These organizations are supporting local food producers and regional economies, offering educational resources and agricultural training, and working to ensure that their neighbors don’t go hungry.

On April 14, Food Tank is heading to Atlanta to partner with Spelman College and Emory University for the Summit “Empowering Eaters: Access, Affordability, and Healthy Choices.” Held in support of the National Strategy on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, the event will celebrate the city’s local food movement and uplift the health and wellbeing of future generations in policy.

Panels will explore food and land justice, healthier school food, student-led food systems research, food as medicine, and the power of procurement. Learn more about the Summit, which is free and open to the public, and register now by clicking HERE.

And check out some of the amazing changemakers working to transform the local food system in and around Atlanta.

1. Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund

The Acres of Ancestry Initiative/Black Agrarian Fund is a multidisciplinary, cooperative nonprofit ecosystem that aims to regenerate custodial land ownership, ecological stewardship, and food and fiber economies in the American South. The Black Agrarian Fund helps to secure land for landless, returning generation farmers, while their Black Belt Justice Center serves as the fiscal sponsor for this work and is the lead organization for the Initiative and Fund.

2. Atlanta Community Food Bank

One in twelve people — and one in ten children — in the area served by the Atlanta Community Food Bank experience hunger. The Food Bank works with almost 700 community-based nonprofit partners to distribute more than 9 million meals across metro Atlanta and north Georgia every month. They also work with their partners to support school breakfast and summer feeding programs to ensure children have access to nutritious meals.

3. Community Farmers Markets (CFM)

Serving as an umbrella organization, CFM was established to meet the demand for more efficiently managed, community-based and sustainable farmers’ markets in Atlanta. They enable food distribution through their markets, organize educational programming and events, provide financial incentives to make fresh food more affordable, and offer resources to their vendors. CFM reports that in 2023, they served more than 65,000 in-person shoppers and over 160 vendors at weekly markets.

4. Diversity Dietetics

Co-Founded by Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Tamara Melton, Diversify Dietetic brings together students, professionals, and educators who are committed to creating opportunities to encourage a more diverse field of dietetics and nutrition. They do this through scholarships and grants, mentorship programs, application support, and educational resources.

5. Friends of the Urban Food Forest at Browns Mill

In 2016, The Conservation Fund, The City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Resilience, and the Department of Parks & Recreation partnered with residents from the Browns Mill neighborhood to create an urban food forest in Atlanta. Friends of the Urban Food Forest was established to ensure the sustainability of the Forest with a community centered focus. The organizations’ programs work to eliminate hunger in the area, improve awareness of healthy behaviors, and provide career and training opportunities for adults and youth.

6. Food Well Alliance

Food Well Alliance brings together leaders of the local food movement to support more than 300 community gardens, urban farms, and orchards in metro Atlanta. Through their Resource Center programming, the Alliance offers trainings and workshops; volunteer and labor support; compost, tools, and equipment; and capacity building grants. They also bring local government leaders together to develop plans that integrate urban agriculture into city planning processes.

7. Georgia Foundation for Agriculture

By developing a pipeline for the next generation of farmers and agriculture leaders, the Georgia Foundation for Agriculture strives to equip people with the tools and knowledge they need to preserve the future of farming. The organization reaches students, teachers, and farmers across the state. Through their programming, the Foundation offers an agricultural STEM curriculum for teachers to use in classrooms, agriculture scholarships, apprenticeship opportunities, and support for local producers to ensure their success.

8. Georgia Organics

Georgia Organics promotes the work of organic farmers across the state to support the health of communities and the planet. Through their farmer services program, the nonprofit provides small and organic farmers with training and resources to help them build and maintain strong agricultural businesses. And in their Farm to School initiatives, they engage children with local, healthy food in cafeterias and classrooms.

9. Giving Kitchen

Giving Kitchen provides emergency financial support and community resources to food service workers in need. Those who meet the criteria can apply for monetary assistance from the network. And the Giving Kitchen’s Stability Network serves as a referral program that connects workers with social services. Their efforts reach workers in restaurants, catering, concessions, food trucks, cafeterias, bars, and taprooms.

