Giacomo Berardi / Unsplash
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed both the strengths and limitations of globalization. The crisis has made people aware of how industrialized food production can be, and just how far food can travel to get to the local supermarket. There are many benefits to this system, including low prices for consumers and larger, even global, markets for producers. But there are also costs — to the environment, workers, small farmers and to a region or individual nation's food security.
<p>These costs have led many people to look once again at the benefits of small farms and locally produced fruits, vegetables and meat.</p>
<p>Of course, farmers on relatively small plots producing for local markets are the norm in developing countries. While it has many benefits, small-scale agriculture is far from idyllic. It often translates into low incomes and even poverty.</p><p>But it doesn't have to.</p><p>There are many successful initiatives to help farmers raise their productivity and incomes, improve their communities and amass capital to expand agricultural output and start small businesses. All of this can be done in an environmentally sustainable manner that builds resilience to external shocks, including climate change and even pandemics. As Edd Wright, World Neighbors Regional Director for Southeast Asia notes, "In Timor-Leste, to control the spread of the virus the government called a State of Emergency, which included the closing of all markets where people would normally buy and sell their weekly basic goods. Small-scale farmers have continued to have a secure supply of food during this emergency as they predominantly live off what they grow on their own land." These holistic community-based development programs also improve health and sanitation, teach literacy and help develop local leaders who plan and advocate for their communities.</p><p>Successes in farming communities in Nepal, India, East and West Africa, Guatemala, Peru, Burkina Faso, and several other countries hold lessons for those in the US who look to small farms as a way to build resilience and food security. "Small-scale agricultural producers have a strong capacity for innovation," notes Do Christophe Ouattara, World Neighbors Senior Program Officer in West Africa. "In Burkina Faso, indigenous soil and water conservation techniques improve production and contribute considerably to food security."</p>
<p>While each community success story is different, they have a few essential commonalities:</p><p><strong>Organic Methods. </strong>Vegetables, fruit, eggs and meat produced using organic and sustainable techniques is healthier, due to the lack of pesticides and other chemicals. It's also safer for farmers, who do not have to handle dangerous chemicals. Finally, organic production has far less impact on the environment.</p><p>For small farms, the advantage of organic agriculture is clear — higher profits. Replacing chemicals with organic pesticides and fertilizers can significantly reduce costs. Because of consumer willingness to pay a premium for "cleaner" food with a smaller environmental footprint, farmers can charge more. According to Binu Subedi, a World Neighbors Senior Social Mobilizer in Nepal, "Organic farming is based on the insight that there really is no such thing as 'waste.' Finding a use for byproducts is the easiest way to cut input costs and raise returns."</p><p>While organic techniques are becoming well-established throughout the world, there are still many techniques to learn from farmers in developing countries. These include animal-derived pesticides, closed loop aquaculture, simple low-water irrigation systems, and more.</p><p><strong>Cooperatives.</strong> There are many successful cooperatives in the US and other countries. By banding together, small holder farmers cut out middlemen and gain leverage with purchasers. They also provide the resources to invest in marketing, government advocacy and other activities that build markets and increase sales.</p><p>Cooperatives are especially helpful — even necessary — in countries in where agricultural production is highly concentrated among a relative handful of dominant companies. The COVID-19 pandemic has put a spotlight on this reality in the United States' meat processing industry. A handful of transnational companies dominate and have a monopoly on the industry. When meat processing workers got sick and meat production went down, the costs fell on workers and livestock farmers. The profits, in the form of higher meat prices to consumers, went to the handful of meat processing companies.</p><p>Small scale livestock farms, as well as processing plants, organized into cooperatives, could help address this. While the final products would likely be a bit more expensive, the meat is far less likely to become contaminated with E. coli, salmonella or other contaminants. In addition, smaller processing plants tend to be safer and have less environmental impact on surrounding communities.</p><p>Successful cooperatives in Kenya and other developing countries have a lot to teach, including how to generate capital through savings and credit groups. These groups pool savings of small holder farmers and loan to members at very low rates. They eliminate onerous loan conditions and show forbearance if borrowers encounter setbacks. Savings and credit groups are often the first step to larger, more comprehensive cooperative relationships. It's time to introduce these mechanisms in the US so that small scale farmers can thrive.</p><p><strong>Heritage Varieties. </strong>Industrial farming has resulted in consistent and attractive produce and meat. But to achieve this, and at the scale necessary for profitability, the variety has been greatly reduced. In most stores in the U.S., there are relatively few types of each fruit or vegetable. And these tend to have fewer nutrients and flavor than varieties grown and eaten prior to the domination of industrial farming. The same is true with meat. Factory farmed chicken and turkey are all but flavorless compared to traditional breeds.</p><p>The desire for more variety, flavor and nutrition is the reason many consumers are slowly rediscovering heritage or heirloom varieties. Produced on small farms, these products are often available at high end restaurants, farmer's markets and specialty supermarkets. Of course, this is just how organics started.</p><p>Like organics, heritage produce and meat often command a higher price. When produced organically, that translates into higher profits for small farm owners.</p><p>Peru, Guatemala and many other countries in the Global South have a great deal of experience with indigenous produce.</p><p>The need to grow more of it is especially pressing now, as large food companies successfully market highly processed food in these countries. The result has been the worst of all worlds: Chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity have reached epidemic proportions. Small scale organic farmers have experience cultivating produce that is healthier and can counter these diseases. A resurgence of these traditional varieties brings increased self-sufficiency and food security as well. This expertise — as well as the heritage varieties themselves — can and should be put to use on American small farms. As Olga Chivalan, a single mother who farms her own small vegetable garden in Guatemala said, "My neighbors and I grow a variety of fruits and vegetables, including those native to our region. We believe the reliance on indigenous varieties contributes to our community's good health."</p>
<p>Globalization — of ideas, goods, capital and cooperation — is a significant achievement. It can also have downsides. They include how food is produced, transported and consumed on a large scale. Ironically, those downsides are best addressed by more globalization. Specifically, small holder farmers in developing countries sharing their innovations with like farmers in developed countries. There's never a downside to learning how to improve incomes, health and security in responsible and sustainable ways.</p>
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Food Tank
By Danielle Nierenberg and Alonso Diaz
With record high unemployment, a reeling global economy, and concerns of food shortages, the world as we know it is changing. But even as these shifts expose inequities in the health and food systems, many experts hope that the current moment offers an opportunity to build a new and more sustainable food system.
