A3. Agroecology

March 8 is not just a date for commemoration, but a day of struggle and demand for the rights of working women worldwide. From feminist economy to food sovereignty, from resistance to capitalist expansion to the defense of bodies and territories, the global organizations and social movements that are part of the Nyéléni process leading to the 3rd Global Forum converge in their demand for justice and equity.

The post 3rd Nyéléni Global Forum : Women in struggle for systemic transformation #8M25 appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

The post DEFRA ANNOUNCES ABRUPT CLOSURE OF THE SUSTAINABLE FARMING INCENTIVE SCHEME appeared first on Landworkers Alliance.

March 8 is not the sum total of women’s struggles, but it reaffirms our capacity for organization, resistance, and commitment to revolution. Building 8M connects us with working women across the globe, united in the fight for a free, equal, abundant, and solidarity-driven society.

The post Landless Women’s Day denounces violence in agriculture and proposes an alternative to the environmental crisis appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Joan Dye Gussow, a nutrition leader, environmentalist, and avid gardener, died on Friday in her home in Piermont, New York. She was 96.

Gussow was widely hailed as what the New York Times called the “matriarch of the eat-locally-think-globally food movement.” She was a trailblazer in nutrition education and a staunch critic of the industrialized food system, one of the first to emphasize the link between health and methods of food production.

Nutritionist and food policy expert Marion Nestle says that Gussow was “enormously ahead of her time,” adding, “Every time I thought I was on to something and breaking new ground and seeing something no one had seen before, I’d find out that Joan had written about it 10 years earlier.”

Gussow’s work, including her seminal 1978 manifesto ‘The Feeding Web: Issues in Nutritional Ecology’ influenced prominent food thinkers like Michael Pollan, author of ‘In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto’ and ‘The Omnivore’s Dilemma.’ “She has been a powerful influence on the food movement,” Pollan told the New York Times, “We all know nutrients are important, but Joan says, ‘Eat food.’ That’s the kernel of ‘In Defense of Food.’”

Later in life, Gussow resisted labeling herself as a nutritionist. She said so in her 2009 address to Columbia University’s Teachers College, where she served as chair of the Nutrition Education Program and taught for over half a decade.

“What people feel is not nutrients. It’s eggplants and peaches,” Gussow said. It was part and parcel of her whole-systems approach to health and food systems, one that valued connection to the origin of food. In her 1985 contribution to ‘Farm Aid, a Song for America,’ Gussow wrote of a vision for “a different [food] system, one where vibrant local economies are based on thriving family farms, small-scale business enterprises, and markets featuring fresh local food year-round.”

Gussow was born in Alhambra, California in 1928. After graduating from Pomona College in 1950, she moved to New York City and worked as a researcher for Time Magazine. She received her doctorate in nutrition from Columbia University in 1969, and began growing her own backyard produce around the same time.

In 1995, Gussow moved to Piermont with her husband, artist Alan Gussow. There she established another backyard garden to meet their fruit and vegetable needs. “The only thing I ever have to buy is onions,” Gussow told ValleyTable in 2016.

Alan Gussow died in 1997. Joan Gussow is survived by two sons and a grandson.

Gussow will also be remembered as someone who was unafraid to speak her mind. Food Tank President Danielle Nierenberg says, “I enjoyed receiving emails from Joan over the years. She would point out my mistakes in the kindest way possible. I will always be grateful for her wisdom.”

In a 2011 interview with Civil Eats, Gussow said of her legacy: “I would like to be remembered as having tried to tell the truth.”

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 Rockland/Westchester Journal News

The post Remembering Joan Dye Gussow: Pioneer of Local Food Movement appeared first on Food Tank.

OKLAHOMA CITY – National Farmers Union (NFU) on Tuesday concluded the 123rd Anniversary Convention in Oklahoma City after the assembled delegates voted to finalize NFU’s 2025 policy priorities. NFU welcomed […]

The post National Farmers Union Concludes 123rd Anniversary Convention first appeared on National Farmers Union.

OKLAHOMA CITY – National Farmers Union (NFU) honored former U.S. Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa with the 2025 Award for Meritorious Service to American Agriculture, its highest distinction, at the […]

The post NFU Honors Senator Tom Harkin with the Award for Meritorious Service to American Agriculture first appeared on National Farmers Union.

