A3. Agroecology

The Letter to the UN special rapporteurs calls for an independent investigation, protective measures for those affected and a response from the Panamanian State within 60 days.

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“On the Ground with Dani Nierenberg” is an ongoing series documenting Food Tank President Danielle Nierenberg’s ground-truthing work. Read more by clicking here. 

I talk about the Green Revolution a lot in my work, but I had never been to the place where so much of it began until early this August. I visited Texcoco, Mexico, where the Rockefeller Foundation-funded Mexican Agricultural Program eventually led to CIMMYT, the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

CIMMYT is dedicated to building food security, resilient agriculture, and scientific collaboration across the Global South. And its history is complex and complicated.

It was here that Norman Borlaug and his colleagues researched and promoted high-yielding cereal varieties and the use of artificial fertilizers to increase food production. The Green Revolution helped avert famine in Mexico, India, and elsewhere. But we also know that these practices often displaced traditional, biodiverse, locally rooted systems of cultivation and increased farmers’ dependence on expensive inputs.

What struck me during my time with CIMMYT is how much the organization is trying to learn from that history.

Today, CIMMYT talks about a green evolution, instead of a revolution—one that is less about delivering a package of technologies to farmers and more about co-creating and sharing knowledge with them.

There is “no universal recipe” for sustainable and resilient food systems, says Jelle Van Loon. What works for a farmer in one community may not work for a farmer somewhere else. The science has to meet farmers where they are, Van Loon adds.

In addition to investing in breeding programs for new varieties of wheat, maize, and other crops, CIMMYT is also recognizing that farmers are safeguarding biodiversity on their farms every day. And they are holding the future of food on their shoulders.

I’ll give you an example. In Oaxaca, I got to see the milpa system in action.

Milpa is often described as the three sisters—maize, beans, and squash grown together so they strengthen one another and the soil. Farmers growing food this way can have as many as 27 different crops on just a few hectares, without pesticides and with very little or no artificial fertilizer. Sunflowers attract beneficial insects and give farmers extra income. Cowpeas and other legumes help farmers cope with drought.

This isn’t diversity for diversity’s sake. It’s resilience.

Oaxaca’s farmers are dealing with increasingly difficult drought conditions. One farmer-technician told me that when those challenges become overwhelming, “families start losing hope.”

But diversified farming systems like milpa give farmers more ways to survive a bad season. If one crop fails, another may succeed. They can provide food, animal feed, healthier soils, protection from pests, and income—all while allowing farmers to maintain cultural traditions and identities that have existed for generations.

And farmers using milpa are usually growing native maize varieties. Mexico is the birthplace of maize and home to extraordinary genetic diversity. CIMMYT’s gene bank houses the world’s largest collection of maize germplasm—and that seed bank is very cool, no pun intended. It’s kept at -15°C (5°F) and holds hundreds and hundreds of varieties of wheat and maize. The corn seeds are like small jewels—purple, blue, red, black, yellow, white. That seed bank, like thousands of others around the world, is protecting the future of humanity.

While not as fancy, the small seed banks I saw in farmers’ houses in Oaxaca are just as—if not more—important. Because preserving a seed is not only about putting it in a vault. It is about planting it. Eating it. Sharing it. Selecting it. Passing it to your children and your neighbors.

When communities lose their seeds, they risk losing part of their identity along with them.

In Oaxaca, I met farmers like Francisca Canton and her husband, Jacoba Benitez, who are still farming in their late 60s. They described seed saving as “un trabajo duro”—hard work. And it is a year-long process, from planting to harvest to measuring and storage.

They use oil or soda bottles to store roughly 50 varieties of maize, legumes, and squash. They are using traditional seed-saving methods, they explained, while also learning from CIMMYT technicians about seed selection and more efficient ways to dry seeds.

CIMMYT staff talked repeatedly about consistency and presence—about showing up, listening, learning from farmer networks, and building trust over years. Their recommendations, they say, increasingly depend on context: What works best, where, for whom, and under what conditions?

That is a very different philosophy from assuming there is one technological package—or silver bullet—that can transform agriculture everywhere.

And perhaps that’s one of the lessons we can take from the Green Revolution itself. Science matters enormously. Innovation matters. Technology matters.

But so do culture, biodiversity, economics, relationships, and the knowledge farmers have accumulated over generations.

Farmers are the stewards of biodiversity that is—literally—the future of humanity. Every time farmers share knowledge that strengthens their resilience, a community becomes stronger.

During my time in Oaxaca, I met Víctor López Leyva, the state’s agriculture minister. His message has stayed with me:

“Creer en el campo, creer en las campesinas y los campesinos.”

Believe in the countryside. Believe in farmers.

I could not agree more.

It’s why I am always so excited—and not surprised—to see agricultural innovation being led by farmers, for farmers.

And I also know that a better food system depends on collaboration among farmers, researchers, scientists, policymakers, advocates, cultural experts, and so many others. But collaboration also requires us to recognize who knows the land best.

The Green Revolution taught the world that agricultural science can accomplish extraordinary things. Maybe the green evolution can teach us something equally important—innovation doesn’t begin with a technology or a scientist. It begins by listening to farmers.

Learn more about Food Tank’s ground-truthing work and recent visit with CIMMYT in this video by filmmaker Haven Worley:

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Photo courtesy of Haven Worley

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This article is part of Food Tank’s primer series, “Food Tank Explains.” Each installment unpacks the ideas, innovations, and challenges shaping today’s food and agriculture systems, offering clear insights into complex topics. To explore more articles in the series, click here.

