Investment in Africa’s Agrifood Systems Is Growing—But Not Enough

A new joint report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, the World Food Programme, and the African Union Commission finds that since 2018, the African continent has seen a general upward trend in government spending on agriculture, forestry, and fishing. In 2022, public expenditure in these sectors amounted to US$16 billion, up from US$12.6 billion in 2020 and US$14.6 billion in 2021. 

While encouraging, the investment is still not enough to meet targets for ending hunger and transforming food and agriculture systems in a region where hunger has increased for eight consecutive years. 

Private sector funding in the form of bank credit and foreign direct investment is particularly low and far below potential, the authors state. The perceived high risk of investing in food and agriculture markets remains a key barrier to financing solutions that can boost food and nutrition security for communities. 

That’s why the report urgently calls for public-private collaboration that will de-risk investments. Policy reforms that are inclusive of women and youth are needed as well. The report also identifies climate finance—which rose nearly 50 percent in two years—as an untapped opportunity if decisionmakers can align this funding with food systems transformation that builds resilience.

COP31 Presidency, IEA Team Up to Push Clean Energy

The COP31 Presidency recently announced a partnership with the International Energy Agency (IEA) to speed up the transition to clean energy. This comes during what IEA’s Executive Director Fatih Birol calls “the biggest energy crisis in history”

Murat Kurum, Turkey’s Minister of Environment, says that it will take collaboration to “transform the crisis into an opportunity.”

While details of the partnership are still limited, one of the most important pillars of this transition will focus on clean cooking, helping the roughly 2.3 billion people reliant on polluting fuels like charcoal, firewood, and waste switch to cleaner cooking solutions. This move can not only reduce emissions but also lower the associated negative health impacts.

The Environment Minister also shared that the IEA will conduct special research on the impact of recycling, which will inform the COP31 Presidency’s agenda on cutting emissions from waste—a top priority for Turkey. 

New South Wales Prepares for Food Waste Prevention Laws

Beginning July 1, sites in New South Wales that generate 3,960 liters of waste a week will be required to separate food waste from their general waste. This will impact larger operations including hotels, food courts, and other high-volume venues. 

By July 2028, the rules will apply to sites that produce at least 1,980 liters of waste per week. By 2030, it will apply to those generating at least 720 liters. 

Currently, households spend roughly AU$2,000 every year on food that goes uneaten. And by 2030, the government states that the country’s landfills will not be able to accept additional waste. 

The New South Wales Environment Protection Authority is offering programs and grants that will help businesses comply with the new laws. 

While their timelines vary, Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory, and Queensland are also moving toward circular economy frameworks that will prioritize diverting organic waste from landfills. 

Agricultural Cooperatives Offer Resilience and Hope

A new policy paper from the Co-operative Party finds that agricultural cooperatives could “unleash growth” and boost food security in the United Kingdom. 

At a time when the conflict is driving fuel and fertilizer prices higher, co-ops offer stability. By allowing farmers to pool resources, and share risks, and invest collectively, this model can improve resilience in the face of volatile input markets. 

Paul Gerrard, Director of public affairs at the Co-operative Group, says that a co-op “naturally lends itself to sharing costs and spreading risk” while making “the day-to-day fundamentals of farming more efficient.”

There are around 500 agricultural co-ops in the UK and around half of UK farmers are estimated to be members of a co-op of some kind. But the paper says there is “significant room for expansion.” A new Farming Roadmap for England, which will be published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). The report’s authors believe this Roadmap is an opportunity to formalize a commitment to expanding co-ops even further. 

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Building on our past COP programming, Food Tank will organize a series multi-stakeholder dinners, host an evening of farmer storytelling, engage with climate negotiators, and much more. Check back here for more details about our COP31 plans as they become available!

To request an invitation, suggest a speaker, or explore partnership opportunities, please reach out to Food Tank’s Events Director Kenzie Wade at kenzie@foodtank.com.

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The weeklong series of programming will include panel discussions, live performances, networking receptions, and delicious food as we discuss the many solutions that will make our food and agriculture systems an answer to the climate crisis. Summits will touch on themes including soil health, farmland conservation, the private sector’s role in driving climate action, food and nutrition security, and much more.

Last year’s Climate Week NYC programming brought together more than 300 chefs, journalists, academics, CEOs, farmers, advocates and Broadway performers. And in 2026, we’re looking forward to making an even greater impact. Check back here for more details about our Climate Week plans as they become available!

To request an invitation, suggest a speaker, or explore partnership opportunities, please reach out to Food Tank’s Events Director Kenzie Wade at kenzie@foodtank.com.

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Food and agriculture systems generate a variety of environmental, health, social, and economic impacts that are not generally reflected in the prices consumers pay for food, referred to as externalities in economics. True Cost Accounting (TCA) is an evolving, holistic framework for measuring and valuing the positive and negative externalities of the food system.

TCA seeks to make the impacts of food production, processing, distribution, and consumption more visible to support improved decision making by policymakers, farmers, and consumers and reduce the true costs of food. Drawing from the four-capitals framework of the TEEBAgriFood Evaluation Framework, TCA assesses four key capitals: natural, human, social, and produced.

The agrifood system generates myriad positive and negative externalities, says Salman Hussain, Coordinator The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity for Agriculture and Food initiative (TEEBAgriFood).

Common examples of positive externalities include a beekeeper incidentally providing a benefit to neighboring farmers when their bees pollinate the farmers’ crops and community cohesion. Examples of negative externalities include emissions from use of fuel in farm machinery, water pollution from fertilizer runoff, and healthcare costs for workers in unsafe conditions.

Though invisible in market prices, the costs of externalities across agrifood systems are nonetheless borne—just rarely by those who create them. Instead, they are passed on to the environment, workers, consumers, and society more broadly.

Environmental costs show up in the 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions that agriculture produces, soil degradation, and biodiversity loss. Workers in food and farming systems face risks like pesticide exposure and heat-related illness and death.

Consumers bear rising rates of diet-related diseases and issues that are linked to modern food environments. 2.5 billion adults suffer diet-related illnesses, 733 million people live in hunger, and 2.8 billion people are unable to afford a healthy diet. And these burdens are often disproportionately carried by vulnerable populations who face higher exposure to environmental risks, poor health outcomes, and economic instability.

The hidden environmental, health, and social costs of global agrifood systems amount to roughly US$12 trillion each year, according to a U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) report that Lauren Baker, the Deputy Director of the Global Alliance for the Future of Food, calls a “startling call to action.” A Rockefeller Foundation study attributes US$1.1 trillion unaccounted-for costs to human health, US$900 billion to environmental and biodiversity damage, and US$100 billion in unaccounted livelihoods.

