Amie Johnson, Unsplash

The post ‘Eat to Hustle’ Makes Plant-Based Eating Practical, Joyful, and Accessible appeared first on Food Tank.

At what point does a woman's life become a femicide statistic? At what point do we stop seeing their faces, their stories, their dreams, and their life plans? What has to happen for the files of the thousands of women still waiting for justice to stop gathering dust in state archives?

The post Beyond the numbers: femicide in Honduras as an expression of structural violence against women 2020-2026 appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

The Letter to the UN special rapporteurs calls for an independent investigation, protective measures for those affected and a response from the Panamanian State within 60 days.

The post Complaint regarding alleged illegal surveillance of social organisations in Panama submitted to UN special rapporteurs appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

On Friday afternoon, Sept. 25, Food Tank and Pilot Light will host “The Future of Food Education” during Climate Week NYC 2026. The invitation-only gathering will explore how meaningful food education can help young people make healthier choices, understand where their food comes from, and become leaders in building a better food and agriculture system.

Educators, school leaders, policymakers, chefs, nonprofit leaders, and advocates will come together to highlight what’s already working—and what it will take to make food education a meaningful part of every student’s learning experience.

“Incredible work is already happening in food education, but the question now is how we build on it so every student has the opportunity to learn about food,” says Alex DeSorbo-Quinn, Executive Director of Pilot Light.

“This summit brings together educators, policymakers, industry leaders, chefs, and advocates to share what’s working and think about what comes next. I hope participants leave seeing not only what’s possible, but also a path toward making food education part of every child’s education.”

Sessions will look at the barriers preventing schools from implementing food education, the models and resources that can help programs scale, and the role of local partnerships in extending learning beyond the classroom.

Farmer Linda Carmen Bryant, Co-Founder of the San Antonio Million Gardens Project and Pastor of Grant Community AME Church in Texas, will also take the stage to share her story of helping families grow their own food—and using gardening as a tool to build knowledge, connection, and community.

The event will begin at 1:30 PM at WNYC-NPR Studios’ The Greene Space in New York City, with food, drinks, and live musical performances. A reception will follow, with programming concluding at 4:30 PM.

Confirmed speakers include Alexandra DeSorbo-Quinn, Executive Director, Pilot Light; Nancy Easton, Executive Director and Founder, Wellness in the Schools; Gerardo Martinez, Marine Corps Veteran and Founder, Wild Kid Acres; Taylor Meredith, Education Policy Advisor, Pilot Light; Shanon Morris, Chief Program Officer, Harlem Grown; Danielle Nierenberg, President, Food Tank; Kim Severson, Journalist, The New York Times; Jeremy Walter, Deputy Executive Director, Office of School Wellness Programs, New York City Department of Education; and Karen Washington, Food Justice Advocate, Farmer, and Author.

“The Future of Food Education” will also feature a special musical performance by Jenna Bainbridge, a Broadway actor, singer, and disability rights advocate currently starring as Nessarose in Wicked. Bainbridge previously made history in Suffs as the first wheelchair user to originate a role in a new Broadway musical.

She will be joined by Maria Caputo, a New York-based composer, pianist, vocalist, music director, and Broadway music copyist whose work spans musical theater, jazz, classical, and contemporary music.

This summit will be streamed live on FoodTank.com and Food Tank’s YouTube channel, here. Join the Food Tank newsletter list for reminders, and click here for Food Tank’s full lineup of events at Climate Week NYC 2026.

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 the U.S. Department of Agriculture

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“On the Ground with Dani Nierenberg” is an ongoing series documenting Food Tank President Danielle Nierenberg’s ground-truthing work. Read more by clicking here. 

I talk about the Green Revolution a lot in my work, but I had never been to the place where so much of it began until early this August. I visited Texcoco, Mexico, where the Rockefeller Foundation-funded Mexican Agricultural Program eventually led to CIMMYT, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

CIMMYT is dedicated to building food security, resilient agriculture, and scientific collaboration across the Global South. And its history is complex and complicated.

It was here that Norman Borlaug and his colleagues researched and promoted high-yielding cereal varieties and the use of artificial fertilizers to increase food production. The Green Revolution helped avert famine in Mexico, India, and elsewhere. But we also know that these practices often displaced traditional, biodiverse, locally rooted systems of cultivation and increased farmers’ dependence on expensive inputs.