OKLAHOMA CITY – At National Farmers Union’s (NFU) 123rd Anniversary Convention, the organization awarded KC Sheperd of Radio Oklahoma Ag Network with the 2025 Milt Hakel Award for Excellence in […]

The post NFU Presents KC Sheperd with the Milt Hakel Award for Excellence in Agricultural Journalism first appeared on National Farmers Union.

The CFS Advisory Group and Bureau will meet on 18 March to address the following topics: CFS 53 Planning; Strengthening the Uptake of CFS Policy Products; Update on the Collaborative Governance workstream; CFS Resource Mobilization Strategy; CFS Communications Strategy; Update on the UN Food Systems Summit +4 Stocktake (UNFSS+4); Update on workstreams and budget.

Background documents

•  Provisional Agenda

1. CFS 53 planning
   • CFS 53 Provisional Agenda
   • CFS 53 Draft Timetable
   • Satellite Sessions Draft Concept Note
   • CFS 53 SOFI Panel on Regional Perspectives
2. CFS 53 Guide
   • Guide to CFS 53
3. Guide to the preparation of the CFS 53 Final Report
   • Guide to the Preparation of the CFS 53 Final Report
4. Strengthening the Uptake of CFS Policy Products
   • Follow-up to the Action Plan and proposed activities for 2025
   • Intersessional dialogue – Concept note
5. Update on Collaborative governance
   • Draft Agenda for the Collaborative Governance Dialogue on Financing for Food Security and Nutrition
6. Principles for an updated CFS Resource Mobilization Strategy
7. Update on CFS Communications Strategy
8. Update on the UN Food Systems Summit +4 Stocktake (UNFSS+4)
   • Presentation of the Preparatory Process to the 2nd United Nations Food Systems Summit Stocktake (UNFSS+4)
9. Workstream and budget updates
   • Workstreams and Activities Updates
   • CFS budget update
10. Any other business

The post CFS Advisory Group and Bureau meeting | 18 March 2025 appeared first on CSIPM.

OKLAHOMA CITY – National Farmers Union today announced the launch of the Farmers Capital Fund, a $25 million investment initiative dedicated to supporting early- and growth-stage companies that accelerate agricultural […]

The post National Farmers Union Announces Launch of $25 Million Farmers Capital Fund to Drive Agricultural Innovation first appeared on National Farmers Union.

A version of this piece was featured in Food Tank’s newsletter, released weekly on Thursdays. To make sure it lands straight in your inbox and to be among the first to receive it, subscribe now by clicking here.

For decades—certainly for most of my career—discussions about food and agriculture systems have been pushed to the sidelines. Many of us have had to fight, over and over and over again, to get folks in power to take food and agriculture seriously.

But that’s changing now. Political leaders are recognizing that food is central to climate solutions. Cultural leaders are using food as a bridge to vital discussions of access and justice. Business leaders are seeing ways that sustainable food systems make simple economic sense.

This is why I’m so excited to be returning to SXSW in just one week for our annual “All Things Food” Summit. As a good food movement, we need to continue to meet conversations where they’re happening and remind people that, when we talk about culture and media, we’re talking about food. When we talk about health and well-being, we’re talking about food. When we talk about bipartisan policymaking and national security, we’re talking about food. When we talk about society, we’re talking about food.

During our two-day event—which is official SXSW programming—we’ll feature fireside chats, expert panels, interactive chef-curated tastings, music performances, and film screenings, hosted at the gorgeous Barr Mansion in Austin, Texas.

The event, on March 13 and 14, is completely free to attend, and no SXSW festival badge is required. And if you can’t make it to SXSW, you can join us virtually as well!

Register for both virtual or in-person participation by CLICKING HERE.

At SXSW, Food Tank and our amazing partners are bringing together nearly 100 top experts, farmers, chefs, private sector leaders, activists, industry pioneers, policymakers, and creative folks to explore pressing issues in food and agriculture. We’ll discuss everything from food waste solutions to regenerative agriculture; nutrition security to sustainability in food systems; food as medicine to the future of food innovation.