Dryland farming is a practice used to cultivate crops in regions where water supply is limited, seasonal, or unpredictable. Dryland systems use no irrigation and depend entirely on rain. They work by capturing and storing as much rainfall as possible and ensuring that crop water demand does not exceed what’s available.

According to the Dry Farming Institute, success depends less on total rainfall and more on how much is captured in the soil. To prevent loss to runoff, dryland farmers apply techniques including contour farming, where crops are planted across slopes in terraces, and land shaping, which involves changing the topography of the land.

Captured rainfall can evaporate from the soil surface before it reaches crop roots, particularly in hot, dry, and windy regions. To keep water in the root zone, dryland systems prioritize practices that reduce evaporation and increase soil water-holding capacity.

Often, part of dryland farms will lie fallow in alternate seasons or years, to accumulate water for subsequent crop cycles. Increasing soil organic matter can also improve water retention. Practices such as crop rotation, cover cropping, and mulching build and maintain organic matter while reducing erosion and evaporation.

To ensure crop water demand does not exceed supply, dryland farmers align planting and harvesting dates with local rainfall patterns, rather than a fixed calendar date. And they select crops based on seasonal conditions and characteristics such as drought tolerance, adaptability, and the timing of a crop’s water needs.

Common dryland crops include pigeonpea, which both tolerates drought and improves soil fertility, and tepary beans, which are protein-rich and can withstand varying levels of water stress.

Sorghum—which the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) calls an underutilized crop that has significant potential for nutrition, climate resilience, and economic stability—can conserve water during dry periods by temporarily suspending growth.

“Wild desert plants have a remarkable number of adaptations to cope with heat, drought, unpredictable rainfall, and poor soils,” Erin Riordan of the University of Arizona tells Food Tank.

Drylands are a vital but overlooked resource with untapped economic potential and environmental value, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

They make up 46 percent of the planet’s land area and support 44 percent of global food systems, including half of the world’s livestock. They are home to more than 2 billion people and support the livelihood of 1 billion people in 100 countries.

Drylands are “strategic landscapes rich with the potential to drive resilience, economic vitality, and sustainable prosperity for millions,” Éliane Ubalijoro, CEO of the Landscape Alliance and Director General of World Agroforestry (ICRAF), tells Food Tank.

But these regions, which already face some of the world’s harshest conditions, are under threat. Increasing water scarcity, land-use change, and extreme weather events are transforming drylands into barren landscapes, according to Ismahane Elouafi, Executive Managing Director of CGIAR. Research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution estimates that up to 20 percent of drylands are already degraded or at risk.

And, according to the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification and research published in Communications Earth & Environment, these pressures will intensify in the coming decades.

Heat, drought, and unpredictable rainfall are all stressful growing conditions likely to become more common, Riordan tells Food Tank. The U.N. Environment Programme estimates that land degradation in drylands could cut global food production by 12 percent over the next 25 years.

Impacts fall disproportionately on the 2 billion people who live in drylands, which include some of the world’s poorest and most climate-vulnerable communities, according to CGIAR.

ML Jat, the Director of Resilient Farm and Food Systems at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), tells Food Tank these communities are often “the first to face hunger, thirst, and the devastating effects” of declining soil and environmental conditions.

Despite these pressures, researchers and organizations highlight the potential of restoration. Investments in drylands can return as much as US$30 for every dollar spent, Ubalijoro tells Food Tank, describing drylands as “places of deep opportunity.”

But drylands need greater recognition in policy. FAO Assistant Director-General Abdulhakim Elwaer calls for integrating dryland agriculture into national development plans, climate action strategies, and food security policies. Researchers in Nature Ecology & Evolution call for stronger safeguards, finding that only 12 percent of drylands are protected.

Other recommendations focus on how solutions are developed and scaled. CGIAR’s Global Strategy for Resilient Drylands emphasizes partnerships among researchers, governments, businesses, and local communities to adapt agricultural innovations to dryland conditions. FAO recommends combining traditional knowledge with modern technologies.

Ubalijoro argues that these efforts can help redefine what drylands represent. “This is an opportunity for all of us,” she says, “to make these thrivelands not only a source of prosperity but also a source of peace.”

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Photo courtesy of Brett Meliti

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Newly elected to La Via Campesina’s Coordination Committee, Goo Jeom Sook enthusiastically explains to us what Korean agriculture is like, her farm, her commitments and the recent mobilisations that have shaken the country.

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Wendell Berry, a farmer, writer, and advocate whose work challenged industrial agriculture and defended the ties between land, food, and community, died at his home in Port Royal, Kentucky, according to the New York Times (NYT). He was 92.

A poet, novelist, essayist, teacher, conservationist, activist, and farmer, Berry resisted easy categorization. “Berry has refused to specialize,” Charles Hudson wrote in the Georgia Review.

Throughout his five-decade career, Berry argued that agriculture was inseparable from the health of the land and the communities that depend on it. He questioned the consolidation and industrialization of farming while championing small farms, local economies, and responsible stewardship.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1934, Berry grew up in Henry County, where his family had farmed for generations. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in English from the University of Kentucky before joining Stanford University’s creative writing program as a Wallace Stegner Fellow.