<p>To understand what it will take to move forward, Food Tank has compiled its summer reading list to delve into the issues that affect our food system today. These 20 books provide insight into food access and justice in Black communities, food relief and school nutrition programs, the effects of technology on global food supply chains, the relationship between climate change and food production, and much more.</p>
1. Be My Guest: Reflections on Food, Community, and the Meaning of Generosity by Priya Basil (forthcoming November 2020)
<p>Priya Basil explores the meaning of hospitality within a variety of cultural, linguistic, and sociopolitical contexts in this short read. Basil uses her cross-cultural experience to illustrate how food amplifies discourse within families and touches on the hospitality and the lack thereof that migrants and refugees experience. <em>Be My Guest </em>is at once an enjoyable read and a hopeful meditation on how food and hospitality can make a positive difference in our world.</p>2. Biodiversity, Food and Nutrition: A New Agenda for Sustainable Food Systems by Danny Hunter, Teresa Borelli, and Eliot Gee
<p>In <em>Biodiversity, Food and Nutrition</em>, leading professionals from Bioversity International examine the positive impacts of biodiversity on nutrition and sustainability. The book highlights agrobiodiversity initiatives in Brazil, Kenya, Sri Lanka, and Turkey, featuring research from the <a href="https://www.bioversityinternational.org/research-portfolio/diet-diversity/biodiversity-for-food-and-nutrition/" target="_blank">Biodiversity for Food and Nutrition Project </a>(BFN) of the <a href="https://www.bioversityinternational.org/alliance/" target="_blank">Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT</a>. Through this analysis, the authors propose that the localized activities in these countries are not only benefiting communities, but are transferable to other regions.</p>3. Black Food Geographies: Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C. by Ashanté M. Reese
<p>In <em>Black Food Geographies, </em>Ashanté Reese draws on her fieldwork to highlight community agency in response to unequal food access. Focusing on a majority-Black neighborhood in Washington, DC, Reese explores issues of racism, gentrification, and urban food access. Through her analysis, she argues that racism impacts and exacerbates issues of unequal food distribution systems.</p>4. Black Food Matters: Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice edited by Hanna Garth and Ashanté M. Reese (forthcoming October 2020)
<p>Access, equity, justice, and privilege are the central themes in this forthcoming collection of essays. The food justice movement often ignores the voices of Black communities and white food norms shape the notions of healthy food. Named for Black Lives Matter, <em>Black Food Matters </em>highlights the history and impact of Black communities and their food cultures in the food justice movement.</p>5. Diners Dudes & Diets: How Gender and Power Collide in Food Media and Culture by Emily J.H. Contois (forthcoming November 2020)
<p>In <em>Diners, Dudes & Diets</em>, Emily Contois looks at media's influence on eating habits and gendered perceptions of food. Focusing on the concept of dude foods, the book follows the evolution of food marketing for men. In doing so, Contois shows how industries used masculine stereotypes to sell diet and weight loss products to a new demographic. She argues that this has influenced both the way consumers think about food and their own identities.</p>6. Feeding the Crisis: Care and Abandonment in America’s Food Safety Net by Maggie Dickinson
<p>The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is essential for individuals who face food insecurity on a daily basis. Still, the program fails to reach many, including those who are unemployed, underemployed, or undocumented. <em>Feeding the Crisis</em> provides a historical overview of SNAP's expansion and traces the lives of eight families who must navigate the changing landscape of welfare policy in the United States.</p>7. Feeding the Other: Whiteness, Privilege, and Neoliberal Stigma in Food Pantries by Rebecca T. de Souza
<p>In <em>Feeding the Other</em>, Rebecca de Souza explores the relationship between food pantries and people dependent on their services. Throughout the work, de Souza underscores the structural failures that contribute to hunger and poverty, the racial dynamics within pantries, and the charged idea of a handout. She argues that while food pantries currently stigmatize clients, there is an opportunity to make them agents of food justice.</p>8. Feeding the People: The Politics of the Potato by Rebecca Earle
<p>In <em>Feeding the People,</em> Rebecca Earle tells the story of the potato and its journey from a relatively unknown crop to a staple in modern diets around the world. Earle's work highlights the importance of the potato during famines, war, and explains the politics behind consumers' embrace of this food. Interspersed throughout are also potato recipes that any reader can try.</p>9. Food in Cuba: The Pursuit of a Decent Meal by Hanna Garth
<p>In <em>Food in Cuba</em>, Dr. Hannah Garth looks at food security and food sovereignty in the context of Cuba's second largest city, Santiago de Cuba. Throughout the work, Garth defines a decent meal as one that is culturally appropriate and of high quality. And through stories about families' sociopolitical barriers to food access, Garth shows how ideas of food and moral character become intimately linked.</p>10. Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America by Marcia Chatelain
<p>Scholar, speaker, and strategist Marcia Chatelain provides readers insight into the ways fast food restaurants expanded throughout Black communities. Dr. Chatelain traces their growth during the 20th century and their intersection with Black capitalists and the civil rights movement. This book highlights the dichotomy between fast food's negative impacts on Black communities and the potential economic and political opportunities that the businesses offered them.</p>11. Honey And Venom: Confessions of an Urban Beekeeper by Andrew Coté
<p>In <em>Honey and Venom,</em> Andrew Coté provides a history of beekeeping while taking the reader through his own trajectory in the industry. A manager of over one hundred beehives, Coté raises colonies across New York City, on the rooftops of churches, schools, and more. Coté's<em> </em>passion for beekeeping comes through clearly as he narrates the challenges and rewards of his career.</p>12. Life on the Other Border: Farmworkers and Food Justice in Vermont by Teresa M. Mares
<p>Agriculture, immigration, and Central American and Mexican farm workers may conjure ideas of the Mexico-U.S. border, but in <em>Life on the Other Border</em>, Teresa Mares gives a voice to those laboring much farther north. Mares introduces the readers to the Latinx immigrants who work in Vermont's dairy industry while they advocate for themselves and navigate life as undocumented workers. This is an inspiring read that touches on the intersection of food justice, immigration, and labor policy.</p>13. Meals Matter: A Radical Economics Through Gastronomy by Michael Symons
<p>In <em>Meals Matter</em>, Michael Symons argues that economics used to be, in its essence, about feeding the world but has since become fixated with the pursuit of money. Symons introduces readers to gastronomic liberalism and applies the ideas of philosophers like Epicurus and John Locke to the food system. Through this approach, he seeks to understand how large corporations gained control of the market and challenges readers to rethink their understanding of food economics.</p>14. No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg
<p>Greta Thunberg addressed the United Nations at the 2019 UN Climate Action Summit and has since been a global symbol of environmental activism. Her community organizing and impassioned speeches are uncompromising as she argues that climate change is an existential crisis that needs to be confronted immediately. <em>No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference </em>includes Thunberg's speeches and includes her 2019 address to the United Nations.</p>15. Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It by Tom Philpott (forthcoming August 2020)
<p>In <em>Perilous Bounty</em>, journalist Tom Philpott critically analyzes the centralized food system in the U.S. and argues that it is headed for disaster unless it sees some much-needed changes. Philpot argues that actors within the U.S. food system are prioritizing themselves over the nation's wellbeing and provides well-researched data to back up his claims. Providing readers insight into the experiences of activists, farmers, and scientists, this is a great read for those starting to learn about the state of the country's food system and for those who are already deeply involved.</p>16. Plucked: Chicken, Antibiotics, And How Big Business Changed The Way The World Eats by Maryn McKenna
<p>In this exposé on the chicken industry, acclaimed author Maryn McKenna explains the role antibiotics played in making chicken a global commodity. <em>Plucked </em>makes it clear that food choices matter and show how consumers' desire for meat, especially chicken, has impacted human health. McKenna also offers a way forward and outlines ways that stakeholders can make food safer again.</p>17. Stirrings: How Activist New Yorkers Ignited a Movement for Food Justice by Lana Dee Povitz
<p>Between 1970 and 2000, food activists in New York City pushed to improve public school lunches, provide meals to those impacted by the AIDS epidemic, and established food co-ops. In <em>Stirrings</em>,<em> </em>Lana Dee Povitz draws on oral histories and archives to recount the stories of individuals who led these efforts. She highlights the successes of grassroots movements and reminds readers of the many women leaders in the New York food justice movement.</p>18. The New American Farmer: Immigration, Race, and the Struggle for Sustainability by Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern
<p>In <em>The New American Farmer</em>, Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern offers a look at farm labor in the U.S. Although most farm owners are white Americans, farm workers are overwhelmingly immigrants and people of color. In this book, Minkoff-Zern details the experiences of farm laborers who are becoming farm owners themselves and outlines the many barriers that workers must overcome during this transition. Through interviews with farmers and organizers, Minkoff-Zern shows that these farmers bring sustainable agricultural practices that can benefit our food system.</p>19. The Story of More: How We Got to Climate Change and Where to Go from Here by Hope Jahren
<p>Hope Jahren breaks down climate change for readers in an accessible and data-driven book. <em>The Story of More </em>explains<em> </em>how greenhouse gas emissions and consumption of natural resources in developed nations exacerbate climate change and outlines the consequences of these actions. Although she argues that the planet is in danger, she also provides a variety of everyday actions, like decreasing meat consumption, that consumers can take to make a difference.</p>20. Vegetable Kingdom: The Abundant World of Vegan Recipes by Bryant Terry
<p>Author, chef, and food justice activist Bryant Terry provides readers with over a hundred recipes to create approachable and flavorful vegan dishes, without relying on meat alternatives. This book is a wonderfully practical recipe book that begins with a list of recommended tools, is organized by ingredients, and even includes a music playlist. Vegans and non-vegans alike will appreciate Chef Terry's <em>Vegetable Kingdom</em>.</p><a target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=Make+this+summer+a+season+of+reflection+and+self-education+with+Food+Tank%27s+reading+list+%E2%80%94+new+and+important+books+from+%40AMReese07%2C+%40GretaThunberg%2C+%40EmilyContois%2C+%40BryantTerry%2C+%40DrMChatelain%2C+and+more&url=https%3A%2F%2Ffoodtank.com%2Fnews%2F2020%2F07%2Ffood-tanks-summer-2020-reading-list%2F&via=foodtank"><span></span></a>
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EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Rattan Lal, distinguished university professor of soil science at The Ohio State University, speaks at an IFPRI policy seminar, "Economics of Land Degradation and Improvement," on Dec. 3, 2015. IFPRI / Milo Mitchell
The demands of feeding a planet rapidly careening toward 10 billion people, coupled with the environmental degradation that industry and development has caused, has left much of the world's soil depleted of nutrients. A professor who studies soil science and is looking to improve the dirt for farmers around the world has been awarded the 2020 World Food Prize for his work, as NPR reported.