10. Global Growers Network (GGN)

Working with a network of 175 families, many of whom are resettled refugees, GGN connects food producers to sustainable agriculture resources and quality farmland. They support 10 farm, community garden and orchard sites in DeKalb and Rockdale Counties, helping communities grow fresh, culturally familiar crops. In 2021, they acquired a 23-acre property that will offer a home to farmers who face barriers of access to land and capital.

11. Mariposas Rebeldes

Mariposas Rebeldes works to make community gardening, ecology, and cultural education more accessible for queer, trans, and intersex people. They offer community events centering food and sustainable land stewardship. The group envisions a space where members can grow food, cook meals, and share resources while following Indigenous land management principles.

12. Open Hand Atlanta

Open Hand Atlanta distributes healthy meals to people in need, with the vision of eliminating diet-related chronic illnesses. The organization delivers meals directly to the homes of individuals in Atlanta and around the state of Georgia free of charge. They also operate a teaching kitchen, where they offer nutrition support programs.

13. Recovery Eco Agriculture Project

Recovery Eco Agriculture Project engages in education, research, and development work in support of sustainable and regenerative land use. These efforts encompass small scale farming, agroecology, agroforestry, and reforestation. They also offer horticultural therapy by providing accessible gardens for physically and developmentally disabled individuals. And they have children’s program that introduces young people to edible playground gardens.

14. Save Our Legacy Ourself (SOLO)

SOLO works to preserve the culture, heritage, and traditions of the Saltwater Geechee people. Through their agricultural program, the organization is incubating heirloom and heritage crops, which they plan to bring to market. They also operate a youth agricultural program to connect young people to the land and teach them about planting, harvesting, and preparing traditional foods.

15. Slow Food Atlanta

A local chapter of Slow Food USA, Slow Food Atlanta works to realize good, fair, and clean food for all. The organization educates the broader community on opportunities to support local food culture, advocates for biodiversity and a sustainable relationship with food producers and brings attention to food and land justice. Slow Food Atlanta also has events throughout the year to engage and educate residents and build community.

16. The Common Market

Working in four regional hubs, The Common Market is a nonprofit food distributor connecting urban communities with local food grown on family farms. Common Market Southeast works with more than 30 producers in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee to distribute food to the Atlanta area and build more resilient supply chains .

17. The Grocery Spot

Founded in 2021, The Grocery Spot first opened as a for-profit grocery store to help the local community access high-quality and affordable food. After connecting with and learning from residents, however, they converted their model into a nonprofit grocery store. The Grocery Spot now operates as a community-funded free grocery store that is open to all, with no applications or appointments required.

18. Truly Living Well Center for Natural Urban Agriculture (TLW)

Since 2006, TLW has worked to demonstrate how food can serve as a bridge to connect people of different cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. They have agriculture training, nutrition, education, and job creation programs. And the organization regularly grows and harvests produce to provide the local community with a consistent source of fresh food. Their farm sites in Metro Atlanta, intended to demonstrate the transformative power of agriculture, produce fruits, vegetables, herbs, flowers, and other value-added products.

19. Umi Feeds

A food rescue nonprofit, Umi Feeds works to meet the needs of people who are facing food insecurity and unhoused by serving healthy, nutritious meals. They rescue surplus food from consumers, farmers, events, restaurants, and other food businesses then redistribute it in the form of their weekly mobile dinners. They also provide people in need access to personal care items, blankets, clothing, and sanitary products.

20. Wholesome Wave Georgia

The organization operates under the belief that all Georgians should have access to healthy fresh, locally grown food. They work to increase access to and awareness of nutritious food options. Their programs also help residents enroll in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and other benefits, match SNAP/EBT dollars at participating farmers markets, and connect households on SNAP with gardening kits.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

The post 20 Organizations Cultivating the Food Movement in Atlanta appeared first on Food Tank.

The nation-wide challenge invited submissions of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) innovations, inventions, and research from students in grades 6-12. The projects covered six themes, including Future Food.

“As a STEM-Bassador, an EXPLR co-founder, and board member I believe this work to be the most important of my lifetime,” Chef Andrew Zimmern tells Food Tank. “Just look at what these current pioneering change makers are doing! Sustainable food wraps, bio fortifying eggs, remaking how we identify crop disease while we still have a chance to prevent massive losses, soil conservation and repair. These aren’t future changemakers, they are changing our world right now! And we are bringing them to the world, front and center.”

