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President’s Council Report on Agriculture – What About Ecology?
The new report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) addresses the state of U.S. agriculture research. The report notes that public funding for agricultural...
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Do We Need GMOs?
Most observers agree that we are facing big obstacles to producing enough food sustainably in coming decades. Issues of distribution and food justice remain paramount, but production must also be...
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Listening to SNAP Voices: What to Know Before Cutting Program Budgets
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), still referred to by some as “food stamps”, is a federal food assistance program that offers benefits usable as cash for the purchase of food by...
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It’s Never Too Late to Start Slimming Down Your Food Waste
Well, the holidays are long gone (sigh), but hopefully your resolutions are still going strong? Just in case you are ready for another, I have a suggestion that will benefit your plate, pocketbook, and...
View ArticleWe Can Help Veterans, Bolster an Aging Agricultural Workforce, and Reduce...
This Veterans Day, I wanted to profile an amazing veteran-turned-farmer, Sonia Kendrick, and share her inspiring vision for how increasing opportunities for new farmers might eliminate food insecurity....
View ArticleFood Production Does NOT Need to Double by 2050 (And Other Required Reading...
UPDATE, March 17, 2017: Shortly after this post was published, the US Senate’s agriculture committee finally announced that it would hold a hearing on Gov. Perdue’s nomination to be Secretary of...
View ArticleThe USDA Has a Plan to Fix Our Nutrition Crisis—But Will It Work?
More people in the United States are sick than are healthy. Sixty percent of adults now live with one or more chronic diseases, many of which are directly linked to poor diets, and there’s reason to...
View ArticleInflation Is a Triple Threat to Food and Nutrition Security. Here’s Why.
This fall, the news has been full of reports of inflation, including surging food prices. The cost of groceries has increased by 13 percent over the past 12 months, meaning that a $100 supermarket...
View ArticleHow Many Farmworkers Are Food Insecure? It’s Hard to Tell
Born and raised in the Czech Republic, I only learned about Thanksgiving traditions through watching TV shows from the United States. The table is filled with the best produce the fall harvest can...
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How Do You Fight for Environmental, Climate, and Food Justice? Eastie Farm...
It was a cold November day in Boston, and I rushed from a conference on public health to tour Eastie Farm. Founded in 2015 on a single lot in East Boston, this urban farm has expanded to seven sites...
View ArticleHunger Is a Long-Term Emergency—Federal Benefits Should Reflect That
With a deadline looming and the holidays just around the corner, federal lawmakers are busy trying to pass legislation to approve federal government funding through September 2023, the end of this...
View ArticleA Hunger Cliff Is Looming: Time to Rethink Nutrition Assistance
It may be hard for many people to remember, but the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 triggered a crisis of food insecurity in this country. Policymakers met the moment with expanded...
View ArticleCould 2023 Be the Year of Sustainable Nutrition Security?
Our food systems are set up to produce cheap calories to the detriment of the environment and our communities. Over the past several years, we have experienced increasing frequency and intensity of...
View ArticleWill an Equity Commission Report Address Systemic Racism at the USDA?
On February 28, an advisory committee to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) presented Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack with its interim recommendations on how the department should...
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Farmland Consolidation, Not Chinese Ownership, Is the Real National Security...
Following the wide coverage of a suspected Chinese spy balloon in US airspace earlier in February, Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) and others have proposed legislation that would seek to limit foreign...
View ArticleHow Big Food Corporations Take Advantage of SNAP
Congress is anticipating a battle over the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as “food stamps”) during negotiations around the next food and farm bill. Republicans are...
View ArticleWill Climate Change Force More Farmworkers to Go Hungry?
Continued flooding in California caused by severe storms called atmospheric rivers continues to shock the country. Just last week, broken river levees devastated the majority-Latino community of...
View ArticlePeople Won’t Be Able to Eat Healthier Unless We Make It Possible
To transform our food systems, we need to produce food that is sustainable and nutritious instead of the cheap calories served by industrial mega-corporations. Food that is grown with agroecological...
View ArticleLos agricultores esperan que el Proyecto de Ley Agrícola del 2023 sea una...
Se supone que las políticas y la legislación deben ser las vías de acceso a los recursos y los esfuerzos de abogacía. Desafortunadamente, hay cosas como el lenguaje complicado, la falta de promoción...
View ArticleFood Insecurity Is a Bigger Problem Than Our Government Thinks
If you’ve been following my blog for the past six months, you probably know national food insecurity rates by heart. According to the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), 10% of households in the...
View ArticleThe United States Needs to Protect Its Farmworkers from “Danger Season”
Farmworkers face many hazards while performing the labor that props up the $1.264 trillion US food and farm economy, yet a new analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) found that federal...
View ArticleWhy Living Above the Poverty Line Doesn’t Guarantee Food Security
If you are worried about the rising cost of food, you are not alone. In the United States, approximately 1 in 10 households experience food insecurity (although research suggests it’s actually many...
View ArticleAs Expiration Looms, a Look Back at the 2018 Food and Farm Bill
UPDATE: While national attention was focused on Congress narrowly averting a government shutdown, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 quietly expired on September 30. While this is not a crisis...
View ArticleShow Me the (Agriculture Appropriations) Money
Many of us remember watching “Schoolhouse Rock” as a kid and learning how a bill becomes law. But what does that process really look like—particularly when it comes to the bills that fund the US...
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