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Summer Work Party Announcement
Hello friends!
Thank you for reading, we are grateful to have you with us. Another summer season is upon us and the wildflowers are winking, the butterflies are hovering, and the bears are bringing their cubs to forage for the first time.
The Unist’ot’en Healing Centre continues to provide low-barrier care to Wet’suwet’en people seeking to reconnect with their territories and embrace land and culturally based healing practices. Clients and guests have continued to return to the Healing Centre to work on themselves and heal the effects of colonization on their bodies and hearts, and the Unist’ot’en clan continue to fight against industrial development on their sovereign Yintah.
We are heading into summer up here in the North, and instead of our usual two work parties, we are doing one extra long one, August 1st until September 7th, and we could use your help!
All skills are welcome but especially: skilled tradespeople (plumbing, electrical, carpenters, etc.), dishwashers, mechanics, herbalists, cooks, chainsaw operators, and people familiar with off-grid systems. If you aren’t sure if you are ready for a trip like this, we encourage you to fill out the registration form and have a chat with our volunteers. They can give you an idea of what things are like day to day, and help you see how you fit in.
If you can’t join this year but wish to help, Camp is especially needing:
- Donations of flights for supporters (Etransfer, PayPal, or Aeroplan points via the Air Canada gift card system) or gas money
- Places to stay on the way to and from camp, anywhere from Cache Creek to Prince George
- Reliable vehicles to borrow for the drive to and from Camp from Vancouver
- People to drive (especially with their own vehicles) to and from Camp from Vancouver
- Donations to the grocery fund for the Work Party
For registration, please read https://unistoten.camp/come-to-camp/preparing-for-your-visit/ and then register through https://unistoten.camp/registration/. To arrange to sponsor a flight, donate to the supply fund, or volunteer as a driver, please write to unistoten.village@gmail.com and a volunteer will get back to you as soon as possible.
In news down south, allies in Vancouver are part of the campaign to recall MLA Dallas Brodie. Dallas was removed from the BC Conservative Party last year over her racist statements about residential school survivors and is now using her office as an MLA to forward a white nationalist agenda. The grassroots campaign was accepted by Elections BC and has until July 20 to deliver 13,000 signatures to Victoria. Find them at “recallbrodie” on Facebook and Instagram and at www.recallbrodie.com.
May your summer be bright and rebellious,
Unist’ot’en Camp
Youth & Territory: Building Community Through Agroecology
Creating community around agroecology was the core mission of our educational pathways on youth leadership and ecoliteracy. These journeys culminated in Youth & Territory: Pathways in Agroecology and Citizenship, an event that brought together a diverse range of actors from the Lake Bracciano area.
Students, school communities, and local farmers met with representatives from the Ministry of the Environment (MASE), Mara Cossu and Tiziana Occhino, alongside regional councillor Marta Bonafoni and the mayor of Bracciano, Marco Crocicchi, to share their visions for a territory rooted in active citizenship and agroecological practices.
Students presented the projects they co-created during this year’s participatory processes focused on caring for the land: tangible outcomes of a collective journey in ecoliteracy and agroecology. A shared vision emerged: that of a living territory, where environmental protection and the production of healthy, local food become concrete, collective action.
At the close of the dialogue with institutions, the young participants had the opportunity to present their work through a collective art exhibition, while outside an aperitivo featuring local products was set up, to be enjoyed to the sounds of a student-led DJ set.
This is a tangible outcome of the Terrae Vivae program, whose results were shared within the framework of the Officine Municipali project, a community space offering free coworking and a collaborative platform dedicated to ecological action, ecoliteracy, and agroecology, open to all. An open, shared, and participatory space where agroecology becomes collective, community-driven action.
The projects are supported by the Italian Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security within the framework of the SNSvS6 Call – Sustainability Drivers and Ecology, and by the Italian Buddhist Union through its Ecology programme and 8×1000 funding scheme.
They were implemented in collaboration with the agricultural institute “Salvo D’Acquisto,” IIS Luca Paciolo, and the Ignazio Vian Scientific High School, together with the farms Fattoria Ecologica Le Bricchiette, Azienda Agricola La Argentina, and L’Orto di Clapi.
We thank Erbaccelab, together with Azienda Agricola Gentili and Fattoria Faraoni, for the agroecological catering.
The event was promoted within the framework of the project “Coworking Space Bracciano – Ecofficine,” co-funded by PR Lazio ESF+ 2021–2027, and hosted at the Officine Municipali in Bracciano.
Project “Coworking Space Bracciano” – CUP F11I24000190009 – co-funded by the European Union under PR Lazio ESF+ 2021–2027, Priority 1 Employment, Specific Objective ESO4.2 AC19, Call “Officine Municipali” (DD G05680/2023).
Beneficiary: Municipality of Bracciano. Managing partner: Navdanya International ETS.
CUP: F11I24000190009 – Sigem Code: 23019DC000000106
Photo credits: Maela Bonafede
RNs at Prime Saint Mary of Nazareth to protest Wednesday their employer’s illegal crackdown of their efforts to unionize
Revealed: Floods have forced at least 67 closures at NHS hospitals since 2021
At least 67 NHS hospital wards, departments and other sites across the UK have been forced to temporarily close or relocate due to weather-related flooding over the past five years, a Carbon Brief investigation reveals.
Maternity centres, surgical theatres, a neonatal intensive-care unit and even entire hospital buildings have been disrupted by heavy rainfall or encroaching floodwaters.
Carbon Brief submitted freedom-of-information (FOI) requests to 162 NHS trusts, which show that while many flood-related shutdowns were brief, some lasted for weeks or months.
In total, 148 trusts responded to these requests with reports of 67 flood-related shutdowns, giving detailed data for 30 incidents that resulted in a total of 3,000 days of closures.
Reports of flooding at NHS sites have been on the rise, according to NHS England data.
This comes as the UK experiences wetter winters, with periods of extreme rainfall that are increasingly linked to human-caused climate change.
These floods can exacerbate existing problems in a healthcare system that is already struggling with insufficient funding, old hospital buildings and a backlog of maintenance work.
Indeed, while there have been efforts to make UK hospitals more resilient to extreme weather, one expert tells Carbon Brief that such measures are difficult to implement when these institutions are struggling to keep their “heads above water”.
Rising floodsFloods pose a threat to people’s health, but they also threaten the UK’s healthcare infrastructure. Water can enter hospitals, paralyse ambulance services and damage equipment, placing strain on an already stretched NHS.
NHS records show that the number of flood incidents “caused by external weather events” in facilities across England has doubled since 2021, reaching nearly 400 in 2024-25.
Equivalent data is not available for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, although there have been reports of floods disrupting services across the whole UK.
As global temperatures rise and the atmosphere holds more moisture, UK winters are getting wetter. Attribution studies show climate change has increased the severity of recent rainfall and flooding events – including Storm Eunice in 2022 and Storm Babet in 2023.
There is also a risk of increased flooding when heavy rain hits after periods of intense drought, of the kind seen in recent years.
Environment Agency modelling suggests that a rising share of medical facilities in England will be at risk of flooding due to climate change. It says the share of sites at risk will increase from a quarter in 2024 to a third by the middle of the century.
Despite this apparent threat facing the UK’s healthcare system, there is limited information about the extent to which these floods are already disrupting NHS services.
Closed servicesTo build a fuller picture of NHS-wide flooding, Carbon Brief sent FOI requests to 162 trusts and health boards – the organisations in charge of health services – across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
They were asked for details of wards, departments or services that had been temporarily or permanently closed due to weather-related flooding, such as river floods or heavy rainfall, between 2021-22 and the start of 2026.
In total, 148 of these bodies responded with details of 67 incidents in which weather-related floods have triggered closures. The map below shows where these incidents were located, from hospital wards in Scotland to an eye unit on the south coast of England.
Sites of weather-related flooding incidents at NHS facilities. The size of the circles indicates the number of incidents reported at each site. Source: NHS trust FOI responses to Carbon Brief.The 67 flooding-related disruptions reported by NHS trusts and health boards is likely an underestimate. Many trusts told Carbon Brief they did not record such detailed information or that collating it would be too time-consuming.