TCA evaluates four forms of capital—natural, human, social, and produced—reflecting the environmental, health, social, and economic dimensions of agrifood systems. The eco-agri-food system is like a puzzle, Alexander Müller, Study Leader for TEEBAgriFood, tells Food Tank. One only understands the full picture when all the pieces are considered together unclear.

TEEBAgriFood established the four-capital framework in 2018 with contributions from more than 150 researchers and experts across 30 countries. It now underpins most True Cost Accounting assessments used today.

Natural capital refers to the stock of physical and biological resources and ecosystem functions that sustain life and enable food production. In agriculture, this includes land, water, soil, biodiversity, and atmospheric systems.

Social capital captures the networks, institutions, and shared norms that enable cooperation and collective action within societies. This can include labor conditions, fair wages, worker protections, community well-being, and the broader social impacts of food production, such as rural livelihoods, job creation or loss, and community stability.

Human capital refers to individuals’ knowledge, skills, health, and capabilities. This includes farmers’ expertise, agricultural training and education, food system innovation, and the health outcomes associated with both food production and consumption.

Produced capital includes the manufactured and financial assets that support economic activity. This encompasses physical infrastructure such as buildings, machinery, and irrigation systems, as well as financial and intellectual capital that enable food production, processing, distribution, and retail.

The goal of TCA is not to increase retail prices, according to Adrian de Groot Ruiz, Co-Founder of True Price, a Dutch social enterprise that helps identify and measure products’ social and environmental costs. Rather, TCA seeks to reveal information that can ultimately help improve the way food is made and reduce the true costs of food, De Groot Ruiz tells Food Tank.

When externalities go unmeasured, they remain unaccounted for in policy decisions, private purchases and markets fail to prevent or address them. Failing to put a value or price negative impacts “creates a dishonest pricing scheme and perpetuates farming systems which destroy our planet and cause a catastrophic impact on public health,” says Patrick Holden, Founder and CEO of SFT.

By identifying and valuing externalities, TCA can help governments, businesses, and investors design policies, legislation, incentives, and investments that reduce harmful impacts, reward practices that generate public benefits, and support food systems in which nutritious food is accessible, workers are compensated fairly, and consumers can make informed choices.

As detailed in FAO’s reports, The State of Food and Agriculture 2023 and 2024, identifying and assessing all hidden costs across agrifood systems is resource- and data-intensive, requiring collaboration between political, economic and social actors and prioritization of the most decision-relevant impacts.

To be effective, TCA must be incorporated into national and international policy frameworks, accounting standards, and performance evaluation systems, supported by standardized metrics that allow impacts to be measured consistently across food value chains, according to government bodies and industry experts.

Some organizations and researchers advocate for policies under which governments tax activities that impose environmental or social harm so market prices reflect their full costs, alongside subsidies or incentives for practices that generate positive externalities such as improved soil health or ecosystem protection. Ultimately, according to Nature Food, TCA calls for a fundamental change to the valuation of food.

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.

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Q2 2025

May 2025

• May 2, 2025: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrests and detains 14 farmworkers from a farm in Western New York.
• May 3, 2025: At least 15,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) employees have taken the Trump-Vance Administration’s offers to resign, according to a briefing from the agency.
• May 12, 2025: The USDA rescinds decades-old regulations that required farmers to record their use of pesticides known to pose the highest risk to human health.
• May 14, 2025: The House Agriculture Committee voted 29-25, along party lines, to advance legislation that would cut as much as US$300 billion in food aid spending, shifting costs to the states.
• May 14, 2025: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announces plans to rescind several key protections intended to keep perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, out of drinking water, about a year after the Biden-Harris administration finalized the first-ever national standards.
• May 15, 2025: EPA approves the first permit allowing an industrial-scale fish farm to begin operating in federal waters.
• May 19, 2025: Rollins announces the Small Family Farms Policy Agenda, a set of policy proposals she says are aimed at improving the viability and longevity of smaller-scale family farms.
• May 22, 2025: The Trump-Vance Administration’s Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission releases a new MAHA report identifying the key contributors to rising rates of chronic disease among American children. According to the report, ultra-processed foods, exposure to environmental chemicals, lack of physical activity, and the overuse of medications and vaccines are among the primary drivers.
• May 27, 2025: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announces a plan to increase funding for US$14.5 million in reimbursements to states for meat and poultry inspection programs.
• May 28, 2025: The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) cancels funding for a trial testing the safety and efficacy of a vaccine to protect Americans from bird flu, should the virus begin circulating in humans.
• May 29, 2025: The White House acknowledges errors in the MAHA Assessment report, including citations to studies that do not actually exist.

June 2025

• June 2, 2025: The U.S. Department of the Interior proposes reversing an order issued by President Joe Biden in December that banned oil and gas drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
• June 9, 2025: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces that the agency will get rid of all members sitting on a key U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel of vaccine experts and reconstitute the committee.
• June 10, 2025: ICE arrests and detains 70 workers at Glenn Valley Foods, a meat production plant in Omaha, Nebraska.
• June 12, 2025: President Donald Trump acknowledges on social media that his immigration policies are hurting the farming and hotel industries, making a rare concession that his crackdown is having ripple effects on the American workforce. “Changes are coming,” he says.
• June 12, 2025: The Senate Agriculture Committee releases its proposed text for the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” While the House plan proposed cuts of nearly US$300 billion in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) spending, the Senate’s plan would cut US$209 billion from the program. According to the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, a “vote for this bill is not a vote for farmers – it’s a vote to abandon them.” The Food Research and Action Center says the bill marks “a devastating reversal in the fight against hunger in America.”
• June 13, 2025: The Washington Post reports that there will be no policy changes underway to exempt farm, hotel and other leisure workers from Trump’s immigration crackdown.
• June 12, 2025: Trump pulls the U.S. federal government from an agreement brokered by President Joe Biden with Washington, Oregon, and four Native American tribes to recover the salmon population in the Pacific Northwest, calling the plan “radical environmentalism”.
• June 17, 2025: Rollins announces that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will terminate over 145 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion focused awards, totaling US$148.6 million. Programs that will be terminated include: educating and engaging socially disadvantaged farmers on conservation practices, creating a new model for urban forestry to lead to environmental justice through more equitably distributed green spaces, and expanding equitable access to land, capital, and market opportunities for underserved producers.
• June 20, 2025: Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate parliamentarian appointed to oversee the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act as it moves through Congress, rules that Republicans can’t use the budget reconciliation process to impose a state cost-share for SNAP, negating a major source of spending cuts for the legislation. She also says Republicans could not include a provision that would bar immigrants who are not citizens or lawful permanent residents from receiving SNAP benefits.
• June 25, 2025: The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) will no longer enforce a 2024 rule that expanded protections for guest workers who come to the U.S. to work on farms through the H-2A program. According to DOL, “The decision provides much-needed clarity for American farmers navigating the H-2A program, while also aligning with President Trump’s ongoing commitment to strictly enforcing U.S. immigration laws.”

