Agriculture

22/04/20
Author: 
Andrea Germanos, staff writer
A sign on a farm trailer reading "Food grows where water flows" hangs over dry, cracked mud at the edge of a farm April 16, 2009 near Buttonwillow, California. (Photo: David McNew/Getty Images)
April 17, 2020

"We now have enough observations of current drought and tree-ring records of past drought to say that we're on the same trajectory as the worst prehistoric droughts."

The western United States is likely being gripped by an "emerging" megadrought partly fueled by the climate crisis, says a study published Friday.

Researchers claim the region's 19-year drought, from 2000–2018, already rivals that of any over the past 1,200 years.

22/04/20
Author: 
Laura Spinney
 A Chinese poultry farm. China stepped up surveillance after bird flu outbreaks. Photograph: China Photos/Getty Images
28 March 2020 
 
Scientists are tracing the path of Sars-CoV-2 from a wild animal host – but we need to look at the part played in the outbreak by industrial food production

Where did the virus causing the current pandemic come from? How did it get to a food market in Wuhan, China, from where it is thought to have spilled over into humans? The answers to these questions are gradually being pieced together, and the story they tell makes for uncomfortable reading.

21/04/20
Author: 
Dutch academics
Dutch Manifesto April 2020
 April 20, 2020
170 Dutch academics sign manifesto for sustainable, equal and diverse societies based on international solidarity

The following statement, signed by 170 academics from eight universities in the Netherlands, has been widely reported in the Dutch press, becoming a focus for discussion on how to avoid repeating past mistakes when in planning for the future.

18/04/20
Author: 
Jessica Corbett
A volunteer with Forgotten Harvest loads food into a vehicle at a mobile pantry April 14, 2020 in Detroit, Michigan. The organization distributes food throughout the metro area, which has seen an uptick in demand due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

April 17, 2020

"To truly be resilient, our system must shift to one that relies on small and medium producers and independent, responsible operations."

U.S. food pantries have faced unprecedented demand while billions of dollars in produce has gone to waste due to supply chain disruptions from the ongoing coronavirus pandemic—conditions that are renewing calls for reforms to make the nation's food systems more localized, resilient, and sustainable.

17/04/20
Author: 
Rural America In These Times
Chicken in a business suit - (Image: Farming Pathogens)
JUNE 9, 2017
 
The only way to stop the next deadly pandemic to emerge directly out of livestock or poultry or indirectly out of wild animals subjected to Big Ag-driven deforestation is to end capitalist agribusiness as we know it.
 
21/03/20
Author: 
Jon Parsons
Empty store shelves - Photo: Wonderlane

March 19, 2020

The pandemic is teaching us about what really matters — and has been possible all along

Before anything else I want to acknowledge what is unfolding in Canada and around the globe as a human tragedy. Even as this crisis offers an object lesson and has things to teach us, it is important to never lose sight of the scale of calamity in terms of suffering and loss of life.

20/02/20
Author: 
Julie Mollins
View of deforestation around Lake Lagano in Ethiopia. Migration, agricultural expansion and charcoal production have cleared the forests in this area. CIFOR/Ollivier Girard

Feb. 12, 2020

Unless land management strategies are overhauled to reduce the gap between forestry and agriculture, it will be impossible to feed and nourish the human population without further damaging the environment and forests, according to scientists.

15/02/20
Author: 
National Farmers Union

FEBRUARY 12, 2020

The National Farmers Union (NFU) stands in solidarity with Indigenous land protectors. We support initiatives by Indigenous People including the Unist’ot’en and Wet’suwet’en to resist resource extraction and energy projects that disrupt their Indigenous food and governance systems and interfere with the health of their lands, territories, and communities.

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