He later traveled to Europe and taught in New York, but felt increasingly drawn back to his roots. Berry returned to Port Royal in the 1960s. He and his wife, Tanya, settled on a 125-acre farm, where they raised sheep and crops. He spent the rest of his life there writing and farming.

Living in his native landscape kept him accountable to the place and people he described, Berry told the NYT in a phone interview in 2018 for his obituary.

From his home, Berry analyzed the consequences of an agricultural system increasingly defined by consolidation, mechanization, chemicals, and soil degradation. He examined the disappearance of small farms and rural communities, and how their absence threatened individual liberty, local autonomy, and economic independence.

Those concerns became the foundation of his body of writing. Berry published more than 50 books of poetry, fiction, and essays, all written by hand during daylight hours. His farmhouse had electricity, but he refused to use electric lights because, he said, the power was supplied by strip-mined coal.

His 1977 book The Unsettling of America: Culture & Agriculture argues that agriculture is the foundation of America’s culture. The book questioned U.S. policies promoting practices that he argued lead to overproduction, pollution, and soil erosion.

Berry examined these ideas further in The Gift of Good Land and Home Economics, collections that examining organic farming. He argued that the values driving industrial agriculture were eroding family farms and weakening what he regarded as a foundation of American society.

In a New Perspectives Quarterly interview Berry commented that large-scale agriculture is morally as well as environmentally unacceptable: “We must support what supports local life, which means community, family, household life—the moral capital our larger institutions have to come to rest upon. If the larger institutions undermine the local life, they destroy that moral capital just exactly as the industrial economy has destroyed the natural capital of localities—soil fertility and so on. Essential wisdom accumulates in the community much as fertility builds in the soil.”

The issues that animated Berry’s essays also shaped his fiction. Through novels and short stories set largely in the fictional Kentucky town of Port William, he chronicled generations of farmers, families, and neighbors confronting the economic and technological changes reshaping rural life.

Berry also carried his convictions beyond the page. He joined protests against the Vietnam War, nuclear power, mountaintop-removal coal mining, coal-fired power plants, and the death penalty.

In 1979, Berry was arrested for trespassing while protesting the Marble Hill Nuclear Power Plant in Madison, Indiana. Recalling the episode in 2010, he said, “People asked if I wanted to be arrested and I said, ‘Hell No’ but I was willing to be.”

The National Endowment for the Humanities described him in 2012 as “cheerful in dissent” and a person who “writes to document and defend what is being lost to the forces of modernization.”

His writing and advocacy earned more than 30 honors. President Barack Obama awarded Berry the National Humanities Medal for his achievements as a poet, novelist, farmer, and conservationist, and the National Book Critics Circle honored him with its Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.

He also earned honors including the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Aiken Taylor Award, the John Hay Award and the Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize, according to the Poetry Foundation.

His ideas continue through The Berry Center, established in 2011 to put Berry’s “writings to work” by supporting farmers, land-conserving communities, and healthy regional economies.

Food Tank Co-founder and President Danielle Nierenberg had the privilege of both meeting and hearing Berry speak over the last two decades. She says that he inspired so many of us as food and agriculture system advocates not only with his poems and books, but his love of the land and farmers.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Berry is survived by his son, Pryor, who goes by Den, two sisters, Mary Jo Berry and Martha Baxter, five grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

“There’s not enough I could say about him to do him justice,” his daughter, Mary Berry, told the Associated Press.

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On Tuesday afternoon, Sept. 22, Food Tank and Diestel Family Ranch will host “Nourishing the Future: How Farming Practices Shape the Food We Eat, the Health We Build, and the Longevity We Seek” at Climate Week NYC 2026. The invitation-only event will explore how the way food is grown, raised, and produced directly shapes human health and longevity.

Through farmer stories, regenerative and organic production models, emerging nutrient-density research, and clinical perspectives on food as fuel, speakers will examine how better farming practices can produce better food—and why the next frontier in food systems may be measuring value not just by cost, yield, or convenience, but by nourishment.

“What happens on the farm doesn’t stay on the farm. Decisions about soil, feed, animal health, and how food is produced ultimately show up on our plates,” says Heidi Diestel, fourth-generation family farmer at Diestel Family Ranch. “What excites me about ‘Nourishing the Future’ is that we’re bringing farmers, scientists, food companies, and health experts into the same conversation to better understand those connections.”

Sessions will include fireside chats with industry leaders and chefs exploring nutrient density as the next frontier in food, farming, and health. Panel discussions will cover how farming practices, animal health, soil biology, and production choices shape the nutritional value of food and impact human health, as well as what it takes to bring better food to more people.

“We’ve spent decades asking people to care about where their food comes from,” says Diestel. “I hope this summit gets them asking the next question: What happened to my food before it arrived on my plate and why does that matter?” 

The event will kick off at WNYC-NPR Studios’ The Greene Space in New York City at 1:30pm with food, drink, and live musical performances, and a reception will follow until 4:30pm.

Confirmed speakers include Melissa Clark, Food Reporter and Columnist, The New York Times and NYT Cooking; Heidi Diestel, Fourth-Generation Farmer and Executive Vice President, Diestel Family Ranch; Anne Marie Hourigan, Quality Standards Principal Advisor for Sourcing Standards, Whole Foods Market; Danielle Nierenberg, President, Food Tank; and Chef Andrew Zimmern.