Nevertheless, the results provide an insight into the kind of risks facing NHS services as weather gets more extreme.
Among the closures were 13 accident and emergency (A&E) departments, urgent treatment centres and minor injuries units. There were also 10 hospital wards, 10 surgical theatres, five maternity units and a neonatal intensive-care unit affected by flooding.
Many trusts did not provide information about how long each closure lasted. However, the 30 incidents where timespans were provided add up to the equivalent of more than 3,000 days – or eight years – of closures across NHS sites.
The infographic below provides a snapshot of some notable closures from the dataset.
Notable incidents of weather-related flooding at NHS facilities. Source: FOI responses to Carbon Brief. Notable incidents of weather-related flooding at NHS facilities. Source: FOI responses to Carbon Brief. .cb-mobile{ display:none; } @media (max-width:650px){ .cb-mobile{ display:inherit; } .cb-desktop{ display:none } }The entire Buckland Hospital site in Dover closed for two days in 2025 amid “exceptional rainfall” and flash floods. People seeking radiology, maternity and urgent-care services were told not to visit over the weekend and various clinical services were delayed or cancelled.
The NHS declared a “major incident” in 2021 when flood waters “caused power outages impacting multiple areas” at Whipps Cross Hospital in north-east London – including its maternity service – for four days. Neighbouring hospitals also flooded.
Some closures lasted far longer. In Stroud General Hospital, a surgical theatre was closed for two weeks and an X-ray facility for around two months after storm water overflowed into the building in 2023.
Several NHS trusts stressed that the flooding incidents they reported were localised – often resulting from roof leaks exacerbated by heavy rain – and resulted in minimal disruption. Sometimes, as with a cardiology suite in Cannock Chase Hospital, the service was moved and the trust says patient care was not disrupted.
However, the responses also showed the breadth of damage such events can cause, including rainwater “pouring onto expensive equipment” and floods triggering the long-term relocation of services.
For example, Orchard Cottage, a site that provided care for adults with learning disabilities in Derbyshire, experienced major flooding during Storm Babet in 2023 and was permanently shut down as a result.
Adaptation needsThe UK Health Alliance on Climate Change, a group of UK health organisations, concluded in a report in 2025 that, with flood risks projected to grow, there is an “urgent need for adaptation measures” across the nation’s healthcare facilities.
Government advisors at the Climate Change Committee have highlighted the need for flood resilience in UK hospitals, including flood barriers, waterproofed electricals and built-in redundancy for critical areas, such as theatres, labs and IT equipment.
There have been various measures at both government and NHS level intended to improve the resilience of medical facilities to climate-related hazards.
The UK’s national adaptation programme sets out expectations for NHS England to “adapt NHS infrastructure to extreme weather events”. All trusts must have “green plans” in place, which require climate change to be factored into infrastructure decisions, for example, through the creation of drainage systems or green spaces.
Yet, as it stands, three-quarters of UK doctors say their workplaces are not prepared for the impact of extreme weather and nearly half of healthcare workers report that extreme weather has disrupted NHS services in the past five years.
Many hospitals have outdated infrastructure – often predating the founding of the NHS – which was not designed to cope with climate change. Prof Hugh Montgomery, chair of intensive-care medicine at University College London, tells Carbon Brief:
“The hospitals themselves weren’t built for this weather any more than anything else is really – and of course it’s going to get worse, in an exponential function.”
Many of the FOI responses provided to Carbon Brief identified specific building defects, such as roof leaks, which led to the flooding incidents during periods of heavy rainfall. There is a huge – and growing – backlog of maintenance work at NHS hospitals that was estimated in 2024-25 to need repairs costing £15.9bn.
Chris Naylor, a senior fellow at the King’s Fund, a thinktank focusing on health policy, tells Carbon Brief:
“Dealing with some of the backlog maintenance would probably help with climate adaptation as well, because of leaky roofs and all the rest of it. But we do also need to be thinking specifically about climate adaptation within the NHS and making sure there is funding for that.”
Montgomery points out that with trusts “mostly bankrupt” and most hospitals running a deficit, the question remains how to fund such interventions. “They’re struggling to keep their heads above water and they’re losing money,” he says.
Dr Mark Harber, a consultant nephrologist and special adviser on climate change at the Royal College of Physicians, tells Carbon Brief that hospitals at least need to make plans for extreme weather. This is particularly important for patients in need of time-dependent and life-saving treatments, such as kidney dialysis and chemotherapy.
Harber notes that hospitals, supply chains and transport could all be disrupted by floods:
“You have to have plans in place to deal with that, even if the NHS can’t deal with the flooding risk per se.”
Carbon Brief asked NHS England – which is responsible for the majority of the trusts that reported flooding disruption – for comment, but had not received a response at the time of publication.
MethodologyThe list of incidents reported by trusts can be viewed here.
Carbon Brief sent FOI requests to 120 English NHS trusts that have reported any incidents of flooding since 2021 in NHS England’s Estates Returns Information Collection (ERIC) dataset. This covers around 60% of all English NHS trusts.
Carbon Brief also filed FOI requests with all 42 of the health boards and trusts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which are equivalent to English NHS trusts.
All trusts and health boards were asked for details of wards, departments or services that have been temporarily or permanently closed due to weather-related flooding, such as river flooding or heavy rainfall.
This matches the wording used to describe a flooding event in the ERIC system, which requires the reporting of all flood events “caused by external weather events” that trigger a risk assessment by staff. Such external events are distinct from floods caused by other issues that are not related to the weather, such as burst pipes.
In total, 14 trusts did not respond and many more said they did not hold the data requested. Some trusts provided data, but on further questioning stated that the data they provided covered all flooding events and it was not possible to say which were related to weather conditions. These cases have not been included in the final dataset.
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| jQuery(document).ready(function() { jQuery('.block-related-articles-slider-block_25973dcf4e61df3c58a69b8c3eef787c .mh').matchHeight({ byRow: false }); });The post Revealed: Floods have forced at least 67 closures at NHS hospitals since 2021 appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Ontario solar generation land requirements
This factsheet looks at how much land would be required for solar systems that could meet all of Ontario's electricity needs. It finds that 4/10ths of one percent of Ontario's landbase would be enough area to meet all of Ontario's current electricity demand. Ontario covers a massive land area bigger than many countries. It has
The post Ontario solar generation land requirements appeared first on Ontario Clean Air Alliance.
The Path Forward from Global Water Bankruptcy
A recent United Nations report declares the world is facing a state of water bankruptcy that will force food and agriculture systems to adapt.
Across the globe, surface waters and glaciers are shrinking, wetlands have been liquidated, and groundwater has been depleted, the report states. As water insecurity grows, agricultural heartlands are running off a diminished supply, and water quality is decreasing. According to the U.N., current expectations around water governance are no longer relevant.
The term water crisis has been used to refer to systemic issues in water systems, explains Kaveh Madani, Director of the U.N. University Institute for Water, Environment and Health (UNU-INWEH) and author of the report. But he says it’s no longer appropriate for the current reality. “The term “water crisis” implies a temporary shock and deviation from the baseline,” he tells Food Tank. “But we are dealing with a new normal—a post-crisis state of failure.”
The report reveals that humanity’s use of freshwater has surpassed the Earth’s limits. Withdrawals from many aquifers and basins are greater than what the planet can afford. This requires terminology that reflects this new reality, Madani argues.
“Water bankruptcy reminds us that some of the damages are irreversible and that we require investing in adaptation to a new normal,” he says.
The agriculture sector—responsible for nearly 70 percent of freshwater withdrawals globally, according to the report—is particularly vulnerable to water shortages. In countries where agriculture constitutes a large fraction of the workforce, the impacts of water bankruptcy are intensified. Yields decline, livestock systems become dysregulated, the income of farmers and farm workers suffers. In turn, food prices rise.