<p><a href="https://senr.osu.edu/our-people/rattan-lal" target="_blank">Rattan Lal</a>, <a href="https://senr.osu.edu/our-people/rattan-lal" target="_blank">a professor of soil science</a> and the director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at The Ohio State University, has pioneered <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/farming">farming</a> techniques that prevent soil from losing vital nutrients and even put nutrients back into soil, according to NPR. That work is incredibly important, since data from <a href="http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/357059/icode/" target="_blank">the Food and Agriculture Organization</a> of the United Nations show that about a third of the planet's soil is "moderately to highly degraded."</p><p>When the nutrients disappear, crop yields are lower and less healthy. That's troublesome for the growing demands placed on farmers.</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/22/880932230/soil-prof-hits-pay-dirt-250k-prize-for-helping-farmers-fighting-climate-change" target="_blank">NPR</a> reported. Lal believes sustainable <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/agriculture">agriculture</a> practices are the "win-win-win option" as the world struggles with the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> and food insecurity. "My philosophy has always been that the health of soil, plants, animal, people, and the environment is one indivisible," Lal said.</p><p>In addition to improving soil, Lal's work showed how plants could pull carbon from the atmosphere and sequester it in the soil to prevent it from combining with oxygen and creating carbon dioxide, which adds more greenhouse gases to an already warming planet, according to <a href="https://www.thehawkeye.com/news/20200614/pioneer-of-research-on-sequestering-carbon-in-soil-is-this-years-world-food-prize-laureate" target="_blank">The Hawk Eye</a> in Iowa.</p>
<p>"This breakthrough research transformed the way the world saw soils," the World Food Prize Foundation, a Des Moines nonprofit that sponsors the annual $250,000 prize, said in its announcement of the prize.</p><p>"As a result, soils are now not only the foundation for increasing the quality and quantity of food and preserving natural ecosystems, but an important part of mitigating climate change, as well," the foundation said in its release.</p><p>The World Food Prize is often described as the Nobel for research in <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/food">food</a>, according to <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/rattan-lal-2020-world-food-prize-soil-scientist-6471435/" target="_blank">The Indian Express</a>. It was even created by Nobel prize laureate Norman Borlaug in 1987.</p>
<p>Lal is no stranger to prizes, nor to altruism. Last year, he was awarded $450,000 for the Japan Prize, which is issued by the Japanese government, for his work on soil. He gave all of the prize money to Ohio State's <a href="https://cfaes.osu.edu/" target="_blank">College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences</a>, as <a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/news/2019/04/22/ohio-state-just-got-a-half-million-dollar-gift.html" target="_blank">Columbus Business First</a> in Ohio reported.</p><p>Lal's work built upon the tenets that farmers already knew about maintaining and building healthy soil. His work that focused on restoring nutrients had the added bonus of removing carbon from the atmosphere, according to the <a href="https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/editorials/2020/06/20/feeding-the-world-ohio-state-university-rattan-lal/stories/20200618008" target="_blank">Toledo Blade</a>.</p><p>"He's helping the Earth's estimated 500 million small farmers be faithful stewards of their land through improved management, less soil degradation, and the recycling of nutrients," said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, as the <a href="https://www.toledoblade.com/opinion/editorials/2020/06/20/feeding-the-world-ohio-state-university-rattan-lal/stories/20200618008" target="_blank">Toledo Blade</a> reported. "The billions of people who depend on these farms stand to benefit greatly from his work."</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.kff.org/news-summary/usaid-acting-administrator-provides-statement-congratulating-winner-of-2020-world-food-prize/" target="_blank">Kaiser Foundation</a> reported that USAID Acting Administrator John Barsa said, "The global demand for food is growing faster than the world's population. Agriculture and food systems face the challenge of producing more while using less land and water. Dr. Lal's work has advanced our ability to grow more food while minimizing the environmental impact for agriculture — essential for sustainable solutions to end hunger and malnutrition."</p><p>Lal's adventurous career has taken him to posts in Australia and Nigeria. He has led soil restoration projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America, integrating no-till farming and use of cover crops, mulching and agroforestry to protect soil, conserve water and return nutrients, carbon and organic matter in the soil, according to <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/world-food-prize-rattan-lal-man-who-took-inspiration-from-shastras-puranas-to-help-500-million-farmers-11591935428304.html" target="_blank">LiveMint</a>.</p><p>"[Lal] was really the first person to put soil science on the map," said Marco Ferroni of <a href="https://www.cgiar.org/how-we-work/governance/system-organization/system-management-board/smb-composition/" target="_blank">CGIAR</a>, a global agricultural research group, to <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/06/22/880932230/soil-prof-hits-pay-dirt-250k-prize-for-helping-farmers-fighting-climate-change" target="_blank">NPR</a>.</p>
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How Proper Crop Protection Ensures Global Food Safety and Helps the Planet
11 June
Insights + Opinion
In recent decades, a wide variety of crop protection products have provided farmers with a set of carefully tailored tools for the production of safe and healthy crops. SBDIGIT / Getty Images
By J. Erik Fyrwald
World Food Safety Day earlier this week reminded us of a harsh reality: Roughly 600 million people around the world suffer from food-borne illnesses, while an estimated 3 million die from illnesses contracted from unsafe food or water.
<p>This annual toll touches every part of the world, though the worst impacts are felt in regions like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where there is less access to refrigeration and other modern food-preservation technologies. While major improvements have been achieved in some regions since the 1980s, the problem is still vast and urgent.</p><p>Dangers in food supply can occur at any stage of the farm-to-fork process. Many of these relate to food preparation, and every cook must take all available precautions to maintain a clean, safe kitchen. Less well known is what can be done to ensure food safety earlier in the process, beginning on the farms where it is produced.</p>
Agronomists Have an Outsized Role to Play
<p>In recent decades, thanks to successful research and development in the field of agronomy, a wide variety of crop protection products have provided farmers with a set of carefully tailored tools for the production of safe and healthy crops.</p><p>For example, <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fusarium" target="_blank">Fusarium</a></em> is a common fungus that can produce deadly mycotoxins in wheat, corn and barley. Recently developed broad-spectrum fungicides are now being used to prevent the spread in these crops. These agents play an active role in protecting the health of consumers and avoiding waste in having to destroy the infected grains.</p><p>In the past, pesticides, herbicides and fungicides have themselves sometimes been viewed as threats to the safety of food and water.</p><p>But innovation in crop protection products has come a long way since Rachel Carson pointed out the risk they posed in her seminal 1962 book <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Spring" target="_blank">Silent Spring</a></em>. Today's crop protection agents are developed with both human health and the environment firmly in view.</p><p>Over the course of the last 60 years, these agents have become more targeted and more effective and they are applied much more sparingly. Since the 1950s, the agronomy sector has achieved a remarkable 95% decrease in the average application rate of active ingredients per hectare. At the same time, multiple innovations have led to crop yields from farmland more than tripling. These measures to make everyone's food safer have been reinforced with the <a href="http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/en/" target="_blank">Codex Alimentarius</a>, the open, transparent system of international standards established in 1963 to protect consumer health and promote fair practice in the food trade.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM4Njk3OC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNjM2ODg2N30.Wigk1wmc9InvTYnqXGnDW7HagR0FawTu5XgtIoWFowk/img.png?width=980" id="f275d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="39c3647487932b7e6e87918a22c28d5c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Crop-protection has been used more sparingly over recent decades. Source: Phillips McDougall, 2017
A Deep Respect for Health and the Environment
<p>As it happens, more than a few of today's crop protection products are obtained from natural sources or are so thoroughly tested by time that they are considered traditional practices. This means they are commonly found in use on farms that specialize in growing organic produce.</p><p>Those of us working in the field of agricultural science are well aware these advances are not always appreciated by people who wish insecticides and fungicides were not a part of the global food system. Viewed in a certain light, I agree with them. But I have seen first-hand the destruction wrought by pests and the impact of a failed crop on farmers and their families. The devastation inflicted by swarms of locusts this year in Africa and Asia is just one case in point.</p>Addressing the Challenge of Climate Change
<p>The need for effective crop protection products has steadily grown as rising global temperatures have expanded the range of many pests and blights. Just last summer in the Netherlands, a farmer told me he was seeing an insect in his fields he had never seen before.</p><p>Our team researched it and found the pest was well known in Brazil – <em><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuta_absoluta" target="_blank">Tuta absoluta</a></em> is a miner fly whose larvae make corridors in the leaves by eating the cells – and becoming a problem in northern climates as a result of warmer winters. One of our goals as an industry is to provide farmers with the safest and best means of keeping threats like these at bay.</p><p>When viewed at macroscopic scale, advances in agronomy clearly represent an important part of the solution to climate change. The latest crop protection products address climate change directly – by enabling farmers to produce more food per unit of land than ever before in the history of agriculture. This is critical if we hope to bring a halt to the expansion of human activity into regions such as the Amazon rainforest – a precious natural resource that serves a higher common purpose as a carbon sink and biodiversity preserve than as a cornfield.</p><p>Progress has been made on crop protection solutions that help feed humanity safely while protecting the environment, but we should all take a moment on this World Food Safety Day to strengthen our resolve. Even in the face of a global pandemic and myriad other challenges – we must keep moving forward in our efforts to safeguard people and the planet.</p>
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A recently published study found that Cuban rivers are cleaner than the Mississippi because of organic farming and conservation agriculture. Roberto Machado Noa / LightRocket / Getty Images
By Paul Bierman and Amanda H. Schmidt
For most of the past 60 years, the United States and Cuba have had very limited diplomatic ties. President Barack Obama started the process of normalizing U.S.-Cuba relations, but the Trump administration reversed this policy, sharply reducing interactions between the two countries.