Q3 2025

July 2025

• July 1, 2025: Senate passes the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act with SNAP cuts intact. The bill is now headed to the House, where it’s still unclear if Republicans have the votes to pass it.
• July 10, 2025: The USDA will no longer employ the race- and sex-based “socially disadvantaged” designation to provide increased benefits in USDA programs. Rollins says: “We are taking this aggressive, unprecedented action to eliminate discrimination in any form at USDA.”
• July 10, 2025: ICE arrests and detains 361 workers during farm raids in Carpinteria and Camarillo, California.
• July 12, 2025: A Mexican farmworker dies from injuries sustained during a federal immigration raid on July 10.
• July 15, 2025: USDA terminates the Regional Food Business Centers (RFBC) program, which provided funding for organizations to build support for local and regional farm and food businesses.
• July 24, 2025: Rollins announces that the USDA will close the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. The plan could undermine research on pests, blight, and crop genetics crucial to American farms, according to lawmakers, a farm group, and staff of the facility.

August 2025

• August 11, 2025: The U.S. Congressional Budget Office releases a report confirming that reductions to SNAP will significantly shrink access to food assistance, disproportionately harming children, older adults, people with disabilities, and working families. The report projects that millions will see reduced benefits or lose access to SNAP entirely.
• August 12, 2025: The USDA notifies union leaders representing the Food Safety and Inspection Service and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service that the agency plans to end contracts for thousands of employees.
• August 19, 2025: The USDA announces it will no longer fund taxpayer dollars for solar panels on productive farmland or allow solar panels manufactured by foreign adversaries to be used in USDA projects. The announcement describes that prime farmland has been displaced by solar farms and the new investment guardrails are meant to keep farmland affordable, but data from the agency show that a very small amount of rural land is used for solar and wind projects and that most continues in agricultural production even after the projects are installed.
• August 26, 2025: Trump revokes an executive order, issued by President Joe Biden, that tasked the USDA and Federal Trade Commission with curbing consolidation across the food system to improve fairness and competition for farmers and consumers.
• August 28, 2025: Kennedy and Trump fire Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Susan Monarez over disagreements on vaccination policy. Four other officials quit in frustration over vaccine policy and Kennedy’s leadership.
• August 29, 2025: The Trump-Vance Administration suspends an annual charity drive that resulted in federal employees donating about US$70 million a year to nonprofit organizations, including US$5 million to food and agriculture initiatives.

September 2025

• September 2, 2025: EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announces that the agency is abandoning a plan to regulate water pollution from the country’s slaughterhouses and meat processing facilities.
• September 4, 2025: In one of the largest workplace raids in New York, ICE arrests and detains 57 people from Nutrition Bar Confectioners, a nutrition bar manufacturer.
• September 9, 2025: The Trump-Vance Administration’s Make America Healthy Again Commission releases its Strategy Report, outlining the federal government’s approach to reducing childhood chronic disease. The 20-page document confirms earlier leaks that the administration will avoid imposing new restrictions on pesticides or ultra-processed foods.
• September 20, 2025: The USDA announces the termination of future Household Food Security Reports, calling the study “redundant, costly, and politicized.”
• September 25, 2025: Rollins announces new efforts to investigate market conditions that have led to high input prices for farmers, shortly after the USDA quietly cancelled partnerships that helped states tackle anticompetitive markets in agriculture.
• September 30, 2025: The Trump-Vance Administration is canceling US$72 million for USAID’s Feed the Future Innovation Labs by using a controversial loophole to cancel federal funding at the end of the fiscal year, which ended on September 30, 2025.

Q4 2025

October 2025

• October 1, 2025: The U.S. federal government shuts down, following a failure by Congress to pass appropriations bills for the new fiscal year. Federal agencies will be governed by their respective Lapse of Funding plans until the government reopens.
  • According to the USDA Lapse of Funding Plan, approximately 42,000 agency employees will be furloughed. 67 percent of employees at the Farm Service Agency will be furloughed. The Farm Service Agency will stop processing farm loans and commodity payments, and it will stop implementing disaster assistance programs. 96 percent of the Natural Resources Conservation Service will be furloughed, effectively freezing conservation programs. The National Organic Program will cease operations, leaving certifiers without oversight or support. The Economic Research Service, National Agricultural Statistics Service, and National Institute for Food and Agriculture are each losing more than 90 percent of their staff and ceasing all program operations. Core operations related to nutrition programs, including SNAP, Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and school meals will continue but funding for those programs could start to become an issue depending on how long the shutdown lasts.
  • According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) plan, the agency will retain about 86 percent of staff. Routine inspections will be suspended and the agency will instead focus on “for-cause” inspections, or those tied to foodborne illness outbreaks, recalls, or consumer complaints.
  • According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s shutdown plan, the agency will retain about 11 percent of its total workforce. The agency will stop conducting and publishing research “unless necessary for exempted or excepted activities.”
• October 2, 2025: A news release posted by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security adjusts the H-2A paperwork process to speed up applications with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
• DHS says the changes are part of a larger collaborative effort with the DOL to streamline the program “in light of an urgent demand for an authorized agricultural labor force and requests from the regulated community and members of Congress to make the H-2A program easier to use and more efficient for U.S. agricultural producers.”
• October 2, 2025: The DOL publishes rules altering the way H-2A wage rates are calculated, effectively lowering wages for labor across the board. United Farm Workers calculated that the change will reduce wages by US$5 to US$7 per hour in some states, leading to US$2.46 billion less paid to H-2A workers annually.
• October 2, 2025: The DOL warns in an obscure document that the Trump-Vance Administration’s immigration crackdown is threatening “the stability of domestic food production and prices for U.S. consumers.”
• October 7, 2025: Civil Eats reports on industry ties within Trump’s food and agricultural leadership. Many of the president’s top officials at the USDA, EPA, HHS, and FDA have connections to chemical, agribusiness, or fossil fuel interests.
• October 10, 2025: According to a letter obtained by Politico, SNAP is running out of funds. Ronald Ward, the USDA’s acting associate administrator for the program, instructed regional and state SNAP directors to delay sending next month’s funds to electronic benefit transfer vendors responsible for delivering benefits to participants: “We understand that several States would normally begin sending November benefit issuance files to their electronic benefit transfer (EBT) vendors soon,” Ward writes. “Considering the operational issues and constraints that exist in automated systems, and in the interest of preserving maximum flexibility, we are forced to direct States to hold their November issuance files and delay transmission to State EBT vendors until further notice.”
• October 16, 2025: NPR reports that at least 27 states have turned over data (including their names, dates of birth, home addresses, Social Security numbers, and benefits amounts) about millions of food stamp recipients to the USDA, which framed the data demand as necessary to accomplish the Trump-Vance Administration’s goal of identifying and eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse.
• October 16, 2025: Rollins says SNAP will run out of funds in two weeks because of the partial government shutdown, potentially leaving nearly 42 million people without monthly benefits.
• October 20, 2025: Politico reports on six food and agriculture programs experiencing delays or funding concerns as a result of the shutdown: SNAP, school meals, WIC, H-2A processing, farm aid, and Farm Service Agency offices.
• October 22, 2025: Trump announces plans to increase the volume of beef imports from Argentina, raising concerns among American cattle-producing farmers and ranchers.
• October 31, 2025: Two federal judges order the Trump-Vance Administration to use emergency funds to keep SNAP running.