Here’s the lineup of the inspiring speakers who will be joining us: Sam Acho, ESPN Sports Analyst and NFL Veteran; Selena Ahmed, Periodic Table of Food Initiative (PTFI), American Heart Association; Karin Ascot, Holocia; Claire Babineaux-Fontenot, Feeding America; Peter Barrett, Writer; Cecile Beliot, Bel Group; Gary Blackwood, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (ret.); Jayson Berryhill, Wholechain; Jay Bhatt, The Deloitte Center for Health Solutions; Joseph Brinkley, Bonterra Organic Estates; Pat Brown, Impossible Foods; Sweta Chakraborty, We Don’t Have Time; Joi Chevalier, Austin Travis County Food Policy Board, The Cook’s Nook; Chaz Daughtry, Sweetwater Farms, Soulfitgrill Seasonings; Maj. Emily Diemer, US Army Medical Center of Excellence; Sara Faivre, Farmer Mac; Rachel Ferencik, CDC Foundation; Larry Franklin, Black Lives Veggies; Brendan Gemmel, Austin Animal Center; Ivan Giraud, Bel Brands; Emmanuel (Emmy) Gonzalez, Vallarta Supermarkets; Nira Goren, Google; Jessica Gudmundson, National Farm to School Network; Dana Gunders, ReFED; Patrick Van Haren, Microbial Earth Farms, Holocia; Chef Olivia Hernandez, HER Hospitality; Mark Hyman, Function Health; Chef Jay Huang, Lucky Robot and Nomade; Michelle Hughes, National Young Farmers Coalition; Antony Jackson, We Can Now; Jyoti Jankowski, Conscious Planet; Jenna Jasso, Festival Beach Food Forest; Steven Jennings, Ahold Delhaize USA; Stefanie Katzman, Katzman; Annalyn Lavey, Genus Land; June Jo Lee, food ethnographer; Caitlin Leibert, Whole Foods Market; Brandon Lombardi, Sprouts Farmers Market; Chef Adrian Lipscombe, 40 Acres Project; Brita Lundberg, Lundberg Family Farms; Gerardo Martinez, Wild Kid Acres, Global Alliance of Latinos in Agriculture; Amanda Masino, Huston-Tillotson University; Jay McEntire, Arva; John “Wesley” McWhorter, The University of Texas School of Public Health; Dariush Mozaffarian, Food is Medicine Institute; Joe O’Connor, Applegate; Linda Novick O’Keefe, Common Threads; Giovanni Quaratesi, Certified Origin; Raj Patel, academic, journalist, activist; U.S. Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (ME-1); Karuna Rawal, Nature’s Fynd; Garland S. Reiter Jr., Driscoll’s of the Americas; Stephen Ritz, Green Bronx Machine; PJ Rivera, Deloitte; Ashley Rouse, The Edible Schoolyard Project; Samantha Sackin, Organic Valley; Kelsey Scott, Intertribal Agriculture Council,; Naba Sengupta, Deloitte; Sabrina Servais, Organic Valley; U.S. Congressman Pete Sessions (TX-17); Cathy Strange, Whole Foods Market; Roy Steiner, Rockefeller Foundation; Rick Simington, Organic Valley; Josh Tickell, Common Ground Film; Josh Tranel, Tranel Family Farm; Jeff Travillion, Travis County Commissioner; Alyssa Vescio, Whole Foods Market; Melva K. Wallace, Huston-Tillotson University; Karen Washington, Rise & Root Farm; Lyndsey Waugh, Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation; Chef Iliana De La Vega, El Naranjo; Dusan Vujovic, Tony’s Chocolonely; Chef Dave White, Bravo’s Below Deck, “Chopped”; Paul Willis, Niman Ranch; Luke Zahm, Driftless Cafe; and more.

Again, HERE is the link to sign up for in-person or virtual tickets. And if you’re a Food Tank member, you’ll have access to an exclusive members-only space at the event with additional celebrity chef-curated dishes! (If you’re not a Food Tank member, be sure to join now!)

Questions? Email Kenzie at Kenzie@FoodTank.com. And media pass and VIP ticket requests can be sent to Annie at Annie@FoodTank.com.