But Madani says there is still a sustainable path forward for humanity’s relationship with water, and it begins with telling the truth and using the right language. “Declaring water bankruptcy, just like financial bankruptcy, is a difficult admission for anyone to make,” Madani tells Food Tank. “The language of water bankruptcy, when used by decision-makers, is meant to liberate them of their past lack of transparency and overreliance on short-term, unsustainable measures.”
Farmers are trying to manage water shortages by reducing the size of irrigated land and ramping up the use of water-efficient technology and crops, Madani explains. But they need support from policymakers to help fund their efforts. “Governments must offer alternative economic modes of life to farmers…which entails diversifying national economies and offering compensation for stranded investments.”
A just transition framework is central to planning, Madani argues. Those with the least amount of economic and political power are most likely to bear the brunt of water bankruptcy’s harms, the report explains. That’s why it argues that the restructuring of water governance must ensure legal safeguards, compensation, livelihood diversification, and social protection for societally disenfranchised populations.
The report also calls on nations to prevent further irreparable harm. This means ensuring that remaining wetlands, aquifers, soils, glaciers, ecosystems, and species are protected through government policy.
But water bankruptcy offers an unexpected opportunity, the report states. If recognized as the crisis it is, it can be a “catalyst for renewed cooperation.
“Water is not a resource like any other. It is the crux of human security, global food systems, biodiversity, public health, and peace,” Madani tells Food Tank.
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Photo courtesy of Elibet Valencia Munoz
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Ontario classrooms are being stripped down to the bare minimum
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The Land Workers’ Alliance Responds to the Land Use Framework for England
The Land Use Framework for England, published by its government in March 2026, sets out a plan for how England can use its land more effectively to meet the intersecting needs of housing, infrastructure and farming, while also protecting biodiversity, habitats and nature’s living systems.
The post The Land Workers’ Alliance Responds to the Land Use Framework for England appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.
The Forgotten History of ‘Bloody 66’ And How Public Memory Helps Perpetuate Traffic Violence
A century ago, businessmen, automobile clubs, and politicians came together to form the U.S. 66 Highway Association. Unlike the congestion-obsessed highway-builders of today, they wanted traffic, which they saw as synonymous with a burgeoning, mass-motoring public who would spend money in their towns. They even advertised Route 66 as “Main Street of America.”
Known as an “all-year-all-weather-road” and the “Mother Road,” Route 66 was 200 miles shorter than any other transcontinental railway or highway at the time, making it the speediest route between Chicago and Los Angeles, the Association bragged. It was also touted as an economic engine, generating new jobs for men to lay asphalt across the country. More importantly, though, it was an opportunity to mythologize an enduring new idea: America’s “open road.”
But as with all myths, many people are left out of frame.
“It wasn’t really the fun, happy place we think of when we look back at the ‘good ole days,'” wrote Barry Duncan in his pictorial book Route 66: A Trail of Tears, which compiles the work of car crash photographer and Carthage, Mo. mayor William Carl Taylor. “Many were maimed or killed during the existence of Route 66.”
Photo: William Carl Taylor via Route 66 A Trail of TearsThe title of Duncan’s book may be an insensitive reference to the forced displacement of American Indian tribes from the South and Southeast, but there’s no doubt that Route 66 has a long and violent history of its own. The author served in the Carthage, MO police force between 1977 and 2009, and claims to have witnessed over 2,000 wrecks personally, in addition to curating Taylor’s grisly collection in his book.
And that collection speaks to those tragedies stark terms. Fender benders stand next to piles of unrecognizable rubble. Cabs are literally flattened. Dozens stand around overturned vehicles. A service station entrance is smashed. Civilians help carry stretchers to ambulances. Police officers stare at cars from a distance and write on notepads. A girl cries.
One crash that particularly haunted Duncan involved a family called the Ruminers. In 1957, they were traveling Route 66 from Washington State to their relatives’ home in Mississippi for Christmas. On their way, they were crushed in a Ford sedan by an oncoming truck. The 28-year-old parents and their six-year-old twins were killed, leaving one child to survive with a fractured pelvis and foot.
In the media circus for Route 66’s centennial celebration this year, though, these kinds of stories remain mostly hidden – and the road’s once well-known nickname, “Bloody 66,” is almost nowhere to be found.
Photo: Christian Frommelt. On display at the National Museum of TransportationAt the Missouri History Museum’s Route 66 festival, for instance, ten pristine vintage cars line the front drive. A rockabilly tune fills the main lobby. Neon signs make a dark room glow. Placards trace the origins of “the concrete ribbon to adventure,” its local landmarks, and the challenges it posed to Black, queer, and Jewish travelers. You learn about the first McDonald’s west of the Mississippi, the birth of the Phillips 66 gasoline brand, and motor cottages.
But you don’t learn nearly as much about Route 66’s bodycount. In 1941, for instance, a single short stretch of the Mother Road near the Army training installation of Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri claimed the lives of 54 people in just nine months, including 19 American soldiers.
The National Museum of Transportation in suburban St. Louis, too, highlights local landmarks associated with the highway while largely ignoring its bloodshed. On display is a replica of the silver steamer S.S. Admiral, which travelers may have seen bridging the Mississippi. Drive-in theaters are featured, as “they symbolized freedom of the open highway, mid-century American design, community gathering spaces, and the romance of the open road.”
In another building, an exterior wall of the Coral Court Motel, impressively reconstructed, stands in a corner. Ten cars, one for each decade, face viewers as they might have once in a dealer’s window.
Photo: William Carl Taylor via Route 66 A Trail of TearsTo some, the story of Highway 66 is the story of a lost America. Route 66 represents a simpler, slower time before the Interstate, nostalgia for cross-country motoring in proximity with tree canopy, town squares, rivers, and diners. It represents postwar prosperity and adventure too; as Missouri History Museum Curator Sharon Smith says, “It is about finding hope in the west for the early years and excitement of Midwesterners traveling to the coast of California.”
The images Duncan published, though, present a shadow narrative. Greyhound buses and youngsters with bikes, generally left out of Route 66’s frame, enter it. The Studebaker is dented. The ambulance looms underneath the Phillips 66 sign. The girl is crying.
Americans aren’t supposed to die on Main Street. But many did – and still do.
The year Highway 66 opened 23,400 US residents died in motor vehicle crashes, more than 20 deaths per 100,000 residents, according to the National Safety Council. In 1953, fatalities ballooned to 37,956, or 24 deaths per 100,000 in the U.S.
Photo: Christian Frommelt. On display at the National Museum of TransportationSo what responsibility do the stewards of public memory have to account for the scale of automobile violence on America’s most iconic highway? And how does that responsibility shift when motorists are still killing nearly 37,000 people per year on US roads today — and when the automakers and oil companies who continue to fuel that killing still have their advertisements reproduced in centennial retrospectives?
It’s true that the Missouri History Museum’s exhibit offers at least one anecdote of an “accident,” and Smith assures that the perils of the road were addressed in a fuller exhibit in 2016. But overall, these stories are footnotes amidst what otherwise seems like a glowing tribute to automobility.
But you don’t have to look far to find evidence of Route 66’s dark side — or the many human lives it’s claimed. One Sedalia news article reports that First Lieutenant George Orchard of Richmond, VA died in a head-on collision on Highway 66 in 1941; he was the 21st soldier to be killed by cars within a year in the vicinity of Fort Leonard Wood, which the highway serves.
Photo: William Carl Taylor via Route 66 A Trail of TearsWidening the frame of Route 66 matters, too, because of how deadly legacy highways remain to this day.
For instance, on Gravois Avenue in St. Louis — which includes a portion of Historic 66 — 22 people were killed and 1,000 injured in car crashes between 2020 and 2024 alone. Meanwhile, the US Department of Transportation has rescinded a memorandum outlining how to improve legacy highways through Complete Streets, a toolkit that can keep humans safe in and outside of cars.
As DOT Secretary Sean Duffy calls for a “Golden Era” of transportation that coalesces around the “Freedom to Drive,” public memory plays an even greater role in confronting the deadly costs of “freedom” on the open road. We owe it to the dead not to forget.