What struck me during my time with CIMMYT is how much the organization is trying to learn from that history.

Today, CIMMYT talks about a green evolution, instead of a revolution—one that is less about delivering a package of technologies to farmers and more about co-creating and sharing knowledge with them.

There is “no universal recipe” for sustainable and resilient food systems, says Jelle Van Loon. What works for a farmer in one community may not work for a farmer somewhere else. The science has to meet farmers where they are, Van Loon adds.

In addition to investing in breeding programs for new varieties of wheat, maize, and other crops, CIMMYT is also recognizing that farmers are safeguarding biodiversity on their farms every day. And they are holding the future of food on their shoulders.

I’ll give you an example. In Oaxaca, I got to see the milpa system in action.

Milpa is often described as the three sisters—maize, beans, and squash grown together so they strengthen one another and the soil. Farmers growing food this way can have as many as 27 different crops on just a few hectares, without pesticides and with very little or no artificial fertilizer. Sunflowers attract beneficial insects and give farmers extra income. Cowpeas and other legumes help farmers cope with drought.

This isn’t diversity for diversity’s sake. It’s resilience.

Oaxaca’s farmers are dealing with increasingly difficult drought conditions. One farmer-technician told me that when those challenges become overwhelming, “families start losing hope.”

But diversified farming systems like milpa give farmers more ways to survive a bad season. If one crop fails, another may succeed. They can provide food, animal feed, healthier soils, protection from pests, and income—all while allowing farmers to maintain cultural traditions and identities that have existed for generations.

And farmers using milpa are usually growing native maize varieties. Mexico is the birthplace of maize and home to extraordinary genetic diversity. CIMMYT’s gene bank houses the world’s largest collection of maize germplasm—and that seed bank is very cool, no pun intended. It’s kept at -15°C (5°F) and holds hundreds and hundreds of varieties of wheat and maize. The corn seeds are like small jewels—purple, blue, red, black, yellow, white. That seed bank, like thousands of others around the world, is protecting the future of humanity.

While not as fancy, the small seed banks I saw in farmers’ houses in Oaxaca are just as—if not more—important. Because preserving a seed is not only about putting it in a vault. It is about planting it. Eating it. Sharing it. Selecting it. Passing it to your children and your neighbors.

When communities lose their seeds, they risk losing part of their identity along with them.

In Oaxaca, I met farmers like Francisca Canton and her husband, Jacoba Benitez, who are still farming in their late 60s. They described seed saving as “un trabajo duro”—hard work. And it is a year-long process, from planting to harvest to measuring and storage.

They use oil or soda bottles to store roughly 50 varieties of maize, legumes, and squash. They are using traditional seed-saving methods, they explained, while also learning from CIMMYT technicians about seed selection and more efficient ways to dry seeds.

CIMMYT staff talked repeatedly about consistency and presence—about showing up, listening, learning from farmer networks, and building trust over years. Their recommendations, they say, increasingly depend on context: What works best, where, for whom, and under what conditions?

That is a very different philosophy from assuming there is one technological package—or silver bullet—that can transform agriculture everywhere.

And perhaps that’s one of the lessons we can take from the Green Revolution itself. Science matters enormously. Innovation matters. Technology matters.

But so do culture, biodiversity, economics, relationships, and the knowledge farmers have accumulated over generations.

Farmers are the stewards of biodiversity that is—literally—the future of humanity. Every time farmers share knowledge that strengthens their resilience, a community becomes stronger.

During my time in Oaxaca, I met Víctor López Leyva, the state’s agriculture minister. His message has stayed with me:

“Creer en el campo, creer en las campesinas y los campesinos.”

Believe in the countryside. Believe in farmers.

I could not agree more.

It’s why I am always so excited—and not surprised—to see agricultural innovation being led by farmers, for farmers.

And I also know that a better food system depends on collaboration among farmers, researchers, scientists, policymakers, advocates, cultural experts, and so many others. But collaboration also requires us to recognize who knows the land best.

The Green Revolution taught the world that agricultural science can accomplish extraordinary things. Maybe the green evolution can teach us something equally important—innovation doesn’t begin with a technology or a scientist. It begins by listening to farmers.

Learn more about Food Tank’s ground-truthing work and recent visit with CIMMYT in this video by filmmaker Haven Worley:

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 Haven Worley

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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.