Hao Li, an 11th grader from North Carolina, is one of the students being recognized for her award-winning submission in April. Looking to address food spoilage, Li sought to understand the science of food ripening. Through her research, she uncovered the role that the compound 1-Methylcyclopropene can play in counteracting the effects of ethylene gas, a natural hormone that speeds up ripening. To extend the shelf life of products, she developed a wrap prototype that she hopes can shape future approaches to preservation. 

Another STEM Champion, 11th grader Laasya Acharya from Ohio, focused her project on improving crop disease protection methods—an issue that results in the loss of 40 percent of global crops, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. Acharya developed Ceres, a device that utilizes advanced imaging and neural networks to identify diseases in fruits, crops, and vegetables. As it develops, she is aiming for at least 85 percent accuracy and a detection time of under 10 seconds per image, while keeping costs below US$40.

And Shelby Scout Hoobler, an 11th grader from Wyoming being recognized for her submission, sought to rejuvenate overgrazed riparian areas. Through detailed soil sample analyses that pinpoint nutrient deficiencies, Hoobler hopes to restore these vital ecosystems and develop a scalable model for environmental recovery efforts globally. 

“This is a big topic in Wyoming and the west, so it is exciting for the National STEM Challenge to elevate this type of research,” Hoobler tells Food Tank.

Li, Acharya, and Hoobler, along with 123 of their peers, will gather at the National STEM Festival from April 12-13, 2024, co-presented by EXPLR and the U.S. Department of Education. The event will spotlight their innovative projects to a wider audience but also facilitate interactions with leading figures in government and industry. Organizers hope that this will help to lay the groundwork for future collaborations and breakthroughs. 

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo Courtesy of Shelby Hoobler

The post Pioneering the Future of Food: Student Innovators Lead the Way in National STEM Challenge appeared first on Food Tank.

The PTFI is a global project that aims to create an open-access platform that will support molecular analyses on food items and standardize the way that data is collected and distributed.

“By providing standardized tools, data, and training to map food quality, we are enabling a common language among a global ecosystem to better understand our food—so we can collectively better manage food systems for people and the planet,” Selena Ahmed, the Global Director of the PTFI through the American Heart Association, tells Food Tank.

As part of a two-day event in New York City around the initiative, the PTFI and partners including Food EDU, The Rockefeller Foundation, the American Heart Association, Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, and Food Tank are organizing a celebration of food diversity, scientific advances, and community innovation.

Registration is free and open to the public for livestream and in-person tickets for Day 1 on April 23, 2024.

Read more about the PTFI on Forbes by clicking HERE. And claim your tickets to celebrate the initiative by clicking HERE.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Shelley Pauls, Unsplash

The post The Periodic Table of Food Initiative: Illuminating the Mysteries of What We Eat appeared first on Food Tank.

CORAF, the largest sub-regional research organization in Africa, works in 23 countries in West and Central Africa, supporting farmer-led research to overcome the hunger crisis. “Farmers are knowledge producers, not only doctors have knowledge,” says Ousmane Ndiaye of ASPRODEB, an association of farmers and fishers across West and Central Africa that collaborates with CORAF.

The organization believes that it is essential to leverage the knowledge of producers and bolster their relationships with nonprofits and small and medium sized enterprises to transform food systems in West and Central Africa.

Read more about CORAF’s work and the need for local solutions on Forbes by clicking HERE.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Haytam, Wikimedia Commons

The post Fostering Local Food Systems Solutions in West and Central Africa appeared first on Food Tank.

Despite this richness, our current globalized approach tends to favor top-down solutions when it comes to policy and innovation. This results in backlash from consumers and farmers who often feel marginalized and undervalued. Recent events, including ongoing farmers’ crises in Europe and previous uprisings in Asia and South America, underscore this disconnect.

Arnaud Rousseau, President of France’s largest farming union, has spoken pointedly about why such protests are erupting across Europe. He emphasizes the lack of understanding between the reality on the ground and the decisions taken by governments. 

Coincidentally, he shares his last name with another Rousseau, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the well-known French philosopher from the 18th century. He believed in the inherent goodness of humans and argued for a society where people collectively shape their destinies, suggesting that genuine change originates from the grassroots level rather than from top-down governance. 