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<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/paul-bierman-959411" target="_blank">Paul Bierman</a> is a </em><em>Professor of Geology and Natural Resources and Fellow of the Gund Institute for Environment, University of Vermont.</em>
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<em></em><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/amanda-h-schmidt-1028260" target="_blank">Amanda H. Schmidt</a> is an </em><em>Associate Professor of Geology, Oberlin College and Conservatory.</em>
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<em>Disclosure statement:<strong> </strong>Paul Bierman receives funding from the US National Science Foundation. </em><em>Amanda H. Schmidt receives funding from the National Science Foundation.</em>
</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/cubas-clean-rivers-show-the-benefits-of-reducing-nutrient-pollution-131357" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em></p><iframe height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/131357/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1"></iframe>
<p>Scientific cooperation is a bright spot in this difficult history. Since the 19th century, U.S. institutions like the Smithsonian and the National Academy of Sciences have <a href="https://www.scielosp.org/pdf/medicc/2018.v20n2/23-26/en" target="_blank">worked with Cuban counterparts</a> to understand topics such as vector-borne disease transmission. Although political friction has often made such partnerships challenging, many scientists on both sides believe their countries <a href="https://www.aaas.org/news/aaas-cuba-partnership-health-diplomacy-celebrated-us-release-medicc-review-special-edition" target="_blank">stand to gain</a> by tackling health and environmental challenges together.</p><p>We are geoscientists who study <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=nZ6d2zUAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">how landscapes change</a> through processes such as <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=h3DEhtEAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">erosion</a>. For the past two and a half years, we and our team of U.S. scientists have been working with Cuban geoscientists to understand the environmental and water quality effects of progressive agricultural policies in Cuba.</p><p>In a recently published study, we show that Cuban rivers are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG419A.1" target="_blank">cleaner than the mighty Mississippi</a>. Why? Because Cuban farmers practice organic farming and conservation agriculture to <a href="https://collections.elementascience.org/cubas-agrifood-system-in-transition/" target="_blank">reduce soil erosion and nutrient loss</a>. In sum, Cuba is doing a better job than the U.S. at keeping farming from hurting its rivers, and its results offer useful lessons.</p>
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A Test Case in Sustainable Farming
<p>Cuban rivers run from the mountains to the ocean through cow-filled pastures, fields of sugar cane and rice paddies, <a href="https://doi.org/10.5343/bms.2017.1026" target="_blank">forests, wetlands and mangroves</a>. Along the way, groundwater seeps into river channels from below. When heavy thunderstorms strike, water pours off the land.</p><p>These flows carry soil and dissolved material into streams, which deliver this load to the coast. Cuba's coastlines have abundant mangrove thickets, underwater seagrass beds and some of the Caribbean's <a href="https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/cuba/cuba-s-coral-reefs" target="_blank">best-preserved coral reefs</a>.</p><p>We became interested in teaming with Cuban scientists because of their nation's country-wide experiment in organic agriculture dating back to the late 1980s. When the Soviet Union, Cuba's former trading partner, broke apart, Cuban farmers lost access to fertilizers, pesticides and heavy equipment, and had to <a href="https://theconversation.com/cubas-sustainable-agriculture-at-risk-in-u-s-thaw-56773" target="_blank">adopt a more ecologically based aproach</a>. Could their experience provide a blueprint for more sustainable approaches to feeding the world?</p><p>We used the <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/" target="_blank">ResearchGate</a> network to find Cuban collaborators. Supported by the <a href="http://nsf.gov/" target="_blank">U.S. National Science Foundation</a> and the <a href="https://www.ceac.cu/" target="_blank">Centro de Estudios Ambientales de Cienfuegos</a>, the research we are doing in Cuba builds on measurements we have done all over the world.</p>Less Fertilizer Runoff in Cuba
<p>For this study we analyzed water samples from each of 25 rivers in central Cuba, looking for elements from across the periodic table and for bacteria. Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1130/GSATG419A.1" target="_blank">first results</a> show that Cuba's sustainable agricultural practices minimize the impact of agriculture on river water quality by reducing the amount of nitrogen fertilizer that washes off from fields into local waters.</p><p>Cuban farmers use about half as much fertilizer for each acre of farmland than their U.S. counterparts (3 versus 6 tons per square kilometer per year in 2016). As a result, rivers in central Cuba contain much lower concentrations of dissolved nitrogen than the Mississippi River, which drains <a href="https://www.nps.gov/miss/riverfacts.htm" target="_blank">more than 1 million square miles</a> of America's agricultural heartland. On average, the Cuban rivers we analyzed contained 0.76 milligrams of nitrogen per liter of water, compared to 1.3 milligrams per liter in the Mississippi River from 2012-2019.</p><p>American crop yields per acre are higher than Cuba's, thanks partly to fertilizer use, but the trade-off is stark. Nutrients that pour off U.S. farm fields and flow down the Mississippi River create the <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/noaa-forecasts-very-large-dead-zone-for-gulf-of-mexico" target="_blank">Gulf of Mexico dead zone</a>, a patch of ocean where oxygen levels are so low that almost no marine life survives. The dead zone forms every summer, fed by spring rainfall, and has covered an <a href="https://www.noaa.gov/media-release/large-dead-zone-measured-in-gulf-of-mexico" target="_blank">average of 6,000 square miles</a> in recent years.</p><p>Cuba's rivers do contain other pollutants. We found high levels of bacteria and sediment in most of the rivers we sampled. DNA analysis suggests that at least some of these bacteria were from the guts of cows. We saw many cows during our field work in central Cuba, and those animals had free access to local streams. Simple solutions, like fencing river banks, could greatly lower bacteria levels in surface waters.</p><p>We also found naturally high levels of calcium, sodium and magnesium in Cuban river water. These materials come from rocks that are naturally dissolved by rainwater. None of them are hazardous to humans, although they might leave scale in tea kettles and alter the water's taste.</p>Enabling More Scientific Cooperation
<p>Although we've done field work on Greenland's ice sheet and in rice paddies of southwest China, this work in Cuba has been a uniquely valuable experience for us, both professionally and personally. We found Cuban culture to be warm and welcoming, even to Americans whose leaders for the most part have shunned the Cuban people for decades.</p><p>Sharing and teamwork are key parts of Cuban culture. When we brought out American snacks during our first visit to Cuba, our collaborators insisted these gifts must be shared with the entire lab staff. In the tropical January sunshine, scientists, technicians, secretaries and directors gathered outside to eat Vermont maple candies and blueberry jam.</p><p>We view this project as <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.367.6483.1274" target="_blank">science diplomacy</a> in action. But our Cuban partners cannot visit us until the United States agrees to grant visas to Cuban scientists. The Trump administration is going in the opposite direction: It has <a href="https://www.state.gov/united-states-further-restricts-air-travel-to-cuba/" target="_blank">suspended commercial and public charter flights</a> to Cuba from the U.S. and imposed sanctions that are designed to <a href="https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/cuba_fact_sheet_20190906.pdf" target="_blank">deny Cuba access to hard currency</a>.</p><p>As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps around the world, scientific cooperation is more important than ever. To us, it doesn't make sense to increase sanctions against a country that has more doctors per capita than any country on Earth and has <a href="https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-response-why-cuba-is-such-an-interesting-case-135749" target="_blank">responded more successfully than many nations</a> to COVID-19. We believe that science in the U.S. would gain from reopening communication with Cuba and sharing knowledge that could help heal the global community. </p>From Your Site Articles
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New Report Documents Global Insect Decline and Calls for Reforming Industrial Agriculture
10 June
Popular
The new report points to various studies documenting insect loss, including 2018 research finding 41% of insect species are in decline and that one-third of all insect species are threatened by extinction. Wikimedia Commons
By Andrea Germanos
A new report released Tuesday draws attention to the worldwide decline in insects and calls for global policies to boost the conservation of both agriculture and the six-footed creatures.