“Nourishing the Future” will feature a special musical performance by Clair Rachel Howell, a Broadway performer who made her Broadway debut in Wicked, where she played Nessarose, and is now performing on the Wicked National Tour. She will be joined by Broadway Music Director Noah Turner.

This summit will be streamed live on FoodTank.com and Food Tank’s YouTube channel, here. Join the Food Tank newsletter list for reminders, and click here for Food Tank’s full lineup of events at Climate Week NYC 2026.

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The Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is launching Finding the Story, a three part online media series for African journalists who want to report on food systems with greater depth and confidence. Convened under the My Food Is African campaign, the series pairs participants with agroecology specialists, policy advocates and movement leaders to explore what is really at stake in African food systems, and how to recognise a story worth telling.

Twenty places are open to practising journalists based in Africa, working in print, online, radio, television or multimedia, who can attend all three one hour sessions and are comfortable in English and French. Sessions run online on Monday 21, Wednesday 23 and Friday 25 September 2026, covering agroecology, seed and land rights, and the money behind African food systems. Selected journalists receive a reference materials pack, a certificate, and a USD 150 stipend on completion.

Applications close Wednesday 9 September 2026. Send your details, two work samples and a 300 word motivation statement to afsa@afsafrica.org with the subject line “Finding the Story Application.”

This report by ETC Group and GRAIN provides a snapshot on the state of agribusiness concentration in six key agricultural sectors: commercial seeds, pesticides, synthetic fertilisers, farm machinery, animal pharmaceuticals and livestock genetics.

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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently announced a US$500 million investment to expand domestic mineral fertilizer production. While this funding aims to boost local manufacturing, environmental groups argue that the administration should focus on regenerative solutions like legume cover crops to fundamentally reduce the nation’s reliance on synthetic inputs.

The USDA states the move will “improve supply chain resilience.” By increasing domestic manufacturing capacity, the agency hopes to shield American farmers from the extreme price volatility and geopolitical supply shocks that have plagued global fertilizer markets in recent years.

But domestic fertilizer production heavily relies on fossil fuels. Environmental conservation groups like the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) argue that American agriculture can benefit more from incentivizing the adoption of regenerative practices like cover cropping rather than fertilizer expansion.

According to the UCS, U.S. farmers apply 30 to 50 percent more nitrogen fertilizer than their crops can effectively absorb. A recent UCS report notes that this overapplication results in substantial environmental, economic, and public health-related costs—particularly in the U.S. Corn Belt.

“When nitrogen runs off into water bodies, it creates algal blooms…algae multiply very quickly in the presence of nitrogen and use up a lot of the water’s dissolved oxygen, which can then create low oxygen zones, also called dead zones,” Omanjana Goswami, lead author of the UCS report, tells Food Tank.

Besides impacting aquatic ecosystems, soil nitrogen can break down into nitrous oxide, a super-pollutant 270 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in trapping heat. Soil nitrification is currently the leading cause of nitrous oxide emissions in the U.S., and Goswami notes that agriculture is the world’s largest unmitigated source of nitrous oxide pollution.

“We’ve seen that overall, about one-third of input costs for corn farmers are budgeted towards fertilizer. So, that’s about 33 percent at a bare minimum of what farmers spend on growing,” Goswami tells Food Tank.

Across the country, farmers are “dramatically cutting nitrogen pollution without sacrificing productivity,” states a recent report by the NRDC. This can be achieved by avoiding overapplication of fertilizers and adopting practices such as adaptive nitrogen management, cover cropping, edge-of-field pollution control, and diverse crop rotation.

The UCS and NRDC hope to see more producers move away from carbon-intensive practices, but economic uncertainty makes shifting a risky move.

“Farmers [are] already operating on very thin margins; [they] need to be getting very high yields to make a profit,” William Burke—an agricultural economist at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore—tells Food Tank.

“From a public good perspective, research into green ammonia and phosphorus recovery from waste streams—that’s where the structural changes are going to come from, where you can realistically think about decoupling our fertilizer that we use and our food markets from fossil fuel markets,” explains Burke. These emerging technologies provide pathways toward long-term fertilizer infrastructure sustainability.

But nutrient management strategies like legume cover crops offer a more immediate pathway to separating our agricultural systems from fossil-fuel dependencies. Mark Peoples, agriculture and food scientist at Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, notes that integrating legumes into cereal rotations naturally enhances soil structure and improves nutrient availability. “The inclusion of legumes in a cropping sequence generally results in greater microbial biomass, activity and diversity in soils,” Peoples tells Food Tank.

Nitrous oxide emissions tend to be lower from legumes compared to nitrogen-fertilized cereal crop systems as well. Properly managed systems “generally have a lower risk of leaching or runoff,” explains Peoples.

The UCS directly advocates for greater crop diversification through the USDA Environmental Quality Incentives Program. “We need to diversify farming operations by moving away from corn-and-soy monoculture and toward incentivizing best practices instead of maximum production of commodity crops,” Goswami notes in the report.

The UCS and NRDC suggest that expanding federal conservation program funding from the USDA can encourage crop diversification and incentivize resilient practices. “Building cover crops [and] tree cover, diversified cropping systems all help farmers move away from that fertilizer treadmill,” Goswami tells Food Tank.

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In response to the havoc caused by industrial aquaculture and its threat to food sovereignty, the Nyéléni Global Forum in 2025 decided to launch a global campaign to resist corporate control, further destruction from this industry and the privatization of ocean and coastal areas.