November 2025

• November 1, 2025: Nearly 42 million Americans lose their food stamp benefits as Congress fails to reopen the government. Politico reports that the Trump-Vance Administration says they don’t have the authority to use emergency money for SNAP or have enough funds to support the estimated US$9 billion for November benefits. Even if they comply with the court order to fund benefits, it could still take days or weeks to disburse partial funds.
• November 3, 2025: NPR reports that the Trump-Vance Administration will restart SNAP benefits, but only at 50 percent of normal payments and the payments will be delayed. The Trump-Vance Administration says it will use money from a US$5 billion Agriculture Department contingency fund. Officials say that depleting the fund means “no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely.”
• November 8, 2025: The USDA directs states to “immediately undo” any steps that have been taken to send out full food aid benefits to low-income Americans, following a U.S. Supreme Court order temporarily halting a lower court order requiring those payments.
• November 10, 2025: Retrieved from the USDA website on Nov. 10: “Senate Democrats have voted 14 times against reopening the government. This compromises not only SNAP, but farm programs, food inspection, animal and plant disease protection, rural development, and protecting federal lands. Senate Democrats are withholding services to the American people in exchange for healthcare for illegals, gender mutilation, and other unknown “leverage” points.”
• November 12, 2025: The U.S. federal government shutdown ends after Congress signs a funding package for 2026. Lasting 43 days, the shutdown was the longest in U.S. history. Roughly 670,000 federal employees were furloughed, and 730,000 worked without pay.
• November 13, 2025: The U.S. Department of the Interior reverses an order issued by President Joe Biden in December 2024 that banned oil and gas drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
• November 14, 2025: Trump rolls back tariffs on more than 200 food products, including such staples as coffee, beef, bananas and orange juice, in the face of growing angst among American consumers about the high cost of groceries.
• November 21, 2025: According to an annual FDA report, sales of antibiotics for farm animals climbed 16 percent in 2024, the “biggest increase we’ve ever seen,” according to Steve Roach, director of the Safe and Healthy Food Program at Food Animal Concerns Trust.

December 2025

• December 1, 2025: The FDA announces “the deployment of agentic AI capabilities for all agency employees” for tasks including meeting management, pre-market reviews, review validation, post-market surveillance, inspections, and compliance and administrative functions.
• December 6, 2025: Trump issues an executive order directing the U.S. Attorney General and Federal Trade Commission to investigate food-related industries and determine whether anti-competitive behavior exists in food supply chains.
• December 10, 2025: The USDA announces a US$700 million Regenerative Pilot Program.
• December 10, 2025: Rollins approves SNAP Food Restriction Waivers in six states, Missouri, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Hawai’i.
• December 17, 2025: The USDA’s Office of the Inspector General releases a report finding that the agency lost nearly one-fifth of its workforce in the first half of 2025: more than 20,000 employees left the agency out of more than 110,000, including 15,114 who accepted a voluntary resignation program.

Q1 2026

January 2026

• January 1, 2026: SNAP waivers go into effect in Indiana, Iowa, Nebraska, Utah, and West Virginia, bringing the total number of states with approved waivers to 18.
• January 7, 2026: The U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services release the Dietary Guidelines for 2025 to 2030, recommending a reduction in highly processed foods with added sugar and excess sodium and endorsing whole, nutrient-dense foods and products like whole milk, butter, and red meat.
• January 14, 2026: The American Federation of Government Employees announces that the Department of Health and Human Services is reinstating National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) employees laid off in 2025, but does not specify how many will return to their jobs. Almost 900 of NIOSH’s 1,000 employees were laid off last year.
• January 14, 2026: Trump signs the Whole Milk for Healthy Kids Act into law. The legislation modifies current regulations, which require milk to be fat-free or low-fat, to permit schools to offer students whole, reduced-fat, low-fat, and fat-free organic or nonorganic milk.
• January 15, 2026: Rollins publishes an op-ed in The Hill promoting the new Dietary Guidelines for Americans. She writes, “Eating healthy can cost as little as $3.00 per meal.”
• January 19, 2026: The USDA launches Lender Lens on the Rural Data Gateway, making Rural Development’s entire commercial guaranteed loan portfolio available to the public, guaranteed borrowers, and commercial lending stakeholders.
• January 22, 2026: The USDA launches an online portal for reporting foreign-owned agricultural land transactions. They say the portal is part of a broader effort to “strengthen enforcement and protect American farmland” as the agency continues its implementation of the National Farm Security Action Plan.
• January 30, 2026: Rollins shares that around 1.75 million fewer people are participating in SNAP since the start of the Trump-Vance Administration.