<p>The publication, entitled<a href="http://www.foeeurope.org/insect-atlas" target="_blank"> <em>Insect Atlas</em></a>, comes from two progressive networks: Brussels-based Friends of the Earth and Berlin-based Heinrich Böll Foundation.</p><p>"The global loss of insects is dramatic," Heinrich Böll Foundation president Barbara Unmüßig said in a statement.</p><p>The report points to various studies documenting that loss, including 2018 research finding 41% of insect species are in decline and that one-third of all insect species are threatened by extinction. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) estimated that 10 percent of insect species are endangered, and another study cited in the new analysis found that at least one in 10 bee and butterfly species in Europe is threatened with extinction.</p><p>While there's no definitive count of the global loss of insects, <em>Insect Atlas</em> says the trend is unmistakable.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM4MzIzNC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjEwMjQxOH0.EtO7AHP1ex1OAoQv5uEksP4WMI058toIbdDIVPU1t2k/img.png?width=980" id="95b6b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="db5cb1fb7efc7f13f0b05dae18c0ee5c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Insect Atlas. Bartz / Stockmar, CC BY 4.0
<p>That decline has major impacts on food. </p><p>"Three-quarters of the world's most important crops exhibit a yield benefit from pollinators: they contribute directly to around one-third of global food production," says the report.</p><p>The methods used for that production have a huge impact on insects.</p><p>"Alongside climate change and light pollution, the spread and intensification of farming is by far the most important cause of the global decline in insect numbers," the report adds.</p><p>This type of farming is dependent upon expanding pasture—often at the expense of destroying Indigenous land and wild animal habitat—and prioritizes monocultures and therefore insect-killing pesticides, the use of which has steadily increased for the past nine decades, the economic profits of which are predominantly flowing towards just four entities: BASF, Bayer, Syngenta, and Corteva. From the publication:</p><blockquote>What is more, the number of chemical products in use around the world continues to increase. And, their negative effects on the insect world are also becoming more and more evident. This is not just because a growing number of chemicals are being applied; the formulations are also increasingly effective and can be used more selectively<br></blockquote><p>Even when some nations ban certain pesticides over concerns, the chemicals' adverse impacts don't disappear; they just change locations. </p><blockquote>The developed world is waking up to the risks associated with the use of pesticides. The situation is different in the developing world: chemicals that are banned in Europe and North America are still used routinely to control pests. Stricter controls are needed, along with better information for farmers.<br></blockquote>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzM4MzIzOS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTU5Nzk1MTk5Nn0.P07MnWFqGtf6saMwIqod_QQ-VPe1lueUv1LlTx8PZ1s/img.png?width=980" id="2eaa0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="78dcbebf9c0f715d0d4e9bbb0e3573ee" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Insect Atlas. Bartz / Stockmar, CC BY 4.0
<p>Dismantling industrial agriculture, says the report, is essential. "There is no alternative: to protect insects, farming must become part of the solution. Not just for the sake of society, but also for the sake of farming itself—because it, too, needs insects."</p><p>"The evidence is clear: pesticide use is wiping out insect populations and ecosystems around the world, and threatening food production," Mute Schimpf, food and farming campaigner at Friends of the Earth Europe, said in a statement. </p><p>"A handful of corporations control the bulk of pesticide supply, and if left unchecked will continue to use their immense political influence to lock in a system of industrial farming which will continue to wipe out nature and destroy rural communities," she continued.</p><p>One area of reform that would address deforestation and the resulting insect habitat losses is curbing meat consumption and therefore the huge swathes of land on which genetically modified animal feed is grown. "If the developed world were to consume less meat and if agricultural products were no longer used as fuel," says the report, "the pressure on the land areas could be reduced considerably."</p><p>Insect Atlas lays out a number of solutions for global policymakers to pursue. They include:</p><ul><li>Gradually reducing the use of synthetic pesticides by 80 percent in EU agriculture by 2030, starting from 2020 and phase out exports of pesticides banned in the EU;</li><li>Radically reforming the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), including the phasing out of harmful untargeted direct payments, setting aside at least 50% of the CAP budget for environmental, nature, and climate objectives and support farmers in the transition to agroecology;</li><li>Phasing out harmful farming methods like growing genetically modified plants or introducing a new generation of genetically modified insects;</li><li>Taking urgent actions to achieve the targets suggested in the European Farm to Fork and Biodiversity strategies to increase organic farming;</li><li>Reducing the production and consumption of industrial meat and other animal products and supporting plant-based options; and</li><li>Cutting the overall EU demand for agrocommodities in order to reduce global deforestation.</li></ul><p>Schimpf spoke about those solutions and the report on <em>Euronews</em> Tuesday:</p>
<div id="8fdf8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="375c252c346fe9796c1409d1a05fb0eb"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1270286526702850050" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">What are the consequences for our food supply? "If we continue using pesticides so heavily, farmers will lose the… https://t.co/Kiz6VXe6Mc</div> — Friends of the Earth #BlackLivesMatter (@Friends of the Earth #BlackLivesMatter)<a href="https://twitter.com/foeeurope/statuses/1270286526702850050">1591694883.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Schimpf also drew renewed attention to the <a href="https://www.savebeesandfarmers.eu/eng" target="_blank">Save Bees and Farmers</a> European Citizens Initiative. It's centered on three key demands: a phase-out of the use of synthetic pesticides; measures to increase biodiversity; and support for farmers.</p><p>As of press time, the petition has over 355,000 signatures.</p>
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19 Individuals and Organizations Building Stronger Black Communities and Food Systems
06 June
Insights + Opinion
These 19 organizations and individuals represent a small portion of the efforts underway to fight racism and inequality and to build stronger Black communities and food systems. rez-art / Getty Images
By Danielle Nierenberg
Following the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, people around the United States are protesting racism, police brutality, inequality, and violence in their own communities. No matter your political affiliation, the violence by multiple police departments in this country is unacceptable.
<p>We must remember and honor the memory of people including Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and David McAtee, the owner of a barbecue restaurant in Louisville who was killed by police during protests. These murders are a travesty and something that should not happen in the United States of America—or any nation.</p><p>It's time for people of all backgrounds to not only denounce violence, but to actively use their voices, dollars, and power to demand change. I'm in awe of the many people who have been working for years to restore democracy, empathy, and equality to this country. </p><p>These 19 organizations and individuals represent a small portion of the efforts underway to fight racism and inequality and to build stronger Black communities and food systems, and I hope you'll join me in supporting them.</p>
<p><strong>1. </strong><a href="http://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Anti Police-Terror Project</strong></a></p><p>The Anti Police-Terror Project is a Black-led, multi-generational coalition of people working to end police terror in communities. Based in Oakland and Sacramento, California, APTP is building a sustainable model for justice that can be replicated around the country. They also document police abuses and help impacted families access legal and healing resources.</p><p><strong>2. </strong><a href="https://www.blackchurchfoodsecurity.net/" target="_blank"><strong>Black Church Food Security Network</strong></a></p><p>Based in Baltimore but operating nationally, the Black Church Food Security Network aims to support gardening and farming within Black churches. They establish agricultural projects on church land, connect farmers to congregational markets, and create asset maps of Black churches and surrounding neighborhoods to help better use resources. They also operate <a href="https://www.blackchurchfoodsecurity.net/black-farmer-network" target="_blank">a small directory and interactive map</a> of faith-based Black farmers across the East Coast, Midwest, and southeastern U.S.</p><p><strong>3. </strong><a href="https://blacklivesmatter.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Black Lives Matter</strong></a></p><p>Black Lives Matter, a movement created in response to murders of innocent Black people by police and vigilantes, works to build power to bring justice, healing, and freedom to Black people across the globe. Black Lives Matter is a broad coalition and affirms the lives of Black people across the gender spectrum, of all abilities, and of any documentation status.</p>
<p><strong>4. </strong><a href="https://www.blackurbangrowers.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Black Urban Growers Association</strong></a></p><p>Black Urban Growers maintains a network and community support in order to foster Black leadership in food and farm advocacy. Their programs include the Black Farmers & Urban Gardeners Conference, a national conference started in 2010 that brings together Black farmers, advocates, chefs, and communities to share their best practices and leadership efforts.</p><p><strong>5. </strong><a href="http://www.detroitblackfoodsecurity.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Detroit Black Community Food Security Network</strong></a></p><p>The Detroit Black Community Food Security Network is working on the ground in Detroit, Michigan, to ensure that the local urban agriculture movement is racially and socially inclusive. It was founded in 2006 to mobilize the Black community to address food insecurity challenges, and the network believes that the most effective movements grow organically within the communities they are designed to benefit. They operate organic urban farm sites, various local food policy initiatives, and a cooperative food-buying program for community residents.</p><p><strong>6. </strong><a href="http://dreamingoutloud.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Dreaming Out Loud</strong></a></p><p>Washington D.C. nonprofit Dreaming Out Loud works to create healthier, more equitable food systems in low-income communities. Dreaming Out Loud supports economic opportunity-building with their two-acre farm, several community gardens and farmers markets, and a food business accelerator. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they partnered with Little Sesame restaurant to provide free meals for people of all ages every weekday afternoon.</p>
<p><strong>7. </strong><a href="https://fairfight.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Fair Fight</strong></a></p><p>One of the most impactful ways to participate in democracy is by voting, but many people, particularly in minority communities, face structural barriers against having their voices be heard. Fair Fight was founded by Stacey Abrams, who lost a close race for Georgia governor in 2018 amid allegations that her opponent, then-state Secretary of State Brian Kemp, had engaged in voter suppression. The organization aims to end voter suppression, make sure everyone can access their constitutional right to vote, and fight for fairer elections. You can <a href="https://secure.actblue.com/donate/fairfight-2020-dtd" target="_blank">donate online here</a>.</p><p><strong>8. Jamila Norman of </strong><a href="https://www.patchworkcityfarms.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Patchwork City Farms</strong></a></p><p>Based in Atlanta, Georgia, Jamila Norman is a world-renowned urban farmer and food activist. In 2010, Norman founded Patchwork City Farms, a certified naturally grown organic urban farm where Norman farms—and provides the local community with safe and nutritious foods. Norman is also co-founder of EAT Where You Are, an initiative that aims to spread awareness of the importance of including fresh foods in diets, and is the manager and one of the founding members of the South West Atlanta Growers Cooperative, which helps Black farmers create equitable, sustainable, responsible food systems.</p><p><strong>9. Karen Washington, founder of </strong><a href="http://www.riseandrootfarm.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Rise and Root Farm</strong></a></p><p>Karen Washington, a farmer and community activist, wants to build a different agricultural narrative, inclusive of all races, genders, and sexualities. She created Rise and Root Farm to be a place of healing for diverse and marginalized communities—particularly important today, as black farmers work to call attention to not only their own contributions to the modern food system but also the impact of the slave trade on the development of global food chains. "Agriculture must be inclusive in its diversity," Washington tells Food Tank.</p>