Photo: William Carl Taylor via Route 66 A Trail of Tears Photo: William Carl Taylor via Route 66 A Trail of Tears“Don’t mention the climate!”
by David Spratt, first published at Pearls&Irritations
Acknowledgment rather than denial of a crisis’s reality is the key to coping with it, but the 2026 Australian Government budget is a continuation of the Labor Government’s denial of the urgent need to reduce carbon emissions before the climate reaches a tipping point.
The 2026 budget speech was titled ‘Resilience and reform’. ‘Resilience’ – a very fluid term favoured by political communicators these days – was deployed 13 times, but the word ‘climate’ failed to appear even once.
This glaring omission reaffirms the government’s reluctance – seemingly intentional – to discuss climate change risks, as I have previously discussed in P&I.
The budget continued the tax-friendly treatment of the fossil fuel industry and failed to reform tax loopholes and subsidies. The diesel Fuel Tax Credit scheme at a cost of $13 billion a year in 2026–27 was left untouched, and the broadly-supported proposal for a 25 per cent gas exports levy that would have delivered $17 billion annually was ignored. $2.2 billion over the next 14 years of the climate department funding was redirected.
How can we understand the government’s energy – and what’s left of its climate – policy? There are clear actions to support the transition from expensive gas and ageing coal plants to now cheaper and more reliable renewables and storage. But this has not so far significantly dented Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions because other sectors’ emissions continue to rise.
And the government is still giving licenses and tax advantages to new coal and gas exports, keeping Australia ranked in the top three in the world for gas and coal exports. Wherever possible, it promotes its ‘good-news’ domestic renewable energy policy, while avoiding discussion of future climate impacts.
Thus, Australia’s first climate and security risk assessment delivered in December 2022 by the Office of National Intelligence remains under lock and key. Even the Parliament, charged with making policy on the subject, is left in the dark. And the domestically focused National Climate Risk Assessment was proscribed from considering climate mitigation. It ended up low-balling on crucial issues.
This leaves Australians ill-prepared for what is to come. In his book, Upheaval, geographer and anthropologist Jarod Diamond concluded that the key predictors of success in responding to crisis and change are “acknowledgment rather than denial of a crisis’s reality; acceptance of responsibility to take action; and honest self-appraisal”, plus the “presence or absence of a shared national identity”, which can help a nation’s people recognise shared self-interest and unite in overcoming a crisis.
Four brief examples demonstrate that Australia is more at the denial than the acknowledgement end of the spectrum.
The first is the fate of the Office of National Intelligence report.
The second is the issue keeping climate scientists awake at night: the coming collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which transports tropical ocean heat to the northeast of North America and western Europe. AMOC is slowing down and now rapidly approaching a tipping point for its collapse over a hundred years.
This would be a going-out-of-business scenario for northwest European agriculture. Monsoons that typically deliver rain to West Africa and South Asia would become unreliable. Huge swathes of Europe and Russia would be devastated by drought. As much as half of the world’s viable area for growing corn and wheat could dry out. The southern hemisphere, including Australia, would become warmer and more prone to flooding. A regional food crisis could lead to large-scale people displacement and contribute to state breakdown and regional conflict.
Does that sound relevant to future food security for Australians – and regional security, too?
Yet there is barely a flicker of recognition about this from Australia’s political parties. A search of Hansard for the current parliamentary term (since May 2025) finds no reference to AMOC in either house.
The third example is the coming El Niño. Scientists are increasingly concerned that conditions now developing in the eastern Pacific will result in a ‘super’ El Niño later this year, perhaps the strongest ever recorded. In T_he_ New York Times, David Wallace-Wells writes it will:
… almost certainly [be] stronger than the ‘Super’ El Niño of 2015–16, and perhaps the most intense since the epochal El Niño of 1877… It’s almost certain that this El Niño will make 2027 the hottest year on record by some margin…A monster El Niño will give us at least a brief preview of a hotter and more chaotic world — a 2027 like we might’ve expected to see in 2035, and which not that long ago didn’t seem likely before 2050. ‘Prepare for bedlam’, the environmental writer Bill McKibben wrote earlier this year in anticipation.
For Australia, an El Niño means less rainfall and higher temperatures (drought) and less cooling cloud cover, including over the Great Barrier Reef. If this super El Niño eventuates, it will likely destroy swathes of the Great Barrier Reef, and produce record-breaking heat waves and severe fire risk, drought and lower crop yields and adverse health impacts on vulnerable Australians.
A check of Hansard for the current Parliament shows that no minister, or indeed Labor backbencher, in either house in the last year uttered a single sentence about the El Niño threat. Not a word! There are four mentions only by other parties: one by shadow minister Chester criticising the budget cuts to the Future Drought Fund; one by Greens Senator Whish-Wilson highlighting the issue in a short speech; and twice by Barnaby Joyce in what can only be described as wide-ranging rants.
The fourth example are the climate derailment and transition risks the government should have centre of mind. Transition risks are those associated with the move to a post-carbon economy. A recent study concluded the scale of the net-zero transformation means that reaching net zero will fundamentally overhaul vast parts of the global economy:
The transition is not simply a matter of swapping one energy source for another; it requires rebuilding infrastructure, retraining workers and redirecting trillions of dollars in investment…This uneven distribution of winners and losers will create difficult economic and political challenges, particularly during the transition period.
Even more pressing and most pertinent is derailment risk, where society becomes too distracted by escalating immediate crises to address the root causes of climate change by reducing emissions. A recent report by the UK Institute and Faculty of Actuaries, Parasol Lost, says an immediate step up in pace and preparedness can significantly reduce the impact of accelerated climate hazards, but warns that “global catastrophic risks, including economic shocks, are proximate”. And above 1.5°C:
We enter the danger zone where multiple climate tipping points may be triggered, such as the collapse of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, permafrost melt, Amazon dieback and changes in ocean circulation. Some tipping points accelerate climate change…meaning there is a point of no return, after which it may be impossible to stabilise the climate close to conditions that we are able to adapt to.
The world reached 1.5°C in 2023, 2024 and 2025, and likely will again in 2026 and 2027.
Is our parliament capable of coming to grips with climate risks of these magnitudes? Or is it easier to abide by a new maxim, “Don’t mention the climate!”
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Organic Farmland Investment: Turning Farmers into Owners
Iroquois Valley Farmland Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) recently launched a new program that grants equity shares to organic farmer partners. The approach, called the Farmer Success Sharing Plan, aims to support producers’ livelihoods and protect the land.
Farmland investors have long profited from rising real estate values but the farmers stewarding the land have not typically seen those capital gains, according to Iroquois Valley Farmland REIT. The organization’s new program is working to change this by treating farmers as true partners, leading the evolution of the farmland investment sector.
“As stewards of the organic farmland within Iroquois Valley’s portfolio, farmers play a central role in creating long-term value for the company and its shareholders,” says Drew Blankenbaker, Vice President of Farmer Relations at Iroquois Valley.
The plan gives farmers a way to own a piece of the company they work with. To qualify, farmers must lease land from Iroquois Valley and maintain organic standards to prove they are improving the soil. When the company is profitable, it issues equity shares to farmer partners, which allows producers to become legal shareholders. They earn the opportunity to own a piece of the rising land value that they co-created through years of hard work.
Adam Roberts, a farmer partner with Iroquois Valley, tells Food Tank that the program allows him to build long-term wealth without needing a huge upfront investment. He is already investing his time and paying for the land, which means the plan is rewarding that commitment by giving him a share of the company’s value. This is an opportunity that farmers don’t often receive, Roberts says. “The REIT shares are a great way to indirectly invest in the land you farm and directly invest in a company that has invested in you.”
While Iroquois Valley stewards a portfolio of organic farmland in 20 U.S. states, a group of 18 farmers in six states—Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, Ohio, and West Virginia—received the first equity awards. Collectively, they represent more than 170 years of partnership and steward over 9,600 acres of organic farmland.