February 2026

• February 2, 2026: Trump announces plans to lower tariffs on goods from India from 25 percent to 18 percent after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to stop buying oil from Russia.
• February 4, 2026: The USDA announces that it is assuming operation of the foreign food aid program Food for Peace, formerly operated by USAID. Humanitarian aid experts say the program has been used flexibly to respond to different emergency settings, but it may become a way to offload surplus U.S.-grown food commodities.
• February 6, 2026: The FDA publishes a letter to the food industry announcing that the agency will scale back artificial food dye labeling enforcement.
• February 6, 2026: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reapproves dicamba, a pesticide that has raised concern over its tendency to drift and destroy nearby crops, for use on genetically modified soybeans and cotton.
• February 6, 2026: Trump issues a proclamation opening a marine protected area off the northeastern U.S. to commercial fishing. The 4,913-square-mile area was the only U.S. marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean.
• February 6, 2026: Trump releases an Executive Order, calling for higher volumes of imported beef from Argentina to lower prices for eaters.
• February 11, 2026: The USDA announces the Farmer and Rancher Freedom Framework, a plan to protect, preserve, and partner with American agriculture, while “ending onerous regulations and the weaponization of government against American farmers and ranchers. It formalizes USDA’s ongoing efforts to eliminate systemic agricultural lawfare,” according to the agency.
• February 12, 2026: The FDA publishes final guidance which advises, but does not require, drug companies to set “duration limits” for livestock antibiotics in animal feed.
• February 13, 2026: The USDA issues final Emergency Livestock Relief Program (ELRP) payments totaling more than US$1.89 billion. Eligible applicants who applied for ELRP 2023 and 2024 Flood and Wildfire assistance will receive 100 percent of their eligible payment in a single lump sum.
• February 13, 2026: The USDA announces US$1 billion in assistance for farmers of specialty crops and sugar, commodities not covered through the previously announced Farmer Bridge Assistance program.
• February 13, 2026: Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee release a draft farm bill package. The draft is scheduled to be reviewed and revised the week of February 23, 2026.
• February 13, 2026: USDA Deputy Secretary Stephen Vaden announces on social media that the Department of Justice will stop defending farm programs that benefit socially disadvantaged producers.
• February 17, 2026: The USDA announces proposed updated regulations that would speed up line speeds at poultry and pork production facilities.
• February 18, 2026: Trump issues an Executive Order directing the Secretary of Agriculture to ensure “a continued and adequate supply of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides.”
• February 20, 2026: Trump announces new tariffs under the Trade Act of 1974, and increases the tariff rate to 15 percent.
• February 20, 2026: The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency repeals a 2024 rule that imposed limits on mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants, the primary source of the mercury that accumulates in fish.

March 2026

• March 3, 2026: Trump-Vance Administration lawyers submit an amicus brief in favor of Monsanto to the U.S. Supreme Court, stating that the Court should rule in favor of Bayer in a case that could prevent individuals from suing pesticide companies over claims their products cause cancer and other illnesses.
• March 4, 2026: The USDA approves SNAP waivers in four states: Kansas, Nevada, Ohio, and Wyoming.
• March 4, 2026: The U.S. House Agriculture Committee votes to advance a 2026 Farm Bill. To be adopted, the legislation must still pass a vote in the full House of Representatives before going to the Senate.
• March 6, 2026: U.S. officials release a video of an explosion on social media, capturing the destruction of what they said was a drug trafficker’s training camp in rural Ecuador. A subsequent New York Times investigation indicates that the military strike appears to have destroyed a cattle and dairy farm, not a drug trafficking compound.
• March 10, 2026: During a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing, lawmakers and witnesses including American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall, multiple senators from both parties, and farm advocacy group Farm Action warn of how the war in Iran, and its impact on fertilizer markets, could affect farmers.
• March 18, 2026: Rollins and Kennedy publish the joint opinion piece, “We’re bringing families more healthy foods in a SNAP.”
• March 23, 2026: USDA issues termination notices for 49 of the 50 projects under the Increasing Land, Capital, And Market Access (ILCMA) Program.
• March 27, 2026: Speaking at a White House event celebrating farmers, Trump promises to bolster small-business loan guarantees for farmers, who have been hit hard by his tariffs and rising prices from the war in Iran, and announces a final EPA rule raising the minimum amount of renewable fuels that must be blended into the U.S. fuel supply. Biofuels like ethanol, biodiesel, and renewable diesel are largely made with corn and soybean oil, meaning this rule could boost demand for those crops.
• March 30, 2026: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services sends a memo to hospitals requesting they align meals with the updated Dietary Guidelines for Americans by phasing out ultra-processed food and high-sugar foods in favor of fruits, vegetables, and minimally processed proteins.
• March 31, 2026: The USDA suspends all grants under the Rural Energy for America Program to comply with an Executive Order issued in July 2025.

Q2 2026

April 2026

• April 1, 2026: The FDA approves Foundayo, a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist in tablet form. The approval was issued 50 days after filing, marking the fastest new molecular entity approval since 2002.
• April 3, 2026: The Trump-Vance Administration releases its proposed budget for fiscal year 2027, which begins on October 1, 2026. The proposal includes a 19 percent cut in the USDA budget.
• April 7, 2026: The USDA finalizes regulations that overhaul how the National Environmental Policy Act is implemented, including by reducing and removing procedural requirements, removing climate change and environmental justice considerations, and eliminating opportunities for public comment.
• April 8, 2026: The Trump-Vance Administration nominates Luke Lindberg, Under Secretary for Trade and Foreign Agricultural Affairs at the USDA, for Executive Director of the U.N. World Food Programme (WFP). United Nations officials subsequently announce that Secretary-General António Guterres will not appoint a new Executive Director to WFP before he steps down.
• April 10, 2026: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration removes workplace inspection goals related to heat-related hazards, both indoors and outdoors, that may lead to serious illnesses, injuries, or death.
• April 15, 2026: Rollins announces the creation of the new USDA Office of Seafood.
• April 22, 2026: The U.S. House Appropriations Committee releases the Fiscal Year 2027 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Bill. It cuts the overall funding level by US$1.1 billion compared to 2026.
• April 23, 2026: The USDA announces reorganizations of the Food Safety and Inspection Service and the Research, Education, and Economics Mission Area, aiming to streamline functions and improve operational efficiency. As part of the reorganizations, a substantial portion of the agencies’ workforces will be relocated and the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center will be decommissioned.
• April 30, 2026: The House of Representatives votes to pass the Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026. The Farm Bill now advances to the Senate.

Is there an update you want to see included that isn’t on the list? Email Danielle at danielle@foodtank.com.

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Green Roofs Can Restore Nature in Cities

A new report from the European Commission (EC) is calling attention to a key opportunity to help cities deliver climate solutions: green rooftops and walls. They confirm that better integration of greenery can improve biodiversity, climate adaptation, stormwater management, energy efficiency, and social well-being in urban environments, all of which can make cities more livable as urban populations continue to grow. 