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The Food Security Leadership Council (FSLC) is calling on the United States to launch a once-in-a-generation effort to boost agricultural innovation. In a recent report, they outline a proposal for US$100 billion in new public research and development (R&D) investments over the next ten years to strengthen domestic food systems, improve farm profitability, and restore global leadership.

The call comes at a critical time for American agriculture. Farmers across the country face soil degradation, water limitations, and extreme weather driven by climate change, while the U.S. leans on concentrated foreign supply chains for critical inputs like fertilizer.

Meanwhile, domestic agricultural productivity growth has slowed. According to the report, the U.S. share of global public agricultural R&D spending fell from 20.2 percent in 1960 to 11.5 percent by 2011. It also notes that China now spends roughly double what the United States does on public agricultural research.

“I am not sure many U.S. policymakers appreciate the full nature of the importance, and cascading benefits, of agricultural innovation,” Anna Nelson, Executive Director of the Food Security Leadership Council, tells Food Tank. “Food and agricultural innovation is not only a farm issue. It matters for our entire economy through its effects on employment, producer profitability, and consumer prices… It affects our environment by shaping land use, emissions, and pollution.”

Public investments in agricultural research generate an estimated US$18 in societal benefits for every dollar spent, according to the report.

Recent data from the Economic Research Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) underscores the importance of technical progress. Between 1948 and 2021, U.S. farm output nearly tripled even as total input use slightly declined, demonstrating an efficient use of resources.

The report demonstrates that new innovations can support the transition toward long-term sustainability, but Nelson is careful to note that new tools require careful design with input from communities. “Agricultural production is local—so is consumption,” she tells Food Tank. “Any innovation needs to be informed by the people who will ultimately implement or benefit from it.” Small and midsize farms cannot be left out of the picture when it comes to distributing R&D investments.

Nelson also cautions against treating high-tech breakthroughs and nature-based practices as opposing forces. “I wish people did not see them as inherently at odds with each other,” she says. “Both tech-based and nature-based solutions can offer important means of accelerating sustainable productivity growth. Producers should use all the tools available to them.”

Recent investments suggest that government agencies are interested in supporting alternative approaches to industrialized agriculture. Earlier this year, the USDA, alongside the Department of Health and Human Services and the Environmental Protection Agency, announced more than US$1 billion for farm modernization and food supply security. This includes US$700 million for regenerative agriculture pilot programs.

The FSLC argues that sustained public grants remain essential to move new agricultural technologies from the lab to the field.

“The United States has the resources to make this investment if we can summon the political will to do so,” Nelson tells Food Tank. “US$100 billion over ten years is a drop in the bucket of the federal budget and would provide structural support to help transform U.S. agriculture over time.”

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Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.

FEWS NET Halts Reporting on Food Insecure Countries

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) is no longer reporting on three of the countries most at risk of hunger: Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen.

For the last 40 years, the resource has provided timely, accurate information on acute food insecurity. Rajiv Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation, says that he has seen firsthand how the tool has been used to mobilize resources and save lives before a crisis hits. It also saves money: According to the World Food Programme, every US$1 invested in anticipatory action yields up to US$7 in avoided losses and benefits. 

In early 2025, the Trump-Vance Administration abruptly took FEWS NET offline for several months, raising alarm among international aid organizations and governments. Now, the administration is targeting the platform again. In response to questions about the change, a spokesperson from the U.S. State Department says they are “focusing on countries that align with the Secretary’s broader policy priorities.” 

But Shah points out that this data is essential for addressing food insecurity in nations deemed “hunger hotspots” by WFP. “We cannot prevent the world’s hungriest people from starving if we are flying blind,” he says.

Global Land Restoration Gains Ground

Over 124.3 million hectares of land—an area roughly twice the size of France—are under restoration, according to a new report from the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

East Asia, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa are leading efforts as countries work to revive forests; shift farming practices; and restore drylands, rangelands, and agricultural landscapes. 

“Restoring degraded ecosystems strengthens climate resilience and addresses biodiversity loss, while delivering significant economic and environmental returns on investment,” says IUCN Director General, Dr Grethel Aguilar.

Countries have pledged to restore 1.2 billion hectares as part of their national targets under four major international frameworks. Yasmin Fouad, Executive Secretary of the U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification, encourages the move from commitments to implementation at scale to achieve their goals.

It May Be Getting Easier to Hold Fossil Fuel Companies Accountable

A new study in Earth’s Future suggests that it’s possible to tie emissions from particular companies to specific harms. Researchers hope this can help advocates hold fossil fuel companies responsible for climate impacts.  

The study ran over 150 simulations to show how carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere influence the odds of extreme heat and rain—and the role fossil fuel emitters played. Author Christopher Callahan says, “What this science tells us is that there is a direct relationship between how much an entity emits and…[the] extreme events that alter people’s lives.”

The fossil fuel industry accounts for 68 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and almost 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions globally, according to the United Nations. And food and farming systems are a part of this: Food production accounts for at least 15 percent of fossil fuels used annually. 

Many questions around climate liability linger, but some experts believe legal cases supported by this new research have the potential to “[rock] the courtroom.”

U.S. Farmers’ Struggle to Access Resources Continues

Farmers across the United States are facing as they try to access resources from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the New York Times reports.

In many parts of the country, skeleton staff remain at local offices and in some counties, there’s nobody at all. 