What would a Rousseauian approach to food system leadership look like in today’s context?

This was the type of question and deep reflection that 19 leaders from 16 countries took on as part of the The Rockefeller Foundation-Acumen Food Systems Fellowship in 2023. This yearlong program aimed to equip leaders working on driving transformational change within various parts of the food system with the essential skills and a supportive community to advance our work on the ground. 

By integrating our cohort’s wide-ranging expertise and frontline experiences, the Food Systems Fellowship allowed us to delve into the insights and teachings of historical figures such as Rousseau, as well as Thomas Hobbes, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others, and leverage them to enrich the discourse and broaden our perspectives around managing the complex challenges inherent in food systems today to handle the polarities and challenges today’s world presents.

We believe that an inclusive approach for systems-wide transformation must balance global and local perspectives, incorporate place-based innovation, foster collaboration between top-down and bottom-up approaches for policy and finance, and integrate modern science with traditional knowledge and practices. Inclusivity means bringing together a multitude of perspectives, including smallholder farmers, global research and development, finance, startups, activism, community mobilization, and non-profit organizations. 

The African origin Ubuntu Philosophy on collectivism and interconnectedness of humanity—“I am because we are”—rings similar to Rousseau, providing us with a foundation for inclusive dialogue. “Ubuntu Food Systems” ensures that the most impacted stakeholders are integrated, not just as a token placeholder at the table, but through meaningful collaboration and mutual respect in addressing the complex challenges of our polarized world. Effective leadership in this regard, requires an emphasis on the urgency of action, long-term persistence, boldness, humility, and empathy.

Here, we present a few illustrative case studies from our cohort’s work together that embody the power of place-based innovation and grassroots empowerment in driving positive change within food systems. We hope to inspire other actors with tangible examples of inclusive approaches that balance the necessity of food security within a changing climate, nature based approaches that bridge global and local, top down versus bottom up, and scientific versus cultural.

Producers Direct, led by Claire Rhodes, empowers smallholder farmers through farmer-owned cooperatives, championing farmer leadership and collective action. Since their founding in 2009, Producers Direct has improved the livelihoods of 1.37 million smallholder farmers and their families across East Africa and Latin America, focusing on strengthening resilience, increasing incomes, and building farmers’ leadership. Producers Direct ensures that smallholders have a central role in all decision-making processes, including negotiating better market access and jointly owning their enterprises by championing farmer leadership in governance, program design, and delivery. Leveraging pioneering technology, Producers Direct blends farmer-led solutions with innovation to continue championing farmer leadership and advancing the resilience and prosperity of smallholder farming communities. Looking ahead, Producers Direct will expand its impact by growing an international, smallholder-owned cooperative that amplifies the collective voice and power of smallholder farmers.

Mama’s Kitchen, an initiative by Good Food Fund in China, led by Melinda Hou. Mama’s Kitchen is a space that connects all stakeholders from farm to table, including farmers, nutritionists, chefs, and sustainability experts. Mama’s Kitchen advocates for a plant-rich diet and underscores the importance of food provenance. The organization swiftly gained momentum in 2020 by launching a dynamic public engagement campaign in Dali, China, which included over 25 livestream programs and 80 short films that reached millions on social media. Subsequent initiatives in 2022 and 2023 expanded their impact, leading to widespread media recognition and solidifying their role in driving healthy and sustainable eating practices, both locally and globally. Despite initial challenges and pushbacks, Mama’s Kitchen successfully promoted plant-forward eating in China by aligning with the National dietary guidelines but further adapted to the local requirements and sensitivities. This approach not only addressed cultural sensitivities but also paved the way for broader adoption of sustainable food practices in China, making people’s food choices more conducive to personal and planetary health.

Garda Pangan, spearheaded by Eva Bachtiar, addresses Indonesia’s food loss and waste problem by redistributing safe, edible surplus food and converting organic scraps into animal feed. The organization has firsthand experience of how the absence of supporting regulations hinders many grassroots efforts to rescue edible food and distribute it to those most in need. Recognizing this gap, Eva voiced her aspirations to the government by writing and publishing a comprehensive policy brief. She has since continued the bottom-up advocacy process with Indonesia’s national government for two years. The effort has borne fruit, as the government recently announced they are drafting the first food loss and waste reduction bill.