Green roofs, also called living roofs or eco-roofs, are not new, but in the 1980s, the technology for widespread installations became more readily available. Despite the many benefits, their integration is uneven across Europe. Regulatory challenges, skill gaps, funding shortages, and limited integration in mainstream planning and building practices can hold cities back from scaling these green spaces.

But the report offers a way forward. Targeted incentives and funding schemes, biodiversity-oriented design and monitoring requirements, and stronger planning and building regulations can help cities move in the right direction. 

Although it is an investment upfront, Steven Peck, Founder and President of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, says it’s worth it: “They’re going to be healthier places to live in the face of ongoing climate change impacts. And that’s where the money is going to be. That’s where the creativity is going to be.”

Is the MAHA Movement Becoming Disillusioned with the Trump Administration?

Supporters of Make America Healthy Again seem to be losing faith in the Trump-Vance Administration and members of the Republican Party, the New York Times reports.

Six of MAHA’s most prominent leaders have, in separate videos, announced that they are so disappointed with President Donald Trump that the party risks losing them. Many are upset by contradictory messaging or inaction that they’re seeing. This includes the recent executive order to boost domestic production of the herbicide glyphosate despite Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s earlier promises to ban or restrict agri-chemicals and the failure to secure enough votes for Casey Means to become Surgeon General. 

But this doesn’t mean that MAHA supporters are flipping to the Democrats. Zen Honeycutt, Founder of Moms Across America, says, “The only thing that matters is action. Not a political party.” And some, feeling that their vote is useless, may ultimately sit out of the next election in November.

But this shouldn’t keep Democrats from trying to win them over, according to Celinda Lake, a Democratic pollster. She has seen independent and undecided voters tip elections in close races. Congressmember Chellie Pingree sees the opening and is telling her colleagues that they’re “missing a big opportunity” if they’re not talking about pesticides and healthy food. “The reason Donald Trump ran on them, the reason he put R.F.K. in office is because people care about them,” Pingree says. “We should be all over this.”

New York Acts to Close GRAS Loophole

New York legislators recently passed the New York Food Safety and Chemical Disclosure Act, banning several food additives from products manufactured, distributed, or sold in the state. 

In March, the bill passed in the Senate with unanimous bipartisan support, and it now heads to Governor Kathy Hochul for her signature. 

The legislation will eliminate three additives—potassium bromate, propyl paraben, and Red Dye No. 3—that have been linked to cancer, hormone disruption, and reproductive toxicity from foods. Red 3 has been banned by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration since the legislation was first introduced. The law also requires companies to disclose the safety data for all food chemicals in a publicly available database. 

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, this progress represents “significant strides” toward closing the GRAS loophole, which currently allows companies to decide which chemicals are “generally recognized as safe” for us in food. 

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. vowed to close the GRAS loophole nationally, but advocacy groups are still waiting for action at the federal level, prompting Jessica Hernandez, Environmental Working Group’s Legislative Director, to declare, “New York is stepping up where Washington has slowed down.”

Hunger Is Becoming Concentrated in Conflict-Hit Countries

The United Nations finds that of the 266 million people in 47 countries who experienced high levels of acute food insecurity, two-thirds are concentrated in just 10 countries. Conflict is the major driver of this crisis, accounting for more than half of all cases of severe hunger. 

The severity of hunger is also worsening. The number of people experiencing catastrophic hunger has increased ninefold since 2016. Young people are the most vulnerable, with 35.5 million children acutely malnourished, including nearly 10 million suffering from severe acute malnutrition, a life-threatening condition. 

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres says the new report is “a call to action to summon the political will to rapidly scale up investment in lifesaving aid, and work to end the conflicts that inflict so much suffering on so many.”

Aid organizations also warn that unless the world changes its strategies for addressing hunger, the world may become trapped in a cycle of deepening crises. FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu says that we can’t rely solely on food assistance, and must prioritize the protection of local food production that builds long-term resilience over time. 

Bolivia’s Farmers Are Protecting Their Land—And Future

The Guardian reports that cacao producers are pushing back against the gold mining industry to protect their land. 

In 2017, residents in Palos Blancos and Alto Beni, situated in the northwest region of Bolivia that are reliant on organic agriculture, noticed a mining dredge appear on the nearby Boopi River. Gold mining hadn’t touched the municipalities yet, but farmer Roberto Gutierrez says that he and his neighbors saw the environmental destruction it caused in other areas. 

Communities responded quickly, pushing back against the miners, and they left. Four years later, thanks to persistent organizing efforts, the two municipalities passed mining bans. Three years after that, in 2024, a departmental law further legitimized their stance. “We showed people that mining does more harm than good. People have realized that gold is temporary, but agriculture and conservation are for life,” Ulises Ariñez, former environment secretary for Palos Blancos, says. 

In the last five years, the price of gold has skyrocketed, driving miners into new regions. At least 10 other municipalities and Indigenous territories are exploring bans like those in Palos Blancos and Alto Beni even as the national government seeks to loosen regulations for the industry. 

Pablo Solón, an environmental activist, says that the local bans may represent their best hope to protect the Amazon. And there is reason for optimism. Just last year, four new areas in Bolivia were established to keep them free from mining. And on Peru’s side of Lake Titicaca, a court suspended mining outside authorized areas along Bolivia’s Madre de Dios River. 

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Can Conflict Drive a Transition to Sustainable Packaging?

As the war in Iran continues and oil prices stay high, plastic prices are soaring. That’s becoming a problem in China, Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia, which consume roughly a third of the world’s plastics. According to OECD data, their plastic use has increased from 17 million tonnes in 1990 to 152 million tonnes in 2022.

With the material so expensive, countries are worried the material will become far less accessible. In Tokyo, for example, wholesalers are already warning that there may be a shortage of plastic trays and bags. That’s driving a search for alternatives. 

In Malaysia, one dairy producer has temporarily switched from plastic containers to paper-based milk cartons. And in South Korea, packaging firms have seen a spike in demand for paper tubes and pouches. 

As more companies pivot, analysts are wondering if the shift to more sustainable options can be sustained in the long-term, ultimately reducing our reliance on plastics.

2025 Floods May Have Affected 3.3 Million Jobs in Pakistan

New estimates from the International Labor Organisation (ILO) show that around 3.3 million jobs may have been affected by the 2025 floods in Pakistan, which led to more than 1,000 deaths and the displacement of tens of thousands of people. 

Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London says the country is a “hotspot for increases in extreme rainfall” and it’s “undoubtedly on the front line of climate change.”

The ILO finds that the agriculture sector was hit the hardest, with rural communities bearing the brunt of the impacts. 