Blankenbaker comes from an agricultural background and knows what it takes to regenerate the land through organic farming. He has also had to confront the long-standing challenges of land access and ownership. “Land access isn’t really a grit or an effort problem, it’s a system problem,” he tells Food Tank.
A lot of time went into designing this program because it relies on long-term relationships, Blankenbaker says. He takes time finding and connecting with farmer partners who align with Iroquois Valley values—those that are ready for long-term commitment.
Farmers earn equity gradually, and their gains are based on specific criteria around tenure, certified organic stewardship, and long-term partnership. The REIT grants awards in profitable years when the company can reward both investors and farmers, and this ensures financial strength into the future.
Farmer partners care about protecting soil health, water quality, biodiversity, and ecosystem resilience. And Iroquois Valley looks to support organic stewardship as well as farmer viability, long-term relationships, and financial structures that all support rather than undermine farmers. Farmers are not asked to take on any governance responsibility. This, Blankenbaker says, creates a real economic alignment.
In his commitment to farmers’ long-term wellness, Blankenbaker explains that he is responsible for staying farmer-focused. He collects feedback and works on farmer improvement systems. He has realized that even though farmers invest their lives into improving the earth, they usually have no financial tie to the land’s long-term success. He hopes the program will change that narrative as it grows.
“We absolutely see this as scalable. But this is not a one-size-fits all-way,” Blankenbaker tells Food Tank. “The challenge is that most farmland finance systems aren’t built around relationships and long-term horizons. We feel there is a mindset shift required—that farmers are recognized as co-creators of value and not just operators on the land.”
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 Nikola Tomasic, Unsplash
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People are ready for the energy transition. Governments need to catch up.
What happens when a geopolitical crisis strikes? When wars start over oil reserves, prices spike at the pump and on household bills, and the fragility of a fossil fuel-dependent world becomes impossible to ignore? And you ask ordinary people — not politicians, not lobbyists, not oil executives — what they think should happen next?
Well, the general public already has the answers. They understand why these crises keep happening. They understand who profits from them. And they understand what needs to change. Two major crises of 2026, the US seizure of Venezuelan President and the US-Israeli war in Iran, have etched into the public consciousness how fossil fuels drive conflict, inflate bills, and strip communities of stability over their own futures.
Crisis one: Venezuela. The moment people connected oil to instability and conflict.The United States’ capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and threats to seize its natural resources in early 2026, and its threats to annex Greenland, uncovered a clear link: fossil fuels make countries and people more vulnerable to military aggression and conflict. Where there is oil and gas, there is instability — wars fought over reserves, and ordinary people left to pay the price in rising bills, broken communities, and lives lost to conflicts they never chose. None of this, it turns out, has been lost on the public.
In the immediate aftermath, Secure Energy Project commissioned market research agency Opinium to poll six countries — Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Canada, Germany, and India – on whether the public was drawing the same conclusions. They were:
- In India, the world’s most populous nation and third largest energy consumer, spending hundreds of billions on fossil fuel imports every year — 72% said India would be safer with more renewable energy, 67% said the transition is more important than ever, and 66% said India should prioritize clean energy over fossil fuel expansion
- In Brazil, 76% said the transition is more important than ever and 79% said Brazil should prioritise clean energy.
- In Mexico, where approximately 70% of gas consumption came from US imports in 2025, 72% said oil and gas dependence increases the risk of international conflict, 70% said Mexico would be safer with more renewables.
- In Colombia, 69% said oil and gas dependence increases the risk of international conflict, 69% said Colombia would be safer with more renewables, and 61% said transitioning to domestic solar and wind would strengthen national security — with majorities holding across every political tradition.
- In Canada, 67% said oil and gas reliance increases the risk of international conflict, 59% said Canada would be safer with more renewables.
- In Germany, 72% said fossil fuel dependence increases the risk of international conflict, 57% said it weakens national security, and 58% said Germany should prioritize the energy transition.
Across all six countries, across every point on the political spectrum, the same recognition emerged: fossil fuel dependence doesn’t just damage the climate. It fuels aggression, enables coercion, and makes entire nations vulnerable to the whims of the powerful few. Domestic solar and wind, in contrast, don’t come with geopolitical strings attached. They don’t spike when a president gets arrested or a strait gets blockaded. For the first time at this scale, energy security, international political stability and climate action were understood as the same thing.
Crisis two: Iran. When people demanded the polluters pay.A few short weeks after, came the war in Iran. Oil and gas prices surged. Bills rose. 350.org’s analysis showed the price spikes could cost ordinary households and businesses up to US$1 trillion by year’s end. While BP posted US$3.2 billion in quarterly profits and TotalEnergies banked US$5.4 billion in the first three months of 2026 alone, families across the world suffered from the costs of a crisis they did not cause.
Oxfam’s polling, conducted in April across seven countries, cut straight to the accountability question: while families absorbed war-driven energy price spikes and oil and gas corporations banked record profits, what did people think governments should do about it? The answers, across every country surveyed, were unambiguous.
- On government investment priorities, the verdict was overwhelming. Brazil and Turkey led the way, with 77% in each country saying their government should invest more in renewable energy rather than expanding fossil fuel extraction. Colombia followed at 72%. France at 64%, the UK at 62%, and the Netherlands at 61%. Even Australia — the country most resistant to the energy transition in the survey — still had 59% favouring renewables over fossil fuels, against only 29% who favoured expansion
- On corporate accountability, majorities were clear too. The Netherlands led at 75% saying it is wrong for oil and gas corporations to make huge profits without taking responsibility for their climate pollution. France came in at 71%, the UK and Brazil both at 70%, Turkey at 67%, Colombia at 63%. Australia, again, showed the lowest — but still majority support at 57%.
- On taxing fossil fuel profits, the findings were perhaps the most politically significant — and the most hopeful. France showed the strongest support, with 75% backing increased taxes on oil and gas profits to fund the transition, including 43% who strongly support it. The UK came in at 72%. Turkey at 70%. Colombia and Brazil both at 69%. The Netherlands at 63%. Australia at 60% — the lowest of all seven countries, yet still a clear majority.
And here is the detail that should make every government take notice: in six out of seven countries surveyed, there were more far-right respondents who supported taxing oil and gas profits than those who opposed it. This is not a left-wing policy position being imposed on a reluctant public. It is a majority position across the entire political spectrum – in every country, in every tradition, among voters that governments across the world claim to represent.
The public has connected the dots: fossil fuels mean conflict. Renewables mean security, stability and lower bills.Together, these findings paint a picture of a public that has worked out what its governments have apparently not. The energy crisis, the geopolitical crisis, and the climate crisis are not three separate problems requiring three separate committees and three separate summits. They are one system – built on fossil fuel dependence, sustained by lobbying and political capture, and extracting its costs from the communities least responsible for any of it.
Whether the question was asked in the shadow of Venezuela or Iran, whether framed around national security or corporate accountability, whether put to voters in the Global South or the Global North – the answer is the same. Renewables mean stability. Fossil fuels mean vulnerability. And the corporations that profit from that vulnerability should fund the way out.
This is exactly what The Great Power Shift is fighting for. From activists urging taxes on Big Oil’s excess profits in Canada, to communities in Japan pushing back against fossil fuel subsidies, to families in South Africa organizing for free basic electricity, and more – people everywhere are calling for the future their governments have been too slow to deliver. The public mandate documented in these two polls isn’t a starting point. It is confirmation of something already underway.
No family should be priced out of heating their home because a war broke out over oil reserves. No government should feel compelled to wage one. Clean, affordable renewable energy ends both problems at once – and the public, across thirteen countries, already understands that.
Energy is not a market commodity to be traded and speculated on, nor is it a geopolitical weapon. It is a right. And frankly, it’s time governments caught up with the people they claim to represent. It’s time for the Great Power Shift!