MA’O Organic Farms, led by Cheryse Kaui Sana Kaui, has a mission to grow organic produce and empower youth leaders in Waianae, Hawai’i. Kaui manages a 281 acre certified organic farm while mentoring 40-50 young adults that participate in a Youth Leadership Training Internship and a staff team of 30 full-time staff. Their mentorship and training include learning about organic farming practices, community engagement, and indigenous leadership development. Hawaiʻi is currently importing 85-90 percent of its food into the islands. MAʻO Farms’ goal is to increase its organic produce production 10-fold to decrease Hawaiʻi’s dependence on imports. The farm is in the middle of a 10-year expansion plan that will increase farm operations to meet this goal. They are building a future of māʻona, of plenty, by connecting people and land through the daily practice of aloha ʻāina (loving/caring of the land), empowering youth to succeed in college and secure sustaining careers, and growing organic produce that yields individual and communal vitality.  

These are just a few examples. In fact, each of the cohort members has a story to tell of Rosseauian leadership and Ubuntu Philosophy lived day to day in their work and throughout their change-making organizations. 

We would like to put forward and pose the following questions to food systems leaders reimagining food systems: 

1. Which issues in the global or local food system are you most passionate to address?

2. What tensions and polarities need to be balanced?

3. How can you create the space for multiple perspectives to be genuinely heard and for collaborative action to emerge?

4. What do you imagine for the future?

Leaning in, we would love to hear from you on your views, experiences. Join us in building bridges, breaking silos and developing more collaborative leadership by sharing your views and insights.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed by the authors are personal opinions and do not reflect the views of any specific organization.

This article was written by Dan Zook, Executive Director ISF Advisors – Financing Food System Transformation; Sanjoo Malhotra, Food Systems Consultant & Platform Manager WWF Global Action Platform on Sustainable Consumption and Diets; and Christine Gould, CEO and Founder of Thought For Food, Author “The Changemakers Guide to Feed the Planet.”

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Producers Direct

The post Op-Ed | Ubuntu Food Systems: Bridging Top-Down and Bottom-Up Leadership appeared first on Food Tank.

The purpose of Mexico’s restrictions on GM corn is to safeguard the integrity of native corn from GM contamination and to protect human health. The purpose of the U.S. and Canadian challenge is to defend the interests of the biotechnology industry.

The U.S. and Canada want to force Mexico to open its market to all genetically modified foods and seeds. Canada is supporting the U.S. challenge (as a third party in the dispute) even though Canada does not export any corn to Mexico.

Mexico has the right to restrict the use of GM corn. The U.S. argues that Mexico’s actions are not based on scientific principles, but the government has sufficient science to justify its precautionary policies.

Our organization, the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, is a large network of farmer and environmental groups that has been monitoring the use of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) for over 15 years, and we support Mexico’s restrictions. We were one of two Canadian groups that were given permission to send expert comments on the risks of GM corn to the arbitration panel in this dispute, but in January, Canadian groups were uninvited at the request of the U.S. government, supported by Canada, on the technicality that the dispute is just between the U.S. and Mexico.

We published our analysis anyway, to show that Mexico’s ban is supported by the science. Research continues to find indicators of potential harm to humans from eating GM insect-resistant corn. The science also continues to warn of health impacts from exposure to the herbicide glyphosate which is used in GM corn production.

Most GM corn plants are genetically modified to kill insect pests. The GM plants express a toxin from the soil bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) that is known to harm the guts of specific types of insects but not others. Farmers have long used Bt as a spray to kill pests but the Bt toxins in GM crops are different from this natural Bt in structure, function, and biological effects. In fact, peer-reviewed studies across the scientific literature continue to find that Bt toxins in GM plants can harm insects (spiders, wasps, ladybugs, and lacewings, for example) that are not the intended targets.