While provincial compensation measures helped with some of the most immediate needs, the Organization is calling for more comprehensive support to restore livelihoods in affected areas. This includes cash-for-work programs, skill-training, and subsidized credit which can help households restart their farms as well and other income-generating activities.

Women Fishers Challenge Taboos in Kenya

As told by Al Jazeera, women in Kisumul Kenya near Lake Victoria are defying gender norms.

Traditionally, women in the region worked as fishmongers, while fishing was reserved solely for men. These gender roles stem from deep seated beliefs held by members of Lake Victoria communities. But in the early 2000s, Rhoda Ongoche Akech realized that her income was dwindling and selling fish was no longer enough to support her family. Something needed to change.

One day, women from a neighboring county arrived in Akech’s village and she watched, surprised, as they went fishing. Even though it was a novel sight, it pushed Akech to learn how to fish herself. While those around Akech warned her that women didn’t belong on the water, she insisted on continuing because she knew her family depended on the income.

She spent 16 years as the only fisherwoman in her village. Then in 2018, Faith Awuor Ang’awo braved the social stigma and joined Akech on the water. In the years that followed a few more women joined the pair.

According to village elder William Okedo the taboo preventing women from fishing has broken down and attitudes among male fishers have shifted as well. But systemic hurdles still remain. Susan Claire, acting director of fisheries and blue economy for Kisumu County, refuses to officially recognize the work that women fishers are doing even though it’s the same as their male counterparts.

While the climate crisis and declining fish stocks pose additional challenges, Akech and her team are still making enough of a living on the water. And for now, they’re still fishing. 

President Trump Pushes for Cuts to WIC

For the second year in the row, President Trump is pushing to cut benefits for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

His fiscal year 2027 budget calls for a reduction in the fruit and vegetable component of WIC. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates that it could take away US$1.4 billion in benefits from 5.4 million parents and young children. 

Under the proposed plan, monthly benefits for toddlers and preschoolers would drop from US$26 to US$10. Benefits for pregnant and non-breastfeeding postpartum mothers would fall from US$47 to US$13. And benefits for breastfeeding mothers would drop from US$52 to US$13. 

For the last three decades, presidents and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have fully funded the program to ensure that eligible families receive their full benefits because they understand how critical it is. WIC provides nutritious foods, counseling on healthy eating, breastfeeding support, and health care referrals to almost 7 million low-income expecting and postpartum people, infants, and young children at nutritional risk.

Anti-Immigration Bills Fail to Gain Traction

A new analysis from the Washington Post finds that of the roughly 200 bills targeting immigration communities across the country fewer than two dozen have made it into law so far.

One bill in Utah would have prevented undocumented pregnant mothers from accessing public assistance for food. Another bill in Idaho would have forced employers to use the government’s E-Verify system to keep undocumented people from securing jobs.In Tennessee, a third would have limited undocumented students’ access to education.

More than 80 measures like these have died, some were vetoed, and several have made little progress in states’ legislative spring season. Businesses and religious groups, alongside other advocates, have helped to stop these bills from moving forward, recognizing that the attacks only harm their communities.

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.

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Building on the success of our 2024 and 2025 programming, the event will bring together more than 180 CEOs, CSOs, Founders, and Impact Officers from leading food and agriculture brands during London Climate Action Week to discuss the solutions they can advance to shape the future of sustainable food systems. Check back here for more details about the program as they become available!

To request an invitation, suggest a speaker, or explore partnership opportunities, please reach out to Food Tank’s Events Director Kenzie Wade at kenzie@foodtank.com.

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U.S. Farm Bankruptcies Climb, Consolidation Grows

An analysis from Politico reveals that the number of farms in the U.S. are falling three times as fast as the country is losing acres of farmland, suggesting that farms are consolidating or being absorbed into bigger operations. 

In the last five years, the country has lost 150,000 farms. But the total area of farmland fell by 21 million acres—far less than might be expected. This is taking place across the U.S., with some of the dramatic trends being seen in Montana, Texas, Kansas, and South Dakota. Montana, for example, lost 14 percent of its farms between 2021 and 2025, but just 1 percent of its farmland.

Nate Sheets, the Republican nominee for Texas agriculture commissioner, tells Politico that, “All small farms are getting taken out of the market because of scale.” 

Meanwhile the number of farm bankruptcies more than doubled in states including Arkansas, Georgia, and Wisconsin last year. And Chapter 12 bankruptcy filings were up 46 percent across the board last year compared to 2024. Bailey Conrady, Manager of Illinois’ Champaign County Farm Bureau, says that as farmers retire, file for bankruptcy, or go out of business, it drives further consolidation. Farmers are being increasingly squeezed by rising input costs, disruptions to trade and demand, and falling commodity prices.

Wildfires Scorch Nebraska’s Farmland

In the last two weeks, Nebraska has seen massive wildfires that have burned more than 800,000 acres of land—an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. Nebraska Governor Jim Pillen first declared an emergency on March 13, as fires began to spread. Then on Thursday last week, another wave of wildfires broke out, affecting more than 64,000 acres and forcing more evacuations.  

The area impacted by the recent fires was used for grazing of roughly 40,000 cows, according to Director of Nebraska’s Department of Agriculture Sherry Vinton. 

U.S. Department of Agriculture data show that cattle herds across the country are at a 75-year low. Nebraska’s ranchers have been working to rebuild their herds, but drought—and now the wildfires—are slowing progress. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins says the fires are hitting “at a time when the national cow herd is at the lowest…and demand is at the highest, so this offers additional layers of challenges.”

Rollins adds that federal aid, in the form of emergency loans, conservation assistance, and more, is available to farmers and ranchers affected by the fires. The Nebraska Farm Bureau has also activated its disaster relief fund to support the state’s agriculture community. 

Nigerian Government to Distribute 2.4 Million Clean Cooking Stoves

This week, Nigeria’s government pledged to distribute 2.4 million clean cookstoves in the northern part of the country in 2026.

The stoves will be made available through a partnership between the National Agency for the Great Green Wall (NAGGW) and BURN Manufacturing, a producer of cookstoves. 

Director-General of NAGGW Saleh Abubakar says that traditional methods of cooking, which more than 40 million households in the region rely on, “contributes significantly to deforestation, air pollution, and health risks, especially for women and children.” Abubakar adds that the collaboration with BURN Manufacturing could unlock NGN300 billion (approximately US$214 million) in carbon financing. It will also create jobs and expand access to affordable clean cooking for rural and underserved communities.

The announcement comes on the heels of a new publication from the C2REST Nigeria Study, a three-year research project funded by the Medical Research Foundation in the United Kingdom. Their latest paper reveals that Nigeria’s transition to clean cooking may come with a higher investment upfront, but in the long-term, it ultimately saves households money by reducing healthcare costs. 