I want to give a huge shoutout to our event partners Huston-Tillotson University, Deloitte, Organic Valley, and Driscoll’s, with special thanks also to Arva, the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, and Tangled Bank.

And thanks to the following brands for making this Summit so inspiring—and delicious: Ahold Delaize USA, Applegate, Arva, Atlantic Sea Farms, Aquanaria, Bel, Best Day Brewery, Better Sour, Blk & Bold, Bonterra Organic Estates, Brass Roots, Burlap & Barrel, ButcherBox, Certified Origins, Daily Crunch Snacks, Daily Harvest, Deloitte, Dr. Bronner’s, Driscoll’s, Fairhaven Orchards, Farmer’s Fridge, Floofy’s Fluff, Grace Family Farms Tea Lounge, Guayakí, Hasta la Luna, La Belle Patrimone, La Colombe, Little Sesame, Maker’s Mark, Meati, The Mendrin Group, MyMochi, Nature’s Fynd, Nature’s Path, Niman Ranch, Oddbird, Organic Valley, Parlor Coffee, Quinn, Riverence, Saffron Road, Seremoni, SHAKE SHACK, SIMPLi, Spirit Almonds, Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, Strong Roots, Swig Cheese Haus, Tangled Bank, Tindle, Tony’s Chocolonely, Traditional Medicinals, Vista Brewing, and Yolele.

Whether it’s the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Sundance, Capitol Hill, or SXSW, we have to keep pushing food to the forefront wherever big conversations are taking place. I’m so excited to be able to bring these conversations back to SXSW this year—and to expand our footprint at the event to this amazing two-day Summit.

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 MJ Tangon, Upslash 

The post With 80+ Speakers, Join Us in Bringing Food to the Forefront of Big Conversations at SXSW appeared first on Food Tank.

The Dairy Business Innovation (DBI) Initiatives, Congressionally-allocated funds that support dairy businesses under the 2018 Farm Bill, are frozen under new government rules. Two Ohio grant recipients affected by the freeze share their concerns with Food Tank about job loss, interrupted growth, debt, and weakened local economies. 

DBI grants are housed by four regional hubs, which distribute funds to over 400 dairy businesses nationwide. In the Midwest, this hub is called the Dairy Business Innovation Alliance (DBIA), administered by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association (WCMA) and the Center for Dairy Research in the Midwest. At the time of the funding freeze, the DBIA had 88 DBI awards in process including over US$6.5 million in outstanding promised reimbursements, according to the WCMA. Nationwide, dairy businesses have lost access to an estimated US$28.6 million in promised funds.

Alissa Vieira owns and runs Swanky Scoops, a small ice creamery in Toledo, OH. She had hoped to use her DBI award of about US$75,000 to purchase a new batch freezer, add and advertise a retail component, and hire and train new employees. While she was able to purchase some equipment, she says plans for retail may need to be pushed back due to the freeze.

“When I got the email, it was really shocking that this was now going to be affecting me, personally, and my business,” Vieira tells Food Tank. “You put all of these plans in place to grow your business and forecast and think about what the future holds. And then when you’re not able to grow the way you were expecting to, it’s just really disheartening.”

Sara Bornick, CEO of streetpops in Cincinnati, is in a different position: she had already spent most of her US$100,000 grant and is now unsure whether she will be receiving the promised reimbursement.

“We operated in good faith, trusting that the funds promised to us would be available as outlined,” Bornick wrote in a letter to the DBIA. “Now, with US$65,000 already spent out of pocket and no reimbursement, we’re left with outstanding financial obligations and no clarity on when or if the remaining US$35,000 will come through.”

Both Vieira and Bornick had hoped to use the grant money to strengthen local economies. “A key part of our plan was to source dairy directly from Ohio dairy farmers, strengthening the local supply chain while ensuring the highest quality ingredients for our pops,” says Bornick. “By doing so, we aimed to support regional agriculture, create economic opportunities for farmers, and provide consumers with delicious, farm-fresh frozen treats.”

“I really try to spend my money in ways that keep it as close to home as possible. I see a lot of other small businesses in Toledo do the same,” Vieira echoes. “Losing this grant funding is going to have a trickle-down effect on the money that I would be spending on my vendors that are here in this area. They’re losing my sales, potentially, in the future as well.”