Just last year, new peer-reviewed studies further found impacts of Bt where there was assumed to be none. For example, a 2023 study conducted by a team of researchers from universities in Brazil and Colombia, funded by the Brazilian government, found Bt had many significant impacts on the health of wasps, even affecting the next generation. University researchers in China and Pakistan also found lower diversity of bacteria in the gut of wolf spiders exposed to Bt. This adds to a laboratory test published in 2023, funded by the French government, that found a particular Bt toxin disrupts normal growth and functioning of gut cells in fruit flies, raising the possibility that Bt toxins could harm the intestinal lining of animals, including humans.

To add to these results, a number of animal feeding trials also find that Bt toxins and GM Bt crops could have toxic effects on mammals. Toxic effects and indications of toxicity have variously been observed in the blood, stomach, small intestine, liver, kidney, spleen, and pancreas, as well as immune responses, though the mechanism is not clear from these studies. Critically, animal feeding studies are not required by the U.S. or Canadian governments in order to demonstrate GM food safety. In fact, there are very few long-term and multigenerational tests on animals in the scientific literature.

But Bt toxicity is not the only safety concern. GM corn production is also tied to the use of glyphosate and other herbicides that are linked to serious health problems including neurological diseases and some cancers. The International Agency for Cancer Research of the World Health Organization classifies glyphosate is a “probable human carcinogen” and, as successful lawsuits against Bayer/Monsanto demonstrate, there is ample evidence that direct exposure to glyphosate-based herbicides can result in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in particular. Critically, evidence also points to danger from exposure to residues in food which is the concern highlighted by Mexico in relation to GM corn.

This concern is particularly pressing because Mexicans eat more corn than anyone in the world, largely through minimally processed flour for tortilla. This is an entirely different way of eating GM corn from the diet of corn ingredients in highly processed foods in the U.S. and Canada. Mexico’s unique dietary exposure to GM corn requires Mexico to set its own “acceptable level of protection” from the risks.

In their submission to the trade dispute panel, the U.S. government argues that no adverse health effects on consumers have been found. However, with no monitoring of GM foods, there is no scientific basis for making this statement. There have been no post-market studies on human populations to determine if there have been adverse health effects and, without tracing or labelling of GM foods, such studies are not possible.

The U.S. and Canada essentially argue that if they have decided a genetically modified food is safe, then Mexico should agree.

In early March, Mexico’s formal defense of the GM corn ban will be published as part of the trade dispute process. Soon after, we’ll hear arguments from eight non-governmental groups who have permission to send comments. Those documents should make it clear that Mexico’s corn restrictions are backed by science and are justified in order to defend the future of corn and protect food safety.

This article was written by Lucy Sharratt, Coordinator of the Canadian Biotechnology Action Network, a project of MakeWay Charitable Society. 

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Mark Holloway, Unsplash

The post Mexico’s Precaution on GM Corn Safety Is Justified appeared first on Food Tank.

It sounds counter-intuitive, but it might just be true. The math is pretty simple. Despite all the bluster about Mexico’s February 2023 restrictions on GM corn, they affect a very small share of U.S. exports. After negotiations with the U.S. government over a more restrictive 2020 decree, Mexico dramatically limited its revised order, exempting GM feed corn from any mandated reductions. The restrictions apply only to the use of GM corn in tortillas and other products minimally processed for direct human consumption.

The restrictions were intended mainly as precautionary measures for a population that consumes more such corn products than anyone else on the planet. The corn for tortillas, and the minimally processed flour for tamales, enchiladas, and other Mexican staples, are overwhelmingly non-GM white and native varieties from Mexican producers.

Before the decree, Mexico was importing only about 600,000 tons of white corn from the U.S. each year, a tiny share of the 16.5 million tons of U.S. corn it imported last year. That means that barely 3 percent of U.S. corn exports are potentially affected by Mexico’s restrictions. But the share is actually closer to 1 percent, because only an estimated half of U.S. white corn are GM varieties, and barely half of U.S. white corn exports are destined for Mexico’s tortilla industry, according to USDA reports.

So just 1 percent of U.S. corn exports are potentially affected by Mexico’s policies. From the beginning, the Mexican government has asserted that its revised and less restrictive decree has little impact on U.S. producers. They are right, and the U.S. in the formal presentation of its complaint did not even attempt to quantify how many U.S. farmers are affected.

And here’s the thing: Those who are affected can always switch to non-GMO white food-grade corn and export to Mexico’s tortilla industry.