Dryland farming is a practice used to cultivate crops in regions where water supply is limited, seasonal, or unpredictable. Dryland systems use no irrigation and depend entirely on rain. They work by capturing and storing as much rainfall as possible and ensuring that crop water demand does not exceed what’s available.

According to the Dry Farming Institute, success depends less on total rainfall and more on how much is captured in the soil. To prevent loss to runoff, dryland farmers apply techniques including contour farming, where crops are planted across slopes in terraces, and land shaping, which involves changing the topography of the land.

Captured rainfall can evaporate from the soil surface before it reaches crop roots, particularly in hot, dry, and windy regions. To keep water in the root zone, dryland systems prioritize practices that reduce evaporation and increase soil water-holding capacity.

Often, part of dryland farms will lie fallow in alternate seasons or years, to accumulate water for subsequent crop cycles. Increasing soil organic matter can also improve water retention. Practices such as crop rotation, cover cropping, and mulching build and maintain organic matter while reducing erosion and evaporation.

To ensure crop water demand does not exceed supply, dryland farmers align planting and harvesting dates with local rainfall patterns, rather than a fixed calendar date. And they select crops based on seasonal conditions and characteristics such as drought tolerance, adaptability, and the timing of a crop’s water needs.

Common dryland crops include pigeonpea, which both tolerates drought and improves soil fertility, and tepary beans, which are protein-rich and can withstand varying levels of water stress.

Sorghum—which the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) calls an underutilized crop that has significant potential for nutrition, climate resilience, and economic stability—can conserve water during dry periods by temporarily suspending growth.

“Wild desert plants have a remarkable number of adaptations to cope with heat, drought, unpredictable rainfall, and poor soils,” Erin Riordan of the University of Arizona tells Food Tank.

Drylands are a vital but overlooked resource with untapped economic potential and environmental value, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

They make up 46 percent of the planet’s land area and support 44 percent of global food systems, including half of the world’s livestock. They are home to more than 2 billion people and support the livelihood of 1 billion people in 100 countries.

Drylands are “strategic landscapes rich with the potential to drive resilience, economic vitality, and sustainable prosperity for millions,” Éliane Ubalijoro, CEO of the Landscape Alliance and Director General of World Agroforestry (ICRAF), tells Food Tank.

But these regions, which already face some of the world’s harshest conditions, are under threat. Increasing water scarcity, land-use change, and extreme weather events are transforming drylands into barren landscapes, according to Ismahane Elouafi, Executive Managing Director of CGIAR. Research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution estimates that up to 20 percent of drylands are already degraded or at risk.

And, according to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification and research published in Communications Earth & Environment, these pressures will intensify in the coming decades.

Heat, drought, and unpredictable rainfall are all stressful growing conditions likely to become more common, Riordan tells Food Tank. The U.N. Environment Programme estimates that land degradation in drylands could cut global food production by 12 percent over the next 25 years.

Impacts fall disproportionately on the 2 billion people who live in drylands, which include some of the world’s poorest and most climate-vulnerable communities, according to CGIAR.

ML Jat, the Director of Resilient Farm and Food Systems at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), tells Food Tank these communities are often “the first to face hunger, thirst, and the devastating effects” of declining soil and environmental conditions.

Despite these pressures, researchers and organizations highlight the potential of restoration. Investments in drylands can return as much as US$30 for every dollar spent, Ubalijoro tells Food Tank, describing drylands as “places of deep opportunity.”

But drylands need greater recognition in policy. FAO Assistant Director-General Abdulhakim Elwaer calls for integrating dryland agriculture into national development plans, climate action strategies, and food security policies. Researchers in Nature Ecology & Evolution call for stronger safeguards, finding that only 12 percent of drylands are protected.

Other recommendations focus on how solutions are developed and scaled. CGIAR’s Global Strategy for Resilient Drylands emphasizes partnerships among researchers, governments, businesses, and local communities to adapt agricultural innovations to dryland conditions. FAO recommends combining traditional knowledge with modern technologies.

Ubalijoro argues that these efforts can help redefine what drylands represent. “This is an opportunity for all of us,” she says, “to make these thrivelands not only a source of prosperity but also a source of peace.”