<p><strong>10. </strong><a href="https://viacampesina.org/en/" target="_blank"><strong>La Via Campesina</strong></a></p><p>La Via Campesina is an international coalition of organizations that defend food sovereignty as a way to promote social justice and worker dignity. They built a movement that amplifies the voices of smallholder peasant farmers and aims to decentralize the power of corporate-driven agriculture, which they argue is destructive to the environment and social relations.</p><p><strong>11. Leah Penniman, founder of </strong><a href="http://www.soulfirefarm.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Soul Fire Farm</strong></a></p><p>Soul Fire Farm grows food as an act of solidarity with those oppressed by food apartheid while maintaining respect for their ancestors, history, and the environment. Soul Fire Farm conducts training programs to raise the next generation of activist-farmers and support food sovereignty for future communities. The organization's Co-Director Leah Penniman recently completed a book, "Farming While Black," a guide for African-heritage growers to reclaim their dignity.</p><p><strong>12. </strong><a href="https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory" target="_blank"><strong>National Bail Fund Network</strong></a></p><p>The <a href="https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory" target="_blank">National Bail Fund Network</a> is a directory of bail funds in over 30 states, which free unfairly detained people from jail and fight to end the cash bail system. Donations to local and national bail funds support jailed protesters who are not only at risk for being prosecuted unfairly, but who are also at risk for contracting COVID-19 while detained.</p>
<p><strong>13. </strong><a href="http://www.blackfoodjustice.org/" target="_blank"><strong>National Black Food and Justice Alliance</strong></a></p><p>A coalition of Black-led organizations, the National Black Food and Justice Alliance builds Black self-determination around food and land sovereignty. They accomplish this through community organizing and increasing visibility of Black narratives, visions, and achievements. In 2018, co-founder Dara Cooper was honored with a James Beard Foundation Leadership Award "for dedicating her life to racial equity and justice in the food system and increasing capacity and visibility of Black-led narratives and work."</p><p><strong>14. </strong><a href="https://plantingjustice.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Planting Justice</strong></a></p><p>In Oakland, California, Planting Justice builds economic justice and food sovereignty among communities impacted by mass incarceration. Planting Justice teaches gardening skills to people while in prison and offers them paid positions after release. Planting Justice has planted over 500 gardens in the Bay Area, <a href="https://oaklandnorth.net/2019/09/20/planting-justice-celebrates-10-years-of-cultivating-gardening-skills-for-incarcerated-people/" target="_blank">offered</a> reentry employment opportunities to over 40 people, and helped people <a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/social-justice/2019/04/30/indigenous-women-reclaim-stolen-land-california-bay-area/" target="_blank">reconnect</a> with the land.</p><p><strong>15. </strong><a href="https://www.reclaimtheblock.org/home/#about" target="_blank"><strong>Reclaim the Block</strong></a></p><p>A Minneapolis-based organization, <a href="https://www.reclaimtheblock.org/home/#about" target="_blank">Reclaim the Block</a> works to reallocate city money away from police and instead toward community-led health and safety initiatives. They have assembled an extensive digital toolkit to help communities in all cities and states advocate for divestiture from police. You can support them via <a href="https://secure.everyaction.com/zae4prEeKESHBy0MKXTIcQ2" target="_blank">donations</a> or by <a href="https://www.reclaimtheblock.org/home/#petition" target="_blank">signing their petition</a> encouraging the Minneapolis City Council to redirect police department funding toward resources for Black and Indigenous communities.</p>
<p><strong>16. </strong><a href="https://soilgeneration.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Soil Generation</strong></a></p><p>Based in Philadelphia, Soil Generation is a Black- and Brown-led coalition with a vision for "a people's agroecology"—a combination of environmental and food justice with a focus on community self-representation, anti-racism training, education, and advocacy. Soil Generation has successfully worked with the city council to <a href="https://www.pubintlaw.org/current-cases-projects-public-health/soil-generation/" target="_blank">amend</a> a bill that would have put urban gardens at risk and continues to actively <a href="https://www.phillytrib.com/lifestyle/philly-s-farm-chief-kicks-off-plan-to-save-endangered/article_fb129084-810a-538d-a9bf-8ce3b0642a7c.html" target="_blank">campaign</a> for rights to vacant lots.</p><p><strong>17. <a href="https://civileats.com/author/tfields/" target="_blank">Tanya Fields </a>of the Black Feminist Project</strong></p><p>As founder and executive director of The Black Feminist Project, <a href="https://civileats.com/author/tfields/" target="_blank">Tanya Fields</a> is a food justice activist and educator. Fields started the <a href="https://theblkprojek.wordpress.com/programs/urban-farming-the-libertad-urban-farm-project/" target="_blank">Libertad Urban Farm</a>, an organic urban garden in the Bronx, as an effort to address the lack of nutritious food and food education accessible to low-income people, specifically underserved women of color. Additionally, Fields works closely with The Hunts Point Farm Share, connecting city residents to high-quality local produce through community-supported agriculture.</p><p><strong>18. </strong><a href="https://tonitiptonmartin.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Toni Tipton-Martin</strong></a></p><p>Toni Tipton-Martin, based in Baltimore, Maryland, works on a series of endeavors to promote food justice. She has written two James Beard Award-winning books that trace Black cuisine, <a href="https://gardenandgun.com/articles/talking-toni-tipton-martin/" target="_blank">Jubilee</a> and <a href="https://gardenandgun.com/articles/talking-toni-tipton-martin/" target="_blank">The Jemima Code: Two Centuries of African American Cookbook</a>. Martin served as the president of Southern Foodways Alliance board of directors and was the first Black food editor at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Additionally, Martin founded the SANDE Youth Project, a nonprofit organization that works with children to combat obesity while supporting Black food culture.</p><p><strong>19. </strong><a href="https://urbangrowerscollective.org/" target="_blank"><strong>Urban Growers Collective</strong></a></p><p>The Urban Growers Collective operates eight urban farms on 11 acres of land in Chicago's South Side and works with more than 33 partner organizations to create economic opportunity and boost healthy food access. Each farm uses organic methods and integrates education, leadership training, and food production. The organization was co-founded by Laurell Sims and <a href="https://urbangrowerscollective.org/team/erikaallen/" target="_blank">Erika Allen</a>, a visual artist and food advocate who works to use creativity for social change.</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://foodtank.com/news/2020/06/19-individuals-and-organizations-building-stronger-black-communities-and-food-systems/" target="_blank">Food Tank</a>.</em></p>Related Articles Around the Web
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Weeds dying in a soybean field impacted by dicamba spraying. JJ Gouin / iStock / Getty Images
A federal court overturned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) approval of dicamba Wednesday, meaning the controversial herbicide can no longer be sprayed in the U.S.
<p>The product, originally designed by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/monsanto" target="_self">Monsanto</a>, is opposed by some farmers and environmental groups because it can drift when sprayed, damaging <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> and other crops.</p><p>"Today's decision is a massive win for farmers and the environment. It is good to be reminded that corporations like Monsanto and the Trump Administration cannot escape the rule of law, particularly at a time of crisis like this," lead counsel George Kimbrell of the <a href="http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/1881/p/salsa/web/common/public/signup?signup_page_KEY=10186" target="_blank">Center for Food Safety</a> told <a href="https://usrtk.org/pesticides/court-orders-epa-approvals-of-bayer-dicamba-herbicide-vacated-says-regulator-understated-the-risks/" target="_blank">U.S. Right to Know</a>. "Their day of reckoning has arrived."</p>
<p>The Center for Food Safety sued the EPA together with <a href="https://nffc.net/" target="_blank">National Family Farm Coalition</a>, <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> and <a href="http://www.panna.org/" target="_blank">Pesticide Action Network North America</a>. The groups argued that the EPA broke the law when it ruled on the safety of a kind of dicamba designed by Monsanto to be sprayed widely over crops genetically engineered to be resistant to the herbicide. This method means the dicamba can drift to other, non-resistant crops.</p><p>The herbicide is believed to have damaged 3.6 million acres of soybeans in 2017, and more than 1 million in 2018, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-03/bayer-s-dicamba-registration-pulled-by-court-on-herbicide-s-risk" target="_blank">Bloomberg News reported</a>.</p><p>The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the EPA "substantially understated the risks" of the herbicides and also "failed entirely to acknowledge other risks," according to U.S. Right to Know.</p>
<div id="35797" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="77896b9baa08d7fa5905f98e506d5e7f"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1268328882094116872" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The court found @EPA refused to estimate the
amount of dicamba damage, characterizing such damage as “potential” an… https://t.co/ev2bah3opD</div> — carey gillam (@carey gillam)<a href="https://twitter.com/careygillam/statuses/1268328882094116872">1591228144.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>One of the risks the EPA failed to acknowledge was the "enormous social cost to farming communities" where the herbicide's use "has turned farmer against farmer, and neighbor against neighbor," the court wrote, according to Bloomberg. A farmer was shot and killed because of a dicamba-related argument in Arkansas in 2016.</p><p>The ruling impacts the dicamba-based herbicide sold by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bayer" target="_self">Bayer</a>, which acquired Monsanto in 2018. It also prohibits the use of BASF's Engenia and Corteva Agriscience's FeXapan, <a href="https://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUKKBN23B0JA" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p>Bayer told Reuters that the ruling impacted a 2018 EPA approval that expires in December and that it is currently at work on a new 2021 approval.</p><p>"Depending upon actions by the EPA and whether the ruling is successfully challenged, we will work quickly to minimize any impact on our customers this season," Bayer said.</p>
<p>The ruling comes around four months after a jury ruled against Bayer and BASF and in favor of a Missouri farmer who said the companies' dicamba products destroyed his peach orchard, according to Bloomberg.</p><p>That was the first of around 140 pending dicamba suits awaiting trial.</p><p>The dicamba suits are not the only suits Bayer inherited when it acquired Monsanto, Reuters pointed out. Wednesday's dicamba decision came days after arguments were heard in an appeal of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/jury-finds-monsanto-liable-in-the-first-roundup-cancer-trial--2595446068.html" target="_self">first</a> case to go to trial over whether or not the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/glyphosate" target="_self">glyphosate-based</a> weedkiller <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/roundup" target="_self">Roundup</a> causes cancer.</p>
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A 17-year periodical cicada. Education Images / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
As many parts of the planet continue to open their doors after pandemic closures, a new pest is expected to make its way into the world. After spending more than a decade underground, millions of cicadas are expected to emerge in regions of the southeastern U.S.