Job creation is another key concern for both business owners. The WCMA reports that nearly 90 percent of DBIA funds have been awarded to businesses employing fewer than 50 people. Swanky Scoops, Vieira’s ice creamery, has only two year-round employees, expanding to about five employees in the summer months.

“It affects our ability to add more staff members,” Vieira explains. “One of the things I wrote about in my grant application was about looking forward to the opportunity to create jobs, and that would be impacted for sure.” Bornick also says streetpops’ ability to sustain jobs is at risk. 

Swanky Scoops’ marketing director Lindsay Williams emphasizes the scale of the impact. “It’s my livelihood. But it’s 88 farmers in the Midwest, to the tune of US$6.5 million dollars, 400-plus across the country,” Williams tells Food Tank. “And you think about that ripple effect. If we can’t buy that new piece of machinery, that’s a salesperson that doesn’t get their cut, that’s a delivery driver that doesn’t get to drive the machine over. It’s bigger. It’s way bigger.”

After hearing about the freeze, Vieira and Bornick both took action. Swanky Scoops created a petition for their customers and invited community members to a letter-writing event. Bornick wrote a letter to the DBIA urging them to release the funds. The WCMA also created a petition and wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins. 

“The funds provided through DBIs empower dairy farmers and processors to grow their capacity, explore new innovations, and become more resilient,” said Rebekah Sweeney, WCMA Senior Director of Programs & Policy. “These programs are much more than money—they strengthen the fabric of America’s dairy industry.”

The business owners hope to spread the word and connect with other affected grant recipients. “I hope that other businesses that are being affected will also make it public knowledge,” Vieira says. “So that we all know we’re not alone in this.”

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.

The post The Ripple Effects of Federal Grant Freezes: Small Business Owners Share Their Stories appeared first on Food Tank.

The California legislature’s Joint Committee on Climate Change Policies kicked off a public discussion last Wednesday about reauthorizing the state’s Cap-and-Trade Program, which is set to expire in 2030. This discussion and the likely legislation that results from it will

The post Legislature Begins Debate on Future of State’s Cap-and-Trade Program & Climate Investments appeared first on CalCAN - California Climate & Agriculture Network.

WASHINGTON – Montana Farmers Union (MFU) President Walter Schweitzer today testified in front of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock, Dairy and Poultry, to detail the current state […]

The post Montana Farmers Union President Delivers Testimony to House Agriculture Committee on the State of the Livestock Industry first appeared on National Farmers Union.

WASHINGTON – National Farmers Union President Rob Larew commented today on the President’s decision to implement tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China.   “The tariffs announced today, along with retaliatory measures […]

The post American Farmers and Ranchers Bear the Brunt of Tariffs first appeared on National Farmers Union.

In mid-February, the National Healthy Soils Policy Network gathered in Washington, DC—on the ancestral lands of the Nacotchtank and Piscataway peoples—at a time when the Trump administration’s freeze on federal funding and government staff layoffs were having immediate impacts on

The post Advocates from 18 states strategize and connect for climate soil solutions in Washington DC appeared first on CalCAN - California Climate & Agriculture Network.

By Manlio Masucci, Navdanya International

A campaign to encourage Italian municipalities to approve a resolution declaring their territories free from genetically modified crops.

GMO-Free Municipalities and Regions is the campaign launched by the Centro Internazionale Crocevia and the Associazione Rurale Italiana (ARI), with the support of Navdanya International, calling on local administrations to declare themselves free from GMOs, including those obtained through New Genomic Techniques.

From the associations’ websites, it is possible to download a draft resolution that, once adapted to the local context, can be brought to vote and approved. This initiative follows the persistent attempts by the European Union to deregulate next-generation GMOs, exempting them from current rules on traceability, labeling, and risk assessment.

This political agenda has been driven by the powerful industrial lobby, which, following the Europeanization of the American corporation Monsanto—acquired by the German company Bayer—has invested substantial resources to push for deregulation in Europe. According to the national coalition Italia Libera da Ogm, this political shift threatens biodiversity, small-scale farming, and farmers’ and citizens’ right to know and choose, while reinforcing multinational corporate control over seeds and the entire food system. For these reasons, the bottom-up initiative GMO-Free Municipalities and Regions directly appeals to citizens and local governments to defend food sovereignty and protect their territories.