Yusuf Kilani, Nigeria’s Special Assistant to the President on climate matters, says that some of the new cookstoves will be made free to low-income households while others will be available at “at affordable rates.”

Pacific Island Nations Receive US$42 Million for Climate-Resilient Farming

Three Pacific Island nations received a significant investment to improve their food and farming systems through a five-year program called “Establishing Climate Resilient and Regenerative Agricultural Systems in Tonga, Vanuatu and Samoa.”

The US$42 million in grant financing for the program—which will be led by the organization The Pacific Community—comes from the world’s largest climate fund established as part of the Paris Agreement known as the Green Climate Fund. 

Investments will help farmers in Tonga, Vanuatu and Samoa adopt practices that restore soil health, diversify cropping systems, and rebuild ecosystem services.

Demonstration farms, farmer-to-farmer learning, tailored technical support, and investment in farm-level technologies will be used collectively to achieve these goals. 

The program is also designed to address challenges to adopting climate-resilient practices, including gaps in extension services, limited information on the local climate, and constraints in market systems.

According to Coral Pasisi, Director of the Climate Change and Sustainability Division at The Pacific Community, the funding is essential to long-term sustainability for the region. She states: “For these nations living on the frontline of climate change, investing in resilient food systems is essential to reducing vulnerability and strengthening long-term stability in an increasingly uncertain global context.”

Uganda Moves to Certify Agroecological Produce

There is “a growing demand” for agroecologically produced crops, says Bob George Sunday, a Senior Agricultural Officer for Uganda’s Ministry of Agriculture.

To help the farmers meet the moment, the Ugandan government is finalizing its National Agroecological Strategy and implementing a new model to certify foods produced using agroecological practices.

According Jane Nalunga, Executive Director of Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) Uganda, many East African farmers are already practicing agroecology to grow food. But the lack of a formal certification process keeps farmers from accessing regional and international markets. 

Farmers cannot charge a premium for their products in the marketplace without validation, Sunday explains. This means that they’re missing out on opportunities to bring in higher earnings. 

But Nalunga argues, “If we are to make agroecology sustainable, the farmer has to be able to make a profit.” 

During a recent workshop hosted by SEATINI, Edie Mukiibi, President of Slow Food International, also reminded those gathering that agroecology isn’t only an economic tool. It’s about “social reconstruction,” which can improve nutrition, health, and community. Mukiibi also pointed out that to scale agroecology even further, it will be important to harmonize the local and national standards already in place before creating a set that apply to the entire region. 

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Regenerative agriculture is a holistic approach to farming and ranching that prioritizes soil restoration, equity within food systems, and the long-term health of land, water, and climate. Rather than maintaining conditions and resources, regenerative agriculture seeks to improve ecosystem health and strengthen the resilience of agricultural landscapes.

Healthy soils are the foundation of productive food systems, shaping outcomes from farm yields to community well-being and ecological stability. But intensive farming practices that rely on heavy machinery, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides have contributed to soil degradation across a majority of the world’s agricultural land.

Regenerative agriculture prioritizes restoring soil health and function, supporting crop growth, nutrient cycling, and biodiversity through a range of practices. To rebuild soil health, regenerative farmers reduce or forgo tillage, avoiding the erosion caused by conventional plowing. This approach keeps soil intact, preserving soil structure, protecting fungi, and keeping carbon in the ground.

Planted in soil that would otherwise be bare before or after harvest, cover crops shield soil from wind and water and restore nutrients to the soil. They also keep living roots in the soil, providing natural tillage and mitigating fertilizer runoff.

Growing just one or two crops year after year on the same land can deplete soil nutrients and degrade soil health over time. Diversifying crops improves water and nutrient retention and supports pollinators and wildlife. Crop diversification can also reduce pests and weeds—and reduce the need for artificial fertilizer.

“It turns out it really helps to have some diversity,” Sieg Snapp, Associate Dean for Research for Washington State University’s College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences, tells Food Tank. According to Snapp, diverse crops above ground feed a wider range of soil microbes below ground.

To restore soil nutrients and reduce fertilizer use, some regenerative farmers integrate livestock into cropping systems. Rooted in Indigenous land management traditions, rotational grazing involves moving livestock between pastures, mimicking the way animals historically moved in herds across grasslands. This method allows vegetation to recover while improving soil fertility through manure and organic matter inputs.

Regenerative practices often extend beyond soil health to include broader ecological and social considerations, emphasizing animal welfare and worker well-being. Many regenerative farmers prioritize fair treatment of workers, including freedom of association, safe working conditions, living wages, and participation in farm decision-making.

Some also seek to address the legacy of discriminatory policies that have limited land access and support for Black, Indigenous, and farmers of color, recognizing that regenerative agriculture must confront longstanding inequities within U.S. agriculture.

We need agriculture that “does not deplete our people,” says Leonard Diggs, Director of Farmer & Rancher Opportunities at Pie Ranch, an incubator farm supporting early-stage regenerative farmers and ranchers, focusing on communities who have historically been denied access to land.

Regenerative agriculture can improve profitability and strengthen farm performance while reducing environmental impact. By reducing dependence on fertilizers and pesticides, regenerative farms often lower costs, and research indicates regenerative systems can deliver long-term yield gains and profits up to 120 percent higher than conventional operations.

Soil-focused practices also improve water management during droughts and heavy rains, cut greenhouse gas emissions from machinery and nitrogen inputs, and increase carbon sequestration. Project Drawdown estimates that restored agricultural lands could remove 2.6 to 13.6 gigatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually.

Scaling regenerative agriculture requires reducing the financial risk farmers face during the transition by providing technical support, upfront capital, and reliable markets that offset short-term costs, according to industry experts.

Global organizations like the World Economic Forum and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development contend that actors across the value chain must align on common metrics to measure and reward environmental and socio-economic outcomes, enabling coordinated incentives, investment, and regulatory compliance.

Momentum behind regenerative agriculture is building and spans global coalitions and community-based initiatives. Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) builds on the USDA Organic standard by adding requirements for soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness within a tiered certification framework, bringing the three pillars of regenerative organic agriculture into a single certification framework.

The Rockefeller Foundation has committed more than US$220 million to its “big bet” for food systems transformation to benefit farmers, feed more children, and improve nutrition and soil. This includes their US$100 million commitment to advance universal locally grown and regenerative school meals in the United States and globally, US$100 million to scale Food is Medicine solutions in the U.S