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The K-Shaped Economy
Millions of Canadians continue to struggle to pay the bills for the necessities of life, and with Donald Trump’s trade war and his new conflict in the Middle East, things are getting worse. Meanwhile, the stock market sets record highs and financial wealth become increasingly concentrated in the hands of a small minority. Based on income tax data, the richest 1.5% of Canadians own over half of all net financial wealth (based on distribution of capital gains).
The striking gap in economic trajectory between a lucky elite at the top, and the challenges faced by the majority of society, has given rise to the term ‘K-shaped economy.’ The term first became popular in describing the growing gap in U.S. society, but it is increasingly applicable in Canada, as well.
In this 25 minute podcast for CityNews’ In This Economy program, Centre for Future Work Director Jim Stanford spoke with host Kris McCusker about the K-shaped economy, its causes and consequences.
Narrowing the gap between the two parts of the ‘K’ requires addressing both the ‘predistribution’ of income (empowering workers to capture a larger share of value-added in the first place) and the ‘redistribution’ of income (using government taxes and transfer programs to achieve greater equality in after-tax incomes).
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Class & Climate Returns: The COP Folly with Martin Empson
The Green Economy Networks podcast Class & Climate is back, with new host Em Thompson.
On this eighth episode of Class & Climate: Perspectives on a Green Economy, Em Thompson sits down with Martin Empson to reveal how COPs (Conferences of Parties) have bureaucratized climate organizing.
Martin Empson is a climate activist from the UK and the editor and a contributor to System Change not Climate Change, a book of essays from socialists around the world on the nature of capitalism’s ecological crisis and the radical response that is needed.
Class & Climate is a podcast series from Perspectives Journal and the Green Economy Network that maps how climate action can deliver jobs and long-term affordability for workers — while debunking myths that these goals are a zero-sum trade-off with a clean environment.
The 10 Crops That Can Turn Arid Lands Into Biodiversity And Food Security Hotspots
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.
Let me dispel a common myth about biodiversity. When we think about biodiversity, we often picture lush rainforests, colorful birds, or pollinators buzzing from flower to flower, not the world’s drylands. But these water-scarce, desert-like regions are actually home to more than one-third of the planet’s biodiversity hotspots.
The health of plant life in the world’s dryland regions—and the ability of farmers who cultivate these lands to feed the world—is particularly misunderstood. A recent study in the journal Science notes that, when it comes to protecting biodiversity, people tend to focus first on animals and overlook plants. But drylands encompass 45 percent of the Earth’s surface and 44 percent of global food systems, per CGIAR data. Drylands are where the nourishing crops of the future are taking root!
“Drylands are not marginal or forgotten spaces, but strategic landscapes—rich with opportunity, ecological intelligence, and the potential to drive resilience, economic vitality, and sustainable prosperity for millions,” says Éliane Ubalijoro, the CEO of CIFOR-ICRAF, a global agroforestry research collaborative.
Here at Food Tank, we place emphasis on researching and highlighting solutions, rather than letting ourselves marinate in hopelessness and despair. And rather than maligning or lamenting drylands, I want to argue that we currently find ourselves facing an opportunity—and a responsibility!—to build on the actual biodiversity of dryland ecosystems as a path forward toward a climate-resilient food system.
Tomorrow, May 22, is the International Day for Biological Diversity, and there’s no sugar-coating the fact that we’re facing a biodiversity crisis. Three-quarters of land-based environments and about two-thirds of marine environments have been significantly altered by human actions, per United Nations analysis, and this diminishing ecological vibrancy is an inextricable driver of the broader climate crisis.
This is why it’s so critical to see work being done to support dryland communities by organizations like CIFOR-ICRAF, the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and CGIAR’s Global Strategy for Resilient Drylands. In December, for example, CIFOR-ICRAF signed a major partnership agreement with the European Union to accelerate sustainable dryland management practices and elevate the position of dryland issues on broader food security and economic agendas.
When the future of plants is unstable, “it can also affect human food security and access to basic materials,” according to Rosa Scherson and Federico Luebert, biologists at the University of Chile. “Maintaining the current conditions that support human life requires urgent action.”
Food systems are a particularly influential tool for building climate resilience in drylands—and a delicious one, too. This week, Food Tank’s research team is helping us highlight 10 of the many dryland- and arid-adapted crops we should know about!
Durum Wheat is called the 10th most important crop produced on the planet by CGIAR, which makes sense: The heat-tolerant grain is rich in protein fibers, carbohydrates, and key minerals and is used to make couscous, bread, and pasta. Researchers led by ICARDA Morocco are introducing several new varieties of the crop that are tolerant to increasingly severe droughts, to boost dryland livelihoods.
Faba Beans excel under most climatic conditions and have a wide adaptability to a range of soil environments, according to the African Journal of Agricultural Research. They are rich in protein and essential micronutrients and serve as a break crop in continuous cereal rotations, which helps improve the productivity of soils, strengthen land structure, and contribute to wild pollinator maintenance.
Groundnuts/Peanuts are central to the financial and nutritional well-being of hundreds of millions of farmers and consumers across the semi-arid tropics. The crop is a major source of edible oil and vegetable protein, plus they provide over 30 essential nutrients including excellent quantities of niacin, fiber and vitamin E.
Jujubes—fruits that can be consumed fresh, processed into beverages, or preserved by drying or candying—are important components of dryland agroforestry systems not just for food but also soil health and live fencing. They’re native to Central and South Asia but widely distributed across arid and semi-arid regions of the world, and are a good source of vitamin C, key sugars, and minerals like iron.
Mesquite Pods are quite adaptable to different soils and terrains, making them particularly prominent among agroforestry research into drought-resistant desert legumes. In fact, they’re recognized by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as one of the most important species for the afforestation of arid and semi-arid regions. The pods are traditionally ground into a nutritious, gluten-free flour that’s rich in protein, fiber, and minerals including calcium and magnesium.
Millet is a collective term referring to small-seeded annual grasses that are cultivated as subsistence grain crops for local consumption. Certain species of millets are particularly well-adapted to dry soils compared to other crops, so they’re more able to be cultivated in high temperatures, with low or erratic precipitation, during short growing seasons, or in otherwise too acidic or water-poor soils.
Nopales are prickly pear cacti whose fruits are eaten fresh and pads are consumed as an antioxidant-rich vegetable. ICARDA calls them one of the most promising ‘under-utilized species’ of the dry regions, especially to help sustain livelihoods of potentially vulnerable smallholder farmers.
Pigeonpea is commonly used as a green vegetable and food grain, and is widely adapted to drought conditions. The legume is high in protein, dietary fiber, iron, and folate. According to research conducted by the FAO in Malawi, the crop supports nitrogen fixing and enhances soil fertility. It requires low inputs and can be intercropped with traditional crops such as maize.
Sorghum appears to have been domesticated in Ethiopia about 5,000 years ago and has a number of factors that make it drought- and heat-resistant. ICARDA has identified sorghum as an important underutilized crop that has significant potential for nutrition, climate resilience, and economic stability.
Tepary Beans are an important source of protein native to arid regions of North and Central America. Particular varieties of these beans perform especially well across a variety of moisture stress levels, making them adaptive and resilient to dry conditions.
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 Dileesh Kumar
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Food Tank’s Weekly News Roundup: Ebola Cases Rise, The Cuban Fuel Crisis Becomes a Food Systems Crisis, Salmon Populations Restored on Klamath River
Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.
The Dismantlement of USAID Continues to Impact Communities as Global Crises Intensify
Headlines this week highlighted a series of escalating global crises. These are not isolated events. They are interconnected symptoms of larger systemic pressures: climate change, political instability, economic inequality, and weakening global humanitarian infrastructure.
In Somalia, worsening drought and aid reductions are pushing communities toward catastrophe. Because Somalia imports much of its food and agricultural inputs, global supply chain disruptions from the Iran conflict are rapidly translating into higher prices and worsening hunger for ordinary families.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda where Ebola cases have risen significantly, the WHO has declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
This week in an interview with ABC News, Dr. Amesh Adalja from Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, who spoke with Dani on Episode 495 of Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg, said in response to the WHO declaration, “This outbreak needs to have a lot of resources brought to bear to prevent it from getting bigger, to prevent it from killing more people, to prevent it from spreading to neighboring countries.”