Leading the way in this campaign is a small municipality in central Italy. The Municipality of Poppi, in the province of Arezzo, has become the first in Europe to unanimously approve a resolution declaring its territory GMO-free. Poppi recently organized an event, with the support of various organizations, including the Casentino biodistrict, featuring internationally renowned geneticist Salvatore Ceccarelli and researcher Stefania Grando.

But this is not the only initiative. Among the key voices in the fight against GMOs is the president of Navdanya International, Vandana Shiva. Her biographical film The Seeds of Vandana Shiva will soon be screened in Poppi and, on March 2, it was screened at the farmers’ market in Manziana (Province of Rome), organized by the association Articulturae. On this occasion, the book Why Stop New GMOs by Francesco Paniè and Stefano Mori, published by Terra Nuova Edizioni, was also presented.

The organizers of the Manziana farmers’ market have already proposed extending the GMO-Free label to networks of farmers’ markets nationwide. These are just some of the many initiatives spreading at the national and international levels to counteract a trend that benefits only agrochemical multinationals while further jeopardizing small-scale farming and putting agricultural biodiversity at serious risk.

Learn more:

GMOs must not be deregulated

WASHINGTON – National Farmers Union (NFU) hosted 71 students and educators in Minneapolis from February 13 to February 16 for the annual College Conference on Cooperatives (CCOC). The three-day conference […]

The post National Farmers Union Concludes the 2025 College Conference on Cooperatives in Minneapolis first appeared on National Farmers Union.

Today, Farm Action released a report exposing how the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has enabled fraud and abuse within commodity checkoff programs by failing to meet legal oversight requirements. 

Checkoff programs were initially voluntary farmer-funded initiatives to support industry research and marketing efforts, but they have since evolved into mandatory fees that farmers must pay when they sell any of 22 products, including beef, soybeans, milk, and more. The USDA is responsible for overseeing these funds to ensure they are used for their intended purpose, but the programs have a long history of fraud and abuse. 

“Farm Action has documented the illegal use of checkoff funds for lobbying activities, despite USDA’s court claim that it provides oversight to “every word” of the checkoff programs. Materials from our Freedom of Information Act requests reveal that USDA is not overseeing checkoff programs in the way it claims to be or at the level required by law,” said Farm Action co-founder Joe Maxwell, a Missouri hog, sheep, and grain producer. 

“USDA has failed America’s farmers and ranchers, who deserve better than to have our hard-earned dollars funneled to corporate agriculture lobbyists who campaign against our interests,” Maxwell continued. 

Farm Action’s report details our FOIA requests, what we found, what the findings mean, and what actions must be taken to address them. 

• North Dakota Soybean Council: Illegally spent $85,000 in checkoff funds on lobbying. Farm Action found no evidence of the expected USDA approval of their budgets or programs.
• Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council and Iowa Soybean Association: Checkoff funds were used for a program that engaged in lobbying activities. The program’s description has since been altered after concerns were raised, but the activities appeared unchanged. No evidence of USDA approval was found.
• Montana Beef Council: While the council submitted financial reports and budgets, there was a marked reduction in oversight of promotional materials starting in 2020.

Along with the report, Farm Action sent a letter to recently appointed USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins, asking her to immediately halt all approvals of checkoff expenditures until full compliance audits can be completed and made public, and then work with Congress to reform the programs. If the commodity checkoffs cannot be reformed, Farm Action urges Secretary Rollins to terminate or suspend them. 

These most recent findings are part of a long list of instances where USDA’s lax oversight of checkoff programs has been exposed. Farm Action’s network of farmers and ranchers has demanded increased transparency and accountability of the programs for years. 

Media Contact: Emma Nicolas, enicolas@farmaction.us, 202-450-0094

These first few weeks of the second Trump administration have been marked by an onslaught of executive orders targeting the federal workforce, global development assistance, queer and trans rights, scientific research and policies holding up and recognizing the contributions of diverse communities to American history and culture. Many of these have already been the subject of lawsuits and injunctions, though it’s not clear if the administration will back down or rush into a full-fledged constitutional crisis. It’s easy to feel spun by it all, and perhaps that is the larger point.