U.S. farmers who do that could earn premium prices, ranging from $0.25 to $0.50 per bushel for non-GMO white corn, according to industry sources. Such premiums could be particularly attractive right now to farmers who saw corn prices fall more than 30 percent last year.

U.S. trade officials have preferred not to discuss non-GM opportunities for U.S. farmers, but some farmers and grain suppliers would welcome them.

“I think the U.S. farmer would be delighted to have a market where they would get paid more by providing an identity-preserved, (non-GMO) crop,” says Lynn Clarkson, CEO of Clarkson Grain, a leading U.S. supplier of non-GM corn.

Graham Christensen, a fifth-generation farmer in Lyons, Nebraska, is one example. “Absolutely, if there’s a demand there, let’s find ways to partner with Mexico,” he says. “They’re that much closer, and they’re a trade partner. We should make it happen.”

Nate Belcher, co-owner of Hybrid85, a Nebraska-based non-GM corn seed company, says his state—the leading producer of white corn in the U.S.—could meet Mexico’s demand for non-GMO corn.

“There’s a US$450 million market in corn going from Nebraska to Mexico. We could fill the non-GMO demand from Nebraska and a good portion of the Midwest as well,” he says.

According to Farm Action, a farm advocacy group, “if the U.S. shifted 180,000 acres (0.2 percent of its corn acreage) of GM corn to non-GMO, it would generate US$7.75 million in additional premiums for U.S. farmers and successfully meet Mexico’s needs.”

The U.S. trade officials and farm commodity groups are ignoring basic business common sense: Give the customers what they want. Mexico wants non-GM corn, and U.S. farmers can supply it, creating a mutually beneficial relationship instead of the current animosity of the current trade dispute.

U.S. farmers would be better served if our government supported a smooth transition for farmers affected by Mexico’s corn policies to non-GM production to meet that country’s changing demand.

This piece is written by Ken Roseboro, the publisher of The Organic and Non-GMO Report and Timothy A. Wise, a Senior Advisor at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Waldemar, Unsplash

The post Hardline U.S. Stance Ignores Non-GM Corn Opportunity for U.S. Farmers appeared first on Food Tank.

“It is possible to produce food in a way that’s good for our bodies, that doesn’t destroy the planet, that doesn’t contribute to the climate crisis,” Lappé tells Food Tank. “Those are possible pathways that we’re able to scale if we invest in them and support their growth around the world.” 

The Global Alliance has worked to unite foundations to leverage resources and networks in a way that promotes more regenerative and equitable food and agriculture systems. 

According to the organization, just 3 percent of climate finance goes toward food systems even though the sector contributes to roughly one third of greenhouse gas emissions globally. 

“There’s a huge funding gap,” Lappé says. She believes that a lack of understanding of the “systemic nature of food and hunger issues” is partly to blame. 

“There’s a significant amount of philanthropic dollars going to what I would just call charity…going to put a bandaid on the problem,” Lappé continues. And while she acknowledges that there is a need to address acute hunger, it is critical to ensure that funders are also investing in the root causes of these issues.

“If we really want to get to the roots of hunger, we need to look at who has power, who’s making decisions about how we grow our food, where we grow our food, what kind of food we’re growing, what we’re all eating, what we’re being taught is healthy,” Lappé tells Food Tank.

When the Global Alliance first formed in 2012, “we started with just a handful of foundations that were working, totally separate from each other but funding some aspect of food systems change,” Lappé says. “Some weren’t even using the term food systems.” But these organizations came together, she explains, because they realized that they could be more effective if they worked collaboratively.

Since then, the alliance of foundations has not only continued to grow; members are also increasingly taking a systemic approach to food systems. Philanthropic organizations recognize the connection between food, farming, climate, and biodiversity, Lappé says, and they are bringing this approach to leaders at events such as the U.N. Climate Change Conference. 

“We are talking about food and climate at the highest level, and I would say that is not only true in philanthropy but true in civil society as well. And that is a really exciting change.”

Listen to the full conversation with Anna Lappé on “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg” to hear about the link between the food system and fossil fuel industry, the principles that guide the Global Alliance’s work, and the success stories that the organization is lifting up and amplifying. 