More than 20,000 workers out of more than 110,000 left the agency during the first half of 2025. And recent data show that the rate of departure is even higher in divisions that work directly with farmers and rural residents. Rural Development, a subagency at USDA, has lost more than a third of its staff since January of last year. 

The staffing and budget cuts leave farmers and charity organizations facing delays as they wait to receive federal funding. USDA is also approving fewer loans and grants. In the past three fiscal years, the agency made investments that total between US$24-40 billion. This fiscal year, with just a month left, the agency has approved US$15.8 in investments. 

Farmers are feeling the disappearance of expertise and institutional knowledge as well. Amanda Butterfield, a rancher in Pennsylvania, says, “We’ve completely lost a whole group of experts within our communities across the United States that can no longer help and support us.”

Water Rises in African Sahel

The African Sahel region is seeing more water than it has in decades. Wells are filling up and water tables have risen by 13 feet or more in some places. Areas that have been affected by drought for decades seem to be recovering. 

Farmers are seeing the benefits. One farmer in Chad said that in the past, there wasn’t enough water to irrigate crops, leading to small harvests, but now, he says, “Now our lives have changed.” And as producers grow crops like millet and sorghum, they’re leaving more moisture in the soil than grasses they replace. 

Shifting rainfall patterns and heavy monsoons are partially responsible for the changes, but scientists say that more is at play. They believe that practices such as traditional water harvesting methods and projects like the Great Green Wall have also helped.

Encouraged by the results, Nigeria is considering restoring an irrigation project on the shores of Lake Chad, which it was forced to abandon due to drought. It promises to improve food security and create jobs.

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 Mihajlo Sivc, Unsplash

The post Food Tank’s Weekly News Roundup: Ecosystems Recovery, Aquifers Replenishing, and USDA’s Staffing Shortages appeared first on Food Tank.

For farming families, we ask that relief and compensation reach tenant, landless and unregistered cultivators who hold no land papers; that seeds reach them before the winter planting; that farm loans be suspended.

The post Nepal Flash Floods: La Via Campesina Stands in Solidarity with the People of Nepal appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

After three days of dialogue among 187 delegates from 20 countries, the Second Congo Basin Convening closes with a declaration that puts numbers, deadlines and a mandate behind its demands

Yaoundé, Cameroon — 27 August 2026. The Second Congo Basin Convening has closed in Yaoundé with the adoption of the Yaoundé Declaration 2026, a 24-point regional pact on agroecology, food systems, biodiversity and climate justice in the Congo Basin. Over three days, 187 delegates from 20 countries — governments, farmers’ and pastoralists’ organisations, Indigenous Peoples, women’s and youth movements, researchers, parliamentarians, regional institutions, funding partners and media — worked through the progress made since the first Convening in Kinshasa in 2023 and turned it into a single, shared document. The official closure was pronounced by H.E. Mounouna Foutsou, Cameroon’s Minister of Youth Affairs and Civic Education, represented by Dr Akede Metounge Erik, who received the Declaration on the Minister’s behalf and committed to sharing it with the relevant government ministries.

The Declaration does not deal in vague aspiration. It calls on governments and the African Union Commission to name agroecology explicitly in national and regional agriculture investment plans, with at least 30 percent of relevant budget allocations dedicated to it. It demands that community and customary land rights be secured, that free, prior and informed consent apply without exception to conservation and extractive projects, and that farmer-managed seed systems be protected in law. It urges the Green Climate Fund, the African Development Bank and other financing partners to open direct-access windows so that at least 20 percent of climate and biodiversity finance reaches farmer organisations, women, youth, Indigenous Peoples and local communities directly — and it calls for a dedicated regional financing mechanism for agroecology, so the transition no longer runs on project cycles.

Alongside these calls to decision-makers, the Declaration binds its own signatories to action: farmer and community movements commit to seed banks and farmer-to-farmer training; civil society to a permanent cross-basin consultation space; governments to public annual reporting on what has been allocated and delivered; regional bodies to harmonised policy and cross-border trade; researchers, private-sector actors and media each to their own stated commitments. To carry it forward, the Convening adopted a Congo Basin Regional Action Roadmap and mandated the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) to raise funding for the implementation of the Congo Basin Biodiversity, Climate and Agroecology Initiative (COBCAI) and to host the regional coordination unit, while each of the six Congo Basin countries establishes or strengthens its own national platform. Progress will be published annually and reviewed, call by call and commitment by commitment, at the Third Congo Basin Convening.

Four voices marked the closing session. Elisabeth Atangana, President of CNOP-CAM and Treasurer of the AFSA Board, begged the participants to repeatedly ask themselves: “What part of the Declaration depends on me?” The history of the Basin, she said, will be written by those who turn commitments into action, not by those who make the finest speeches.

Dr Million Belay, AFSA’s General Coordinator, reminded delegates how the region is read from outside: a carbon sink, and a place to extract minerals. Seventy-five percent of the world’s cobalt comes from Congo. The entire energy transition rests on it, which puts the people of the Basin at the centre of the global climate conversation. “We need resources, we need money,” he said. “But when we come back, we will do the work, whether there is money or not.”

Baba Adama, for the AFSA Citizens’ Working Group, argued that Yaoundé had strengthened the bridge between governments, communities and partners, and that protecting the Basin is everyone’s job. Dr Akede Metounge Erik closed with the line that may define what comes next: “Ecosystems do not negotiate. They regenerate or degrade.”