Folks who care about and support the food and farming sector, whether farmers, others who work in the industry, or advocates for social and environmental justice might be most outraged by the cancellation of legally binding funding for farming conservation programs, or the food that was destined to become international aid, but is currently rotting in warehouses because of cuts to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

But we also need to focus our resistance on support for some Trump’s most consistent and troubling targets—the roughly 14 million undocumented workers on whose labor we all depend. There is a clear line from his initial declaration of candidacy in 2015, when he rode down an escalator to warn us that Mexican immigrants were rapists brining drugs and crime to the recent transfer of shackled undocumented individuals to the Guantanamo Bay Prison made infamous by the photographic evidence of tortured detainees during the war on terror.

Last week, undocumented students and their allies at my university, University of California Santa Cruz, staged a one-day walk-out demanding material support from the university, including access to on-campus housing, increased food resources and other basic needs, and equitable access to campus work opportunities. Among the calls for “education not deportation” and pledges of non-cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was a sign with two traced hands that read “Don’t bite the hands that feed you.” This could be taken as a metaphor for all of the various ways that we depend on undocumented workers, or it could be literal.

According to the Center for American Progress, just under 1.7 million of these workers are employed in the food sector—cultivating our produce, manufacturing our processed foods, slaughtering our meat and bussing our tables. After the inauguration, there were speculative reports that many of these workers would not show up out of fear of ICE raids and deportation, bringing the food industry to its knees. While these reports were exaggerated, they underscore the degree to which our food system, from farms to processing to grocery and restaurant work, depend on undocumented workers. Agriculture is particularly notorious for the egregiously cruel treatment of these workers, including low pay, lack of basic health protections, rampant sexual assault and, in at least one instance, literal imprisonment in a labor camp surrounded by barbed wire. The threat of deportation looms over worker efforts to organize, though the remarkable struggles of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers demonstrate enormous courage and skill amidst these horrors.

It should not take much to convince those of us who work to create more sustainable and just food systems that the humane treatment of food workers, including a pathway to citizenship, is an essential part of our struggle. But in the 20 years I’ve been studying and advocating for a racial justice perspective on food systems, workers’ rights have too-often been treated as tangential. Many of us come to the food movement out of health and environmental concerns. And, of course, those are important reasons to support the creation of local and organic food systems.

Increasingly, the food movement has also come to embrace and sometimes even center issues of racial justice. We have evolved from a movement that finds its power in individual consumption and voting with your fork to one that understands the link between food apartheid and diet-related health disparities. We’ve learned why Black farmers call the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) the “last plantation” and have advocated for increased support for Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian farmers. But even as food justice becomes a more prominent theme within food movement advocacy, support for workers remains at the margins. Perhaps this is because so much of the movement has focused on supporting farmers and helping to address their financial needs. Increasing labor costs and benefits are in tension with these needs, even among the most sustainable, ethical and diverse farm owners.

In their new book, Will Work for Food: Labor Across the Food System, Laura-Anne Minkoff Zern and Teresa Mares explore working conditions in seven sectors of front-line food labor, ranging from production agriculture to waste removal. They describe massive exploitation, with women, BIPOC and undocumented workers facing the most violent conditions. But they also celebrate the victories and potential for cross-sector organizing—organizing that targets those firms that make the most money in the food system rather than only immediate employers. Most food activists know that the lion’s share of money spent on food goes not to the producer, but to the corporate-owned processors, grocery stores and restaurants. The efforts of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers are illustrative here, in that they won concessions from those who sell the food as well as those who grow it. Minkoff-Zern and Mares put forward a vision of food labor organizing that could garner increased support from small and mid-sized sustainable farmers, and those who love them. By targeting the increasingly consolidated corporate actors that food activists have long opposed, they offer new opportunities for alliances. And indeed, this is an essential moment to resist consolidated corporate power as it flexes its growing political muscle.

What first drew me to food activism more than 20 years ago was how expansive its worldview was, how its vision of working with ecological wisdom could color so many aspects of our lives, from the ways we worked to the ways we gathered and built community. Today, the values of social and environmental justice that animate this vision are under attack from so many directions. As we stand up against cuts to food and agriculture businesses and research, it’s important that we also center the lives and livelihoods of workers who are essential to our sustenance, and remember not to bit the hands that feed us.