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Hari Gaddigopula, Unsplash

The post Closing the Gap: Putting Philanthropic Dollars Behind Food Systems Transformation appeared first on Food Tank.

California’s Prop 12, and Massachusetts’ similar Question 3, requires that fresh pork sold into the state be raised on farms not using gestation crates. These 7×2 foot crates house pregnant pigs for days, weeks and even months without giving animals the ability to stand up, turn around and lie down. Animal welfare expert Dr. Temple Grandin compares gestation crates to being strapped into an airplane seat for months at a time.

While gestation crates are the dominant industry practice today, they are out of touch with consumers’ animal care expectations. Both Prop 12 and Question 3 passed with sweeping voter support. A 2021 poll found that 75 percent of Americans say retailers and restaurants have a responsibility to ensure that gestation crates are not used by suppliers.

The post Op-Ed | California Crate-Free Law Offers Hog Farmers Economic Opportunity appeared first on Food Tank.

The AfCFTA, which entered into force in May 2019, is one of the flagship projects of the African Union Agenda 2063: The Africa We Want. As the largest free trade area since the formation of the World Trade Organization, the AfCFTA intends to advance trade in value-added production across all service sectors of the African economy. By contributing to the establishment of regional value chains in Africa, the African Union hopes to foster industrialization, job creation, and investment to enhance the continent’s position in the long term.

The draft protocol will apply to all categories of intellectual property, including plant varieties, genetic resources, and traditional knowledge. The specific objectives will aim to promote coherent intellectual property rights policy and a harmonized system of intellectual property protection in Africa.

But many small farmer associations and alliances for food sovereignty are questioning the implications of this protocol on seeds and rural communities in Africa.

“You cannot protect or help farmers rights when you are talking about plant breeders’ rights,” Susan Nakacswa, Africa Programme Officer at GRAIN, tells Food Tank. GRAIN is a small international non-profit organization that works to support small farmers and social movements in their struggle for community-controlled and biodiversity-focused food systems.

There are an estimated 33 million smallholder farms in Africa, contributing up to 70 percent of the food supply, according to the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Most of these smallholder farmers are women who work on less than two hectares of land, grow mainly subsistence crops, and rely on family labor, according to GRAIN.

“We are a continent where about 60 percent of the pupils depend on agriculture for their livelihoods,” Famara Diedhiou, Coordinator of Seed Working Group at Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA), tells Food Tank. “So whenever a protocol, or whenever a policy is related to agriculture, we need to wake up and stand up to see what it is about.”

For the past 30 years, industrialized countries have been forcing governments of the global South to adopt laws that privatize seeds so that farmers have to pay for them and keep seed companies afloat, according to GRAIN. The 1994 World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights was the first global trade agreement that set international norms for private intellectual property rights over seeds. Because the notion of allowing patents on life forms, such as plants or animals, is widely contested, the WTO agreement aimed to create a compromise between governments. This allows countries to exclude plants and animals from their patent laws while requiring that they provide some form of intellectual property protection over new plant varieties.

Nearly half of all African countries have already introduced an intellectual property rights system on seeds. Most of them follow the model of the 1991 convention of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV). The UPOV system faces substantial criticism for promoting genetic uniformity of crops and preventing peasants from reusing seeds. The key question revolves around whether the AfCFTA will challenge this dominant system. According to Nakacswa and Diedhiou, the outlook is not optimistic.

“We’ve sort of looked at the whole conversation around free trade agreements as an extension of what we know as colonialism,” says Nakacswa. “It’s the power dynamics and control that is taking place because governments, corporations, foundations and development agencies want to commercialize and industrialize farming, especially African farming.”

As of August 2023, 47 of the 54 signatories (87 percent) have deposited their instruments of the AfCFTA ratification.

Looking ahead, Nakacswa and Diedhiou emphasize that raising awareness around the importance of farmers rights and local sovereignty are critical steps towards addressing the AfCFTA.

“The next step is now to create, to make it a public discussion, for any citizen to know this actor, including farmers and simple citizens,” Diedhiou says, “And then we start to denounce it.”

This article was written by Liza Greene.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Amuzujoe, Wikimedia Commons

The post Battle for Biodiversity: AfCFTA’s Intellectual Property Protocol Unveiled appeared first on Food Tank.