Read the full Yaoundé Declaration 2026:
[English version] · [Version française]

A version of this piece was featured in Food Tank’s newsletter, released weekly on Thursdays. To make sure it lands straight in your inbox and to be among the first to receive it, subscribe now by clicking here.

When I was invited to speak at the Chautauqua Institution a couple weeks ago about the future of agriculture, food and technology, four words bounced around my head.

They come from the philosopher William MacAskill: “We are the ancients.”

It’s a simple phrase but a powerful one, because it’s a reminder that although we tend to think of ourselves as descendants of the past—which we certainly are!—we’re also ancestors of the future.

And I think, in a really fundamental way, we’re misunderstanding the future. When I think about the future of food, I don’t start with technology itself. I start with the people using it.

I’ve spent more than two decades traveling around the world and talking with farmers, scientists, entrepreneurs, policymakers, fishers, food workers, community leaders, and so many others. That’s become my work and my passion: I’m a professional listener.

And I listen to a lot of farmers. Typically, they’re not looking for the next silver bullet technology. They want solutions that quietly improve their lives. Because in the end, technology isn’t the destination. It’s a tool.

People often ask me whether I’m excited about artificial intelligence. I am, for the most part. They ask about biotechnology. Robotics. Precision agriculture. Gene editing. Digital tools. My answer is almost always the same: Yes, with guardrails and intentionality. Artificial intelligence is helping reduce food waste. Digital platforms are helping farmers reach new markets. Weather forecasting tools are helping producers deal with the impacts of El Niño. Traceability systems are removing opaqueness from agricultural and marine supply chains.

What’s necessary to make these emerging digital technologies into forces for good is that they solve problems people actually have, not imaginary ones. And that they’re shaped by the people actually experiencing the problems the technologies aim to solve.

Because what I’ve heard from farmers around the world is that people rarely wake up wishing for a new technology—they’re looking for solutions. They’re trying to grow food with less water. They are trying to protect their crops from existing and emerging pests and diseases. They are trying to reduce backbreaking labor. They are trying to counter the impacts that will come from El Niño. They are trying to simply feed their families. They are trying to build a future their children want to be part of.

Too often, we talk about the future as if we have to choose between high-tech and low-tech agriculture. Between artificial intelligence and Indigenous knowledge. Between robotics and agroecology. Between biotechnology and biodiversity. Too often, we talk about technology as if what’s happening in farmlands in Zambia and conference rooms in Silicon Valley are totally unrelated.

But this is a dangerously false dichotomy. Those aren’t competing ways of knowing; they’re complementary. One expands what we can measure. The other deepens what we understand.

The future belongs to agriculture that combines innovation with experience, scientific discovery with practical wisdom, and new ideas with generations of accumulated knowledge. The future is defined by our ability to bring together the best of what we already know: The knowledge of farmers. The insights of scientists. The wisdom of Indigenous communities. The creativity of entrepreneurs. The leadership of women. The energy of young people. And the power of technology when applied thoughtfully and responsibly.

The next agricultural revolution won’t be judged by how sophisticated our technologies become. It will be judged by whether future generations inherit healthier soils, healthier communities, healthier ecosystems, and healthier food systems because of the choices we make today.

And perhaps that’s the most important lesson I’ve heard over the past 20 years of listening: Food systems transformation isn’t powered only by the technologies we invent but also by the relationships we build with one another. That’s how innovation spreads, how communities become more resilient, how we truly nourish both people and the planet.

Another question I get asked all the time is whether I’m optimistic about the future. And I don’t think optimism is quite the right word; hope is. Hope is seeing people respond to extraordinary challenges with creativity, determination, and courage. That’s what gives me confidence. The future of agriculture is not something that happens to us. It’s something we create, every day, from a foundational place of hopefulness.

After more than 20 years of traveling the world, I remain hopeful. Not because I think someone is coming to save us, but because I’ve seen what people are capable of when they are trusted, supported, invested in, and connected to one another. Technology matters—but relationships matter more.

The future of food is already being built. Our responsibility is to make sure the people building it have the resources, opportunities, and respect they deserve. If indeed “we are the ancients,” we need to start thinking and behaving like the stewards we’d hope to be remembered as being.

Watch Danielle’s full keynote address at the Chautauqua Institution below:

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 Duta Waskita, Unsplash

The post To Build the Future of Food, Technology Matters. Relationships Matter More appeared first on Food Tank.

Growing up in Iowa, Elle Gadient spent early spring mornings with her mother watching the sunrise over their family farm. Cattle woke in the cornfields as songbirds returned from their winter migration and buds emerged from tree branches. For Gadient, the promise of new life, the beauty of the land, and the work required to care for both are what make farm life meaningful.

“I love that every day on the farm is full of excitement, renewal, and hard work,” says Gadient.

Today, Gadient is a fifth-generation Iowa cattle farmer who farms with her husband, Steve Besler. Off the farm, she serves as the farmer advocate to the Niman Ranch network, a cooperative of independent family farmers committed to high standards for animal welfare and environmental stewardship.

But if it weren’t for one calf, in particular, Gadient may not have returned to farming as an adult.

On a cold, rainy evening when she was 10 years old, Gadient recalls one of her family’s cows struggling to give birth. By the time her parents delivered the calf, the newborn was weak and struggling to survive. The Gadients did everything they could to save her, bringing towels from their home’s dryer to warm her.