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

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Over six decades, intensive agricultural practices in India have reduced natural capital, including the stock of all-natural assets (land, air, water and biodiversity), from which ecosystem services flow. Ecosystem services are the benefits provided by nature and managed by farmers on their farmland. For example, soil and vegetation on farms remove carbon from the atmosphere, regulate hydrological flows, and shelter pollinators who pollinate crops. Farm margins give refuge to several beneficial insects that, in turn, provide biological control of insect pests and diseases, nutrient cycling by soil micro and macrofauna, and social benefits supporting culture and heritage. These are the benefits nature provides to support agriculture and the broader economy. Some of these, such as food, fiber, and energy, are marketed, and the market compensates farmers. However, other ecosystem services remain out of the market as there are no buyers. Just as we do not pay nature to provide these ecosystem services, we do not compensate farmers for managing them. Farmers manage these subsidies of “nature” on their farmland, free for the public.

Natural capital and ecosystem services also contribute trillions of dollars to the economy. But intensive agricultural practices prevalent since the Green Revolution began in the 1960s in India suppressed many ecosystem services and threatens India’s food, ecological, and nutritional security. Soil organic carbon in arable land in India has been reduced from 2.4 percent in 1947 to 0.4 percent, well below the 1.5 percent threshold needed for food security. Mineral density in rice and wheat has declined, while toxic elements have increased over this period, compromising nutritional security.

Industrial agri-food systems in India also cost US$1,338 billion annually in hidden damages to health, society, and the environment. The current fertilizer industry, subsidized at US$20 billion, causes 25 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, and intensive practices continue to promote their injudicious use. Because of the loss of soil health, fertilizer response has reduced drastically. Two-thirds of the fertilizers applied on the farm are not available for the plants due to loss of organic matter. Under the current intensive agriculture regime, India risks food shortages driven by rising demand, climate impacts, soil degradation, loss of natural capital and ecosystem services and declining fertilizer efficacy.

Regenerative farming, however, can reduce the decline of natural capital on farmland, enhances many ecosystem services, climate resiliency, and improves productivity and profitability. Natural capital and ecosystem services constitute farms’ ecological wealth. Global research indicates that these ecosystem services provide greater value for sustainable farming than intensive agriculture. Intensive agriculture has replaced some ecosystem services over the years. For example, the replacement of soil nutrient cycling with synthetic fertilizers and the replacement of biological control of pests and diseases with synthetic pesticides worldwide. In contrast, sustainable agriculture, such as regenerative, natural or organic farming, utilizes some ecosystem services to provide food, fiber and energy and enhance other highly economically valuable ecosystem services for the public benefit. It can be concluded that sustainable agriculture does better than intensive agriculture practices, where ecosystem services are suppressed and often substituted by costly, fossil fuel-based agrochemicals.

Indian farmland, at 178 million hectares, is one of the single largest land uses in India. If it follows sustainable agricultural practices, it can, on average, generate ecosystem services worth US$119 billion annually. Farmers can realize some of this value through increased productivity and incomes via improved natural capital (e.g., soil health and biodiversity) on their farms. Some of this ecological wealth will add to the nation’s GDP through wider public benefits, such as the removal of carbon from the atmosphere, better ground cover, reduction in air pollution often linked to the burning of crop residues, and better groundwater quality, which can result in better health and wellbeing of society.

India has an opportunity to value regenerative farming and invest in agroecological-based regenerative farming to redesign its agriculture. Regenerative farming reduces costs, improves soil health, conserves groundwater, and boosts productivity. Testing and promoting such practices nationwide can create scalable models for the rapid adoption and transformation of Indian agriculture.

We are calling for support from national and international organizations that can help us develop a program to assess the status of regenerative farming in India and its efficacy across all 15 agro-climatic zones. This will help us develop a scalable model for the uptake of regenerative farming in India. These measures will help India transition towards sustainability by redesigning its agriculture and ensuring food, nutritional, and ecological security.

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Photo courtesy of Shruti Singh, Upslash 

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