USAID was created to address exactly these kinds of global emergencies. As humanitarian needs grow, the dismantlement of USAID leaves vulnerable communities with fewer resources to respond and recover.
In Kenya last month, Dani experienced this gap firsthand. Changing rainfall patterns due to climate change have contributed to rising malaria cases and growing food insecurity. The link between health and hunger is direct: when farmers are unable to work during critical growing seasons, families lose both income and food security. Scaled across entire regions, these disruptions become barriers to education, livelihoods, economic growth, and long-term resilience.
Millions of vulnerable people are being pushed deeper into hunger and poverty while the international system that once responded to humanitarian emergencies is shrinking.
The Fuel Crisis in Cuba is a Food Systems Crisis
The ongoing war in Iran continues to disrupt global fuel markets. In Cuba, the fuel shortage is no longer just an energy crisis but a food systems one.
Shortages of oil and diesel are disrupting every stage of Cuba’s food supply chain. Without reliable fuel, getting food from the field to the table becomes increasingly difficult, resulting in shortages, inflation, and food insecurity across the country.
A lack of diesel has left tractors, harvesters, irrigation systems, and transportation vehicles unusable. Farmers are increasingly forced to rely on manual labor, dramatically slowing production and reducing yields.
Farmers like Obiols Sobredo in the Cuban town of Las Minas produces crops like tomatoes, sorghum, and cassava. Farm work that used to take him 15 minutes with fuel now takes him three days by hand, significantly impacting his ability to feed his community.
Milk from Sobredo’s goats was once delivered to nearby schools, but fuel shortages now make transportation unreliable and refrigeration difficult, increasing the risk of spoilage before the milk can reach children.
The crisis highlights a broader global reality: food security depends on stable energy infrastructure. When fuel systems fail, the effects ripple across agriculture and public health.
The U.S. House Advances Year-Round Sale of Ethanol Blend, E15
In response to the ongoing fuel crisis, the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation that would allow the year-round sale of E15, a fuel blend that contains 15% ethanol produced from U.S. corn.
The bill passed in a narrow bipartisan vote and now moves to the Senate.
Supporters argue the measure could lower fuel prices for consumers, strengthen rural economies, increase demand for U.S. corn, and reduce dependence on imported energy during a period of heightened global oil market volatility. Expanding year-round E15 sales would likely increase domestic demand for corn-based ethanol, creating an additional market for American corn growers at a time when many farmers are struggling.
Critics, however, argue that expanding corn ethanol could increase fertilizer runoff, water pollution, and land-use pressures while delivering only modest climate benefits.
The Senate is expected to become the key battleground for the legislation. The bill will likely need 60 votes to overcome procedural hurdles, and opposition from senators representing refinery interests.
China Restores Trade for U.S. Agriculture Products
Donald Trump met with Xi Jinping in Beijing last week where agricultural trade was front and center in negotiations. The meeting pointed to a renewed effort to stabilize trade relations between the world’s two largest economies after years of volatility that heavily impacted farmers.
The U.S. and China finalized an agricultural trade framework aimed at expanding Chinese purchases of American farm products, primarily U.S. beef, poultry, and soybeans. China has committed to purchasing at least $17 billion in U.S. agricultural products each year, marking one of the largest agricultural purchasing agreements between the two countries in recent years.
As part of the agreement, China has restored market access for U.S. beef and approved hundreds of beef processing facilities for export eligibility. The country has also resumed imports of American poultry from states deemed clear of bird flu, and renewed their commitment to purchase at least 25 million tons of U.S. soybeans.
American farmers are cautiously optimistic, following years of uncertainty, retaliatory tariffs, and supply chain disruptions.
The agreement last week may give some hope to farmers and rural communities hoping for stabilization, though long-term uncertainty remains as U.S.-China relations continue to evolve.
Undamming Across the U.S. is a Win for Fish, Ecological Systems, and Native Communities
More miles of American rivers were reconnected through the removal of dams last year than ever before. This represents a big win for fish, ecological systems, and native communities.
Dam removal projects improve biodiversity, healthier waterways, and migratory fish patterns. They also help restore river access to the local communities who have longstanding relationships with these once-dammed rivers.
Indigenous communities are leading these efforts. This month, the largest American dam removal project was successfully completed on California’s Klamath River, led by a coalition of Yurok, Karuk, Klamath, Hoopa Valley, and Shasta tribes.
This project represented decades of advocacy to restore salmon populations that are central to these communities’ cultures, food systems, ceremonies, economies, and livelihoods.
There is still work to do but the Klamath project is being seen as a national model for future river restoration efforts spearheaded by Native communities alongside environmental organizations, scientists, and policymakers.
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 Nia Sihle, Unsplash
The post Food Tank’s Weekly News Roundup: Ebola Cases Rise, The Cuban Fuel Crisis Becomes a Food Systems Crisis, Salmon Populations Restored on Klamath River appeared first on Food Tank.
May Day 2026
Tempest members joined hundreds of workers and community members in support of SEIU-USWW SFO airport workers as they campaigned around raising minimum wages to $30/hr. The action blocked vehicle access to the International Terminal starting at 11 AM. As first vice president, Sanjay Garla reported, LAX workers recently won $30/hr minimum wage, and SFO workers deserve the same. Garla also emphasized that in order for SFO to be safe for workers and passengers, we must demand “ICE out of SFO.”
SEIU United worker Carlos Sabata, in their first ever public speech, emphasized the international character of airport workers in the context of the international history of May Day, rousing the crowd with chants of “we are not invisible” and “we are not replaceable.” The crowd marched inside the terminal before twenty-five people were arrested, blocking the road in a planned civil disobedience action, including local politicians and labor leaders.
A few thousand joined two afternoon demonstrations and marches along Market Street at Civic Center and Embarcadero. The demonstrations were not huge, but they were spirited and full of unions, community groups, and left organizations. Some students walked out at a few high schools, and some educators joined them. Downtown High School educators shut down the school with a wildcat strike.
Oakland/OAK AirportOakland witnessed an unprecedented commemoration of May Day today. The day started with a rally at the ILWU Local 6 union hall near the Oakland International Airport at 9 AM. Over 500 people packed the union hall and pledged to join the “joyous rebellion” at the airport. This event was cosponsored by several organizations, including ACCE, Bay Resistance, Indivisible East Bay, AROC, Palestinian Youth Movement, USPCN, East Bay DSA, etc. The coalition partners planned for this action months in advance. Along with the May Day demands of “Tax the rich,” “End US wars,” and “Abolish ICE,” the coalition agreed to uphold the demands of the Oakland Arms Embargo campaign to hold the Port of Oakland, which administers both the seaport and airport, accountable for sending weapons to Israel.
At the electrifying gathering at the ILWU Local 6, the protesters formed two groups. One group joined the car caravan and the other was bused to the airport. Around 300 participants, who were bused to the airport, formed a picket line at the entrance to the departure hall. Meanwhile, a caravan of about 30 cars started approaching the airport. The deliberately sluggish caravan blocked the incoming traffic to the airport and started honking in tandem as it reached the departure hall. The controlled frenzy garnered the attention of the passengers and law enforcement alike. A few on-foot protesters took to the street, risking arrest, leading the car-caravan, and holding banners that read “No work. No school. No shopping” and “ICE out of our streets. Israel out of OAK fleets.” The carefully orchestrated picket-caravan double whammy brought the departure terminal of the Oakland airport to a standstill for about 20 minutes. The protesters vowed to return as the picket line dispersed after the caravan passed.
The crowd reconvened at 3 PM in Fruitvale, a predominantly immigrant neighborhood of the city of Oakland, to hold another rally and march. Oakland Sin Fronteras (Oakland Without Borders) coalition organized this rally, followed by a resource fair. Several organizations, including Bay Area Cuba Solidarity Network, Black Organizing Project, Mujeres Unidas y Activas, Oakland Tenants Union, OEA Rapid Response Team, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, etc., offered services and material support to the community at the resource fair. At a gathering of about a thousand people, the speakers voiced their strong disapproval of deportations, travel bans, and racial profiling of immigrants and refugees.