<p>The scale of the emergence events is "astounding," according to <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/05/CALS-periodical_cicada_2020.html" target="_blank">Virginia Tech</a>. Experts note that people living in Virginia, West Virginia and in parts of North Carolina are now set to see their hatch in the earlier part of the summer as an estimated 1.5 million insects per acre of land emerge from the soil, reports <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52793339" target="_blank">BBC</a>. This "unique natural phenomenon" has not occurred in the region since 2003.</p>
<p>"Communities and farms with large numbers of cicadas emerging at once may have a substantial noise issue," <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/05/CALS-periodical_cicada_2020.html" target="_blank">said</a> Eric Day, <a href="https://ext.vt.edu/" target="_blank">Virginia Cooperative Extension</a> entomologist in Virginia Tech's <a href="https://www.ento.vt.edu/" target="_blank">Department of Entomology</a> in the <a href="https://www.cals.vt.edu/" target="_blank">College of Agriculture and Life Sciences</a>. "Hopefully, any annoyance at the disturbance is tempered by just how infrequent — and amazing — this event is."</p><p>It comes after roughly a billion cicadas took over parts of the northeastern U.S. in 2016, reported <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/theyre-back-17-year-cicadas-to-blanket-northeastern-u-s-1891148953.html)" target="_self">EcoWatch</a> at the time. The group of insects is made up of roughly 15 "broods," with Brood IX emerging this year following a Brood V emergence four years ago.</p>
<p>Cicadas are some of the longest-lived insects in the world, yet they spend most of their lives underground as part of their nymph stage, feeding off of roots for periods lasting between 13 and 17 years before emerging from the soil through mud tubes known as "cicada huts." </p><p>During such events, the finger-sized insects crawl out to molt into winged adults and mate. The specific timing behind this unique life cycle largely remains a mystery, though some experts speculate that it could have evolved as a method to avoid syncing with predator cycles, according to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/millions-cicadas-emerge-parts-us-1st-time-17/story?id=70880463" target="_blank">ABC News</a>. As such, the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/24/us/17-year-cicadas-virginia.html" target="_blank">New York Times</a> notes that cicadas' best defense is their incredible numbers emerging in synchronicity.</p>
<p>After their surfacing, the insects live outside of the ground for around a month and though they are not harmful to humans — and can actually serve as an important source of food for animals — they can wreak havoc on important crops, vines and saplings, according to a <a href="https://www.pubs.ext.vt.edu/444/444-276/444-276.html" target="_blank">fact sheet</a> provided by Virginia Cooperative Extension.</p><p>"Cicadas can occur in overwhelming numbers and growers in predicted areas of activity should be watchful," <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/05/CALS-periodical_cicada_2020.html" target="_blank">said</a> Doug Pfeiffer, a professor and Extension specialist in the Department of Entomology.</p><p>The dramatic timeline is short-lived. Cicada egg-laying takes place over the course of about four to six weeks before the generation dies off. Entomologists at Virginia Tech <a href="https://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2020/05/CALS-periodical_cicada_2020.html" target="_blank">suggest</a> that tree growers wait a year or two before major emergence events before planting new trees as existing treatment options, such as netting or sprays, don't have a large effect on the bugs.</p><p>People living in the southeast can expect a loud singing sound caused by the vibrating membrane of the insects' abdomens in what entomologists liken to a "field of out-of-tune car radios." Others may see the casted skins on trees as large swarms of cicadas as they congregate.</p><p>"This insect is really fascinating, and if you don't have fruit trees or grapevines to protect, you can enjoy this phenomenon while it lasts," said Pfeiffer.</p>
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Locusts swarm over Jaipur, India on May 25, 2020. Vishal Bhatnagar / NurPhoto via Getty Images
India is facing its worst desert locust invasion in nearly 30 years, and the climate crisis is partly to blame.
<p>The locusts spawned a swarm of social media posts Monday when they entered the city of Jaipur, as <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-in-india/large-swarms-of-the-locusts-enter-jaipur-netizens-share-frightening-videos-of-attack-6427856/" target="_blank">The Indian Express reported</a>, but the crop-devouring <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/insects" target="_self">insects</a> have been wreaking havoc since May in an invasion that both began earlier and is extending farther than usual. Several farmers told <a href="https://thewire.in/agriculture/locust-attack-india-jaipur-climate-change" target="_blank">The Wire</a> that they hadn't seen an invasion this severe in their lifetimes.</p><p>"Even my father, who is 86, said he hasn't ever seen anything like this. Only heard about this in folk tales," 64-year-old Madhya Pradesh farmer Sooraj Pandey told The Wire.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Locust Ataack in Jaipur 🤮 <a href="https://t.co/QWHfOXasvf">pic.twitter.com/QWHfOXasvf</a></p>— Akanksha🎨 (@art_lover_09) <a href="https://twitter.com/art_lover_09/status/1264802499782991873?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 25, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Locusts are not uncommon in the northwest Indian state of Rajasthan, but this year they have also entered the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh for the first time since 1993 and the state of Maharashtra for the first time since 1974. They also do not usually move so far into Rajasthan from the border with Pakistan, according to AFP reporting <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/05/crops-destroyed-india-faces-worst-locust-attack-27-years-200526160727430.html" target="_blank">published by Al Jazeera</a>.</p><p>So far, the insects have devoured almost 50,000 hectares or 123,500 acres of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/agriculture" target="_self">agricultural</a> land in seven Indian states, <a href="https://apnews.com/707418101bef8e5a2340e905fb97fdd7" target="_blank">The Associated Press reported</a>, putting pressure on farmers already struggling with the impacts of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> lockdown.</p>
<p>The government has responded with pesticides, drones and sprayers mounted on vehicles, while farmers have resorted to banging plates, whistling and throwing stones to drive the locusts away.</p><p>"These insects are giving us sleepless nights. We are more worried about them than the virus," Mandeep Singh, a cotton farmer from Punjab, told The Associated Press.</p><p>A swarm of 40 million locusts can cover the space of a square kilometer (approximately 0.4 square miles) and eat the same as 35,000 people in a day, according to UN Food and Agricultural Organization data reported by The Wire.</p>
<p>Unusually large locust swarms bred on the Arabian Peninsula in early 2019 following heavy rains and cyclones in the region, according to AFP. Those ideal breeding conditions were the product of the climate crisis, as warmer than usual temperatures in the western Indian Ocean fueled the storms.</p><p>"These warm waters were caused by the phenomenon called the Indian Ocean Dipole — with warmer than usual waters to its west, and cooler waters to its east. Rising temperatures due to global warming amplified the dipole and made the western Indian Ocean particularly warm," Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology climate scientist Roxy Mathew Koll told The Wire.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">This time desert locust attack is severe. They have arrived earlier, in huge numbers & now reached till Panna in MP. The changing climate conditions are linked with locust growth in east Africa. The swarms has potential of eating everything & destroy the crops. This from Panna. <a href="https://t.co/8aqLa8lA4O">pic.twitter.com/8aqLa8lA4O</a></p>— Parveen Kaswan, IFS (@ParveenKaswan) <a href="https://twitter.com/ParveenKaswan/status/1265124661718847489?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 26, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>The locusts have already <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/locust-swarm-east-africa-2644928358.html" target="_self">caused significant damage</a> in East Africa earlier in 2020 before migrating to India through Iran and Pakistan.</p><p>India's locust situation could get even worse, both this year and in the future.</p><p>In the short term, more locusts could arrive from Africa in June, according to AFP. There is also a concern that the locusts already in India could breed, The Associated Press pointed out.</p><p>"It is an alarming situation," KL Gurjar, a top official at India's Locust Warning Organization, told The Associated Press. "But we are more worried of their breeding. If that happens, it could be devastating for our farmlands."</p><p>In the future, climate change could also make locust invasions like this year's more common.</p><p>"Climate change may well play a role here, mainly because, according to forecasts by international climate researchers, precipitation will increase in the southern Arabian Peninsula and northern East Africa," University of Trier biodiversity scientist Axel Hochkirch told The Wire. "This means that there will be more frequent 'very humid' phases, such as we have had since 2018, and it is therefore possible that such swarms will simply occur more frequently."</p>
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A field of organic lettuce grows at a sustainable farm in California. thinkreaction / Getty Images
When the coronavirus pandemic hit, the future of the Cannard Family Farm—whose organic vegetables supplied a single Berkeley restaurant—was looking stark.