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Photo courtesy of Brett Meliti

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Newly elected to La Via Campesina’s Coordination Committee, Goo Jeom Sook enthusiastically explains to us what Korean agriculture is like, her farm, her commitments and the recent mobilisations that have shaken the country.

The post In South Korea, Peasant Women Cultivate the Land and the Struggle appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Wendell Berry, a farmer, writer, and advocate whose work challenged industrial agriculture and defended the ties between land, food, and community, died at his home in Port Royal, Kentucky, according to the New York Times (NYT). He was 92.

A poet, novelist, essayist, teacher, conservationist, activist, and farmer, Berry resisted easy categorization. “Berry has refused to specialize,” Charles Hudson wrote in the Georgia Review.

Throughout his five-decade career, Berry argued that agriculture was inseparable from the health of the land and the communities that depend on it. He questioned the consolidation and industrialization of farming while championing small farms, local economies, and responsible stewardship.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1934, Berry grew up in Henry County, where his family had farmed for generations. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Kentucky before joining Stanford University’s creative writing program as a Wallace Stegner Fellow.

He later traveled to Europe and taught in New York, but felt increasingly drawn back to his roots. Berry returned to Port Royal in the 1960s. He and his wife, Tanya, settled on a 125-acre farm, where they raised sheep and crops. He spent the rest of his life there writing and farming.

Living in his native landscape kept him accountable to the place and people he described, Berry told the NYT in a phone interview in 2018 for his obituary.

From his home, Berry analyzed the consequences of an agricultural system increasingly defined by consolidation, mechanization, chemicals, and soil degradation. He examined the disappearance of small farms and rural communities, and how their absence threatened individual liberty, local autonomy, and economic independence.

Those concerns became the foundation of his body of writing. Berry published more than 50 books of poetry, fiction, and essays, all written by hand during daylight hours. His farmhouse had electricity, but he refused to use electric lights because, he said, the power was supplied by strip-mined coal.

His 1977 book The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture argues that agriculture is the foundation of America’s culture. The book questioned U.S. policies promoting practices that he argued lead to overproduction, pollution, and soil erosion.

Berry examined these ideas further in The Gift of Good Land and Home Economics, collections that examining organic farming. He argued that the values driving industrial agriculture were eroding family farms and weakening what he regarded as a foundation of American society.

In a New Perspectives Quarterly interview Berry commented that large-scale agriculture is morally as well as environmentally unacceptable: “We must support what supports local life, which means community, family, household life—the moral capital our larger institutions have to come to rest upon. If the larger institutions undermine the local life, they destroy that moral capital just exactly as the industrial economy has destroyed the natural capital of localities—soil fertility and so on. Essential wisdom accumulates in the community much as fertility builds in the soil.”

The issues that animated Berry’s essays also shaped his fiction. Through novels and short stories set largely in the fictional Kentucky town of Port William, he chronicled generations of farmers, families, and neighbors confronting the economic and technological changes reshaping rural life.

Berry also carried his convictions beyond the page. He joined protests against the Vietnam War, nuclear power, mountaintop-removal coal mining, coal-fired power plants, and the death penalty.

In 1979, Berry was arrested for trespassing while protesting the Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant in Madison, Indiana. Recalling the episode in 2010, he said, “People asked if I wanted to be arrested and I said, ‘Hell No’ but I was willing to be.”

The National Endowment for the Humanities described him in 2012 as “cheerful in dissent” and a person who “writes to document and defend what is being lost to the forces of modernization.”

His writing and advocacy earned more than 30 honors. President Barack Obama awarded Berry the National Humanities Medal for his achievements as a poet, novelist, farmer, and conservationist, and the National Book Critics Circle honored him with its Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

He also earned honors including the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Aiken Taylor Award, the John Hay Award and the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, according to the Poetry Foundation.

His ideas continue through The Berry Center, established in 2011 to put Berry’s “writings to work” by supporting farmers, land-conserving communities, and healthy regional economies.

Food Tank Co-founder and President Danielle Nierenberg had the privilege of both meeting and hearing Berry speak over the last two decades. She says that he inspired so many of us as food and agriculture system advocates not only with his poems and books, but his love of the land and farmers.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Berry is survived by his son, Pryor, who goes by Den, two sisters, Mary Jo Berry and Martha Baxter, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

“There’s not enough I could say about him to do him justice,” his daughter, Mary Berry, told the Associated Press.

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

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