Opinions

In a fight between environmentalists and farmers, the bees lose. And that stings.
Bees have it rough. It’s not enough that they have to deal with bloodsucking varroa mites, a host of diseases and pathogens, disappearing habitat and a variety of agricultural chemicals designed to kill insects. They have also become pawns in the ag wars, the subject of dueling bee-death narrative...

August Hunger Notes: Candidates say little about poverty and hunger, Growing organic agriculture, Can farmers accept the prairie? and more
August 15, 2016 By Lane Vanderslice See Binyamin Appelbaum's The millions of Americans Donald Trump and Hi...

After 1996 welfare law, a weaker safety net and more children in deep poverty
Towards a transformed and more resilient agriculture sector in Africa
This article looks at the challenges that make it difficult to increase food productivity, create decent employment, and end inequalities in our food systems, and what it will take to transform agriculture in Africa....

Congress passed the Global Food Security Act. Here’s why that’s historic.

Cocoa and deforestation, it’s time to shift the paradigm
Cocoa is in crisis. The world’s cocoa plantations are well beyond their most productive years, and those who produce it are even older. Income from cocoa is so low that young people do not want to become cocoa farmers. And there is climate change....

The fight isn’t over for farm worker overtime
On June 2 the California State Assembly failed to pass AB2757, a bill that would give farm workers the same overtime pay that workers in urban areas have had since the 1930s. In the outcome, echoes can still be heard of those old rules. But the vote also makes clear that past certainties are certain...

The incredible edible “expired” food
I have a confession: I eat expired food. Sometimes it’s barely expired, like the yogurt I put on top of my farm-fresh strawberries. It might be a day or two past its sell-by date, but I give it a sniff and if it smells fine, that’s all I care about. Milk, too. Since we no longer have a teenager ...
Is the Grand Bargain a big deal?
A deal to sort out emergency funding at the World Humanitarian Summit meets with a mixed response....
Is world hunger a national security issue?
May 28, 2016 By Chuck Woolery The most important thing for the public to learn about on World Hunger Day on May 28 is that world hunger is increasingly a national security issue. And it was even before the creation of The Hunger Project (THP). Shortly after THP’s creation, Pre...