<p>Ross Cannard is the son of an iconic leader in the local organic movement in California. "Iconoclastic," Ross says with a chuckle. Bob Cannard built his 30-year career by rejecting organic certification in favor of his own "better than organic" breed of "natural process agriculture," enriching the soil on his Green String Farm with crushed rock and compost.</p><p>He and his son have long sold the fruits of their labor to the famous restaurant Chez Panisse, where, since 1971, chef Alice Waters has pioneered an elegant cuisine based entirely on fresh, local foods straight from the farm.</p><p>But in March, the stay-at-home order hit, and the restaurant closed.</p><p>"You're a farmer. Plants are already in the ground," says Evan Wiig, director of membership and communications for the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. "You make plans months and months in advance. You can't just turn on a dime."</p>
<p>Waters was worried about the vulnerable situation her workers and producers were finding themselves in. She rushed to establish a subscription CSA, which stands for community supported agriculture, offering weekly food boxes that could be picked up at the shuttered restaurant, filled with goodies from her regular producers like Cannard.</p><p>"I'm trying to connect our network with the people who would like to have that food in their home," she said on Michael Dimock's podcast, <a href="https://www.rootsofchange.org/flippingthetablepodcast/available-episodes/" target="_blank">Flipping the Table</a>, on March 26. "We can sort of skip the restaurant for now. … We could help people do the cooking in their own kitchen."</p><p>Cannard augments that market with his own local CSA, setting up a farm stand in the parking lot of Baker & Cook, a café in nearby Boyes Hot Springs, now serving only takeout. Along with produce, Cannard has his olive oil available, as well as wine from a friend's vineyard, and flowers from another local farm. Friends and neighbors are among his 100 or so customers.</p><p>This CSA model, where buyers invest in a farm's annual production upfront in exchange for a regular share of the harvest, is built on long-term relationships between farmers and consumers. It's those relationships, farmers say, springing from the fertile soil of Sonoma County, that are making survival possible. New local grassroots networks and nimbler digital marketplaces, too, are popping up to provide critical lifelines. And despite the strange, isolating atmosphere created by the coronavirus, the region is now bursting with spring growth.</p>
Building Food Communities
<p>Family farms in California and across the country have been hit hard by the impact of the coronavirus on their markets. But in the health-conscious Bay Area, where celery was already one of the first groceries to disappear from the produce rack, demand for fresh local produce has shot up. The challenge is in redirecting food from farms to new customers.</p><p>Sonoma County has historically been an agricultural region. When the organic food movement sprang up in the 1970s, this area was one of its early proponents. The first farmers markets and CSAs appeared in the 1980s and flourished, but the burgeoning network was later eclipsed by an inflated wine industry, much of it owned by distant corporations.</p><p>According to a 2018 crop report, 60,000 acres have gone to grapes, with only 500 acres in food crops. Land prices have skyrocketed, the cost of labor has gone up, and increased regulations have all made it harder to run a viable business here. Many farmers had turned to "boutique" specialty crops for restaurants.</p><p>"Farmers are always in an uphill battle, especially ecological farmers," says Wiig of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. "I often hear them say, 'I'm working my butt off and hoping for the best.'" That's even more true now, as the pandemic strangles economies the world over.</p><p>For farms with existing CSAs, Wiig says, this is a really good time. "In the beginning of March, most CSAs were struggling to fill boxes. Now some now have waiting lists, some in the 100s."</p><p>But for those who didn't have CSAs established, Wiig says, this is a really tough time. "We've been able to keep farm markets open as essential businesses, but crowds have decreased with people afraid to go out, and sales are down."</p><p>Community Alliance was quick to jump in, becoming a "matchmaker" for producers and buyers on its website. They're also providing all kinds of information for farmers about how to start and run a CSA, including useful software, relevant legislation, available funding sources, and a series of four webinars showcasing successful farms.</p><p>Farm Trails, a local nonprofit with 250 farmer members, also leapt into the fray. The organization has been building relationships between farmers and consumers for 47 years by organizing farm visits and hosting educational events. Two days after the shelter-in-place shut down regular sales outlets, Farm Trails had put up a new page on its website and invited its members to post their offerings.<span></span></p><p>"We know our farmers well," executive director Carmen Snyder says. "We did outreach to them to see what they had. Spirit Works had plenty of alcohol, so they started making lavender sanitizer, giving it away to first responders and health care workers, and selling the rest at the local hardware store."</p><p>In the online marketplace's first two days, web traffic on Farm Trails' site went up 1000%.</p><p>"Many people have been on the fence about CSAs," says Sonya Perrotti, who runs the 1-acre Coyote Family Farm in Penngrove. "This was the push." While she has always sold most of her produce in a CSA, Perrotti benefited from the new digital marketplace. She has now sold out of her 100 shares and plans to expand.</p>
Scaling Up Support
<p>F.E.E.D. Sonoma, a food hub that aggregates produce from dozens of local farms, was another quick responder. When the pandemic hit, it went from serving Bay Area restaurants to building a cooperative of farmers, filling food boxes for distribution at F.E.E.D.'s Petaluma warehouse and other drop spots in the county.</p><p>"Our local food system is extremely diverse," says co-founder Tim Page, who has the energy of a visionary combined with the skills of a businessman. "We have a ton of small farms but we don't have the infrastructure to support them. That is what F.E.E.D. is trying to establish." Since converting the restaurant supply business to a CSA, it has gone from 90 boxes to 450. Ultimately, the goal is 1,800 or more.</p><p>"I grew up in L.A.," Page says. "Every single farm is gone. The same thing will happen here if the general public does not understand the importance of it.</p><p>"That understanding was on display at the Sonoma Farmers Market, which now operates with strict restrictions and safety precautions because of the virus. "We think F.E.E.D. is going to save us," said Candy Wirtz, co-director of Paul's Produce, a well-established farm in Sonoma, as she weighed out my purchases. The CSA model could be transformative for Paul's and other farms across the country.</p><p>Subscribing to a CSA is a lifestyle change for consumers, to be sure. It means eating what's in season and learning to cook unfamiliar vegetables. But it's a change that many people are making now because of the stay-at-home orders. "People just have to learn to cook again instead of eating out," says Judith Redmond, part-owner of Full Belly Farm near Sacramento.</p><p>In light of this newfound commitment to CSAs, Perrotti, of Coyote Family Farm, says: "My hope is that this solidifies instead of going back to the way things were. I hope the importance of local farming stays at the forefront."</p>Farms With Futures
<p>To help small farmers stay in business during the crisis, Community Alliance is also advocating for stimulus dollars. "Most often subsidies go to a small number of the largest farms, or to buy food that goes to food banks from far away, while local farmers can't sell their food," Wiig says. "We want food banks to buy from local farms."</p><p>This seems like a win-win. Millions of tons of food is being plowed under as 60 million people are now going hungry, 17 million of them since the pandemic began, according to Feeding America, the national network of food banks.</p><p>But it's complicated. David Goodman of the Redwood Empire Food Bank puts it plainly: Local food is too expensive. "We distribute nine and a half million pounds of produce annually," he says. "It costs about 9 cents a pound, 3 cents to transport. With 82,000 people to feed, it would be a luxury to think of tending to local needs by buying locally."</p><p>That reticence is partly because the food bank system is tangled in bureaucracy. The USDA decides what to purchase and from where. Because of the distances between sites, the federal agency has tended to favor foods with long shelf lives, such as canned and processed foods, and long-lasting produce like apples and potatoes. "If local food is what we need, there has to be a plan," Goodman says.</p><p>Such a plan might be where short-term disaster relief meets long-term resilience. Michael Dimock is president of Roots of Change, a nonprofit organization that advocates for transforming California's food system. To get serious about preparing the food system for future disasters, Dimock says, the government needs to be involved. Roots of Change is now advocating for a tax on sugary beverages to help foot the bill.</p><p>Dimock says the state needs a paradigm shift for farms to remain viable in the face of multiplying disasters to come—not only pandemics, but fires, floods, and other symptoms of climate change. "How bold will people get in the months ahead to demand real change? My hope is they will get more radical."</p><p>Food is fundamental. While farmers have yet to face the full economic impact of this pandemic, their collaborative efforts, along with local grassroots networks, could mark the beginning of a new economy laboring to be born.</p>
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