The calf soon began to regain her strength. Gadient bottle-fed her twice a day and named her Sugar Plum, and a tender relationship quickly formed. Gadient would sometimes spend so much time caring for Sugar Plum before school that she missed the bus. The calf eventually grew and moved out to pasture, but Gadient continued visiting her, often bringing treats—Sugar Plum had a particular fondness for fig newtons.

Over the years that followed, Gadient watched her family work through illness, extreme weather, drought, floods, and financial uncertainty on the farm. She learned about the deeper responsibilities and less playful realities of caring for animals.

“Not every cow is like Sugar Plum, and not every day farming is fig newtons and sunshine,” says Gadient.

The difficulties made Gadient question whether she wanted to continue farming. She saw how hard her parents worked and how much they sacrificed to keep the farm going. Both worked jobs off the farm to support their agricultural livelihood, often sleeping very little. “I’d have to be crazy to choose this way of life,” Gadient remembers thinking in high school.

After school, Gadient moved to Denver, Colorado. She worked for Niman Ranch, supporting a network of more than 600 independent farm families—including her own—from a distance.

Despite leaving the farm, her connection to it remained. And when Sugar Plum died, Gadient learned that distance could not protect her from the losses that come with farming, or the grief that comes with loving an animal.

“We enjoyed 14 years together,” says Gadient. “Sugar Plum’s death taught me something. Being away from the farm didn’t spare me the heartache. Distance didn’t take away from my connection back to my home.”

With that lesson, Gadient eventually made her way back to the farm. She married Besler, a fellow cow lover, in 2024 and moved to the Iowa farm where he grew up. Today, they raise cattle of their own while Gadient continues working with Niman Ranch to support other farm families. The familiar long days, uncertainty, and the constant demands of caring for animals remind Gadient of how farming, for her, feels like home.

Now, in the evenings, Gadient watches the sun set over the horizon, not far from where her parents watch the same sunset.

“This is the life we choose,” says Gadient. “This is our life on the farm.”

Watch Gadient’s story below and find others from our farmer storytelling events on Food Tank’s YouTube channel.

This article is part of Food Tank’s ongoing Farmer Friday series, produced in partnership with Niman Ranch, a champion for independent U.S. family farmers. The series highlights the stories of farmers working toward a more sustainable, equitable food system. Niman Ranch partners with over 500 small-scale U.S. family farmers and is committed to preserving rural agricultural communities and their way of life.

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 Elle Gadient

The post Carrying a Family Legacy Forward, One Calf at a Time appeared first on Food Tank.

From August 12–14, the South Asia Women's Articulation of La Via Campesina met in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where they carried out a conjunctural analysis, exchanged views on the ongoing struggles of peasant women within the region, and laid out a clear action plan.

The post South Asia Women’s Articulation: Demands for Wider Representation, Recognition and Equity Echo in Sri Lanka Meeting appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

When the United States shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) last year, programs building climate resilience were terminated. The loss is pushing climate experts to consider how to fill the gaps and keep this essential work going.

USAID invested in a range of adaptation and mitigation efforts, from drought-resistant crops to the restoration of forests that protected against storm surges, explains Alice C. Hill, the David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. 

The funding required was “modest” compared to the federal budget, she tells Food Tank, but this work had “lasting consequences in terms of helping communities remain stable.” But when the agency was dismantled, nearly all projects related to climate suddenly disappeared. 

“I think it comes at a high cost overseas when we cut these programs,” Hill says. “It comes at a high cost to our preparations here, and it also comes at a high cost of our standing in the world as scientific leaders.” Annual losses from physical climate risks may total as much as 5 percent of the global GDP by 2050, according to S&P Global. 

“We need to make choices now to keep ourselves safer,” Hill tells Food Tank. That means investing more, not less, in climate solutions like early warning systems and infrastructure improvements to lessen the blow. “It’s simple measures—comparatively—taken on the ground that leave people in a better place.” 

Despite the challenging political environment, Hill remains optimistic that this will be possible. “And that’s a good thing,” she says. “We should all be optimists. It helps us deal with these things.” 

Everyone feels angst, Hill believes, but tackling these urgent challenges head on can help keep it at bay. “One of the things about working on catastrophic risk is the ability to be involved with something that matters…working with people trying to find solutions brings me great joy,” she tells Food Tank. “That gives me meaning.”

Listen to the full conversation with Alice C. Hill on “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg” to hear more about how we move forward after the loss of USAID, why trust lies at the heart of successful solutions, and what the COVID-19 pandemic can teach us about building resilience to the climate crisis. 

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 Marcus Kauffman, Unsplash

The post Why Climate Resilience Is Worth the Investment appeared first on Food Tank.

ANPFA has mobilized its cadres and district organizations for search, rescue, and relief work alongside security forces and local government. Its provincial committees in Bagmati are coordinating support for displaced families.

The post Nepal Flash Floods: Early Assessment by ANPFA Indicates Extensive Damage in Villages Near the Border appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Haiti through the eyes of a peasant woman and activist from Tèt Kolé, a member organization of LVC. From the countryside, she speaks to us about food sovereignty, agrarian reform, feminism and resistance, and shows us another side of Haiti, far from the dominant narratives.

The post Haiti: “We are the ones who produce food, we are the force of the land and of life.” appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.