The day ended with several cultural events taking place in the different parts of the East Bay. La Peña Cultural Center in Berkeley held a “Party for the Workers” concert featuring Bambu, Boots Riley, etc. In downtown Oakland at Fluid510, Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff gave a talk on their newest publication, Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.
Berkeley/UC BerkeleyThe UC Berkeley Labor Coalition held a May Day rally in front of UC Berkeley’s California Hall (where the office of the UC Berkeley Chancellor, Rich Lyons, is located) in support of AFSCME’s open-ended strike that was scheduled to begin on May 14th. That strike has since been called off as a tentative agreement has been reached. In addition, the rally also called for support for the contract fight of UC-AFT 1474 (which represents lecturers, librarians, and archivists across the UCs). There were speakers from several unions, including UAW 4811 (the grad workers’ union), UC-AFT 1474, and UPTE-CWA 9119 (University Professional and Technical Employees), as well as campus organizations such as Blackstone Divestment and the ICE off-campus campaign. A big theme of the rally was connecting the funding of Zionism and genocide to labor struggles and the fight against ICE in the US. Soon after the rally began, chanting could be heard coming from another side of the campus, which turned out to be a large group of students from Berkeley High School who led a walkout and came to campus to join the rally. Two of the high school students (who were also members of the Sunrise Movement) spoke in support of their teachers and immigrant workers. The participation of the high school students, including their two speakers, was especially impressive and moving.
San Jose, CAMay Day 2026 in San Jose started with a Rally at the corner of Story and King, followed by a march to San Jose City Hall. Union members seemed to have the largest groups, and were supported by the South Bay Labor Council and Working Partnerships USA. There was a very strong presence of SEIU folks from various locals, along with Alphabet Workers and Flight Attendant union members. Students from 10 San Jose high schools walked out to join the event. Socialist organizations included FRSO, DSA, and PSL. The billionaire candidate for governor of California, Tom Steyer, made an appearance at the Rally.
The Rally was the largest grouping of folks at Story and King in the last ten years, and folks were still marching the three miles to City Hall three hours after they got started on the three-mile route. Some organizations tabled at City Hall, and the crowd was a pretty good size for San Jose.
San Diego, CAIn a new departure influenced by growing interest in general strikes as a means to defend threatened democracy, County employees in San Diego’s SEIU Local 221 joined International Workers’ Day festivities. Militant workers phone-banked and organized co-workers for weeks, encouraging them to take either unpaid leave or vacation time. This falls short of full strike action as it does not involve direct defiance of the boss. But importantly, it did demonstrate–to ourselves, our co-workers, and our class rallying together for May 1–a willingness to collectively make an economic sacrifice for a cause. And this day of skipping work and missing pay was done primarily under political slogans–ICE Out of San Diego, No War in Iran, Tax the Rich, and Protect Our Votes.
There was also one key economic demand–End Tier D. Tier D is the outrageous pension plan in place for all County employees hired since 2017, requiring them to postpone retirements late into old age. Members knew that the May 1 action would not accomplish this goal by itself. But by raising our own particular issue, alongside those important to the cause of social justice and our class as a whole, we took an opportunity to publicize it in a way that begins to knit it into a larger campaigning alliance.
Workers spent the whole day together, meeting at 9 AM at the Union hall, where two buses drove them first to the mid-day rally at Chicano Park, then to the action in support of janitors at the San Diego International Airport, and finally to the late afternoon action organized by the San Diego-Imperial Counties Central Labor Council.
About 50 county workers took part in the daylong action. 160 declared that they would not work. It is unknown whether fewer or more actually took the day off. This is a small fraction of the 11,000 represented County workers, but an unprecedented step while working under an unexpired contract.
Tony Ledezma, a worker at Agriculture, Weights, and Measures and a former Federal employee, said, “When Trump went to power, he illegally fired us. Because of the Union, I got my (Federal) job back.” But “Tier D is not working for people; it should be altered.”
“2026 has just been chaos and nonsense…I think there’s a bunch of people in high office that have an agenda that is taking power away from the people and benefitting corporations and the ultra-wealthy,” said Dan of Behavioral Health Services. “We’re spending billions on war, cutting health care, cutting education, and separating families.”
“Laborers can step into a more powerful political role today… “I think we’re here today as a result of decades of organization by people of wealth. We will only be able to confront that together.”“Laborers can step into a more powerful political role today,” said 221 member Krista. “I think we’re here today as a result of decades of organization by people of wealth. We will only be able to confront that together…it’s a little bit of a mind shift to be in solidarity with people who are different.”
“I’m saying no to war; no to ICE; no to voter suppression,” said Jesse Gonzalez, Mental Health Worker at County Psychiatric Hospital. “The worst part for me is when they blame immigrants…I just read horrific statements about pregnant women in detention facilities.”
In the words of Adult Protective Services Specialist Natasha, “it’s important to create community and interconnectedness.” County employee Brian Lafferty said, “Workers will bring down fascism.”
APS worker Rodney argued, “The May Day event is important to honor those who fought for the rights of others and continue to fight for basic human rights for future generations. I believe people would place more value on their freedom/democracy if they learn about their history”. And Brenda Nunez of the Union’s Black Caucus, AFRAM-Sankofa, said, “May Day is important to bring solidarity”.
Finally, Elena Long, President of 221’s newly launched Latino Caucus, spoke to some 500-1000 people at the central stage at Chicano Park. Speaking in Spanish, she said, “It is very important to support and protect our community. Our community has struggled much, has worked much, and has sacrificed much to be in this country. That’s why we cannot remain quiet when we see injustices. We cannot remain quiet when many families are living in fear.”
Thanks to Cecile Estelle for assistance with this article.
Burlington, VermontAround 1,000 people took part in a spirited May Day march. The action was comprised of the Left, but with a bigger concentration of union members. The highlight of the day was when protestors took over the Hannaford grocery store’s parking lot and demanded that the chain join the farmworkers program Milk with Dignity. Noticeable was the absence of broader liberal forces, who are already orienting toward the election instead of more direct political activity. In a sign of that, all the politicians were angling to get on the stage and speak, but organizers did not allow it.
Madison, WisconsinIn Madison, Wisconsin, the teachers’ union successfully pressured the school district to close public schools on May Day. Schools were also closed in Milwaukee. In Madison, thousands of people rallied at the University of Wisconsin campus in support of immigrant rights. Protestors marched to the State Capitol, where they were met by large contingents that marched from two of the city’s high schools.
New York, NYMay Day in New York City drew about ten thousand people for a vibrant rally and march. Some unions brought out large and multiracial contingents, especially notable the Laborers International Union of North America (LUINA), which bused workers in from every borough. LUINA represents 40,000 workers employed in the construction trades. Tempest marched with the Professional Staff Congress at CUNY, representing public college and university faculty and staff. PSC-CUNY had a visible and lively contingent of a few hundred. Some unions that could have had big contingents had a poor showing, most notably the United Federation of Teachers, part of the American Federation of Teachers. The march overall was very multiracial with large contingents of immigrant workers and immigrant rights groups. The union mobilizations meant it was a much more racially diverse and working-class in composition compared to the No Kings protests and other recent demonstrations. Anti-Trump, anti-billionaire, and anti-ICE slogans were everywhere.
Ottawa, Ontario, CANOttawa’s May Day event consisted of about 400 people from various single-issue campaigns and left groups on a march that stopped five or six times to highlight specific issues in the city. The event, organized by a local anarchist collective, only had flags from one union, a federal public service union.
Opinions expressed in signed articles do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Tempest Collective. For more information, see “About Tempest Collective.”
Featured Image credit: skuchamenz skuchamenz, Susan Ruggles, Fibonacci Blue; modified by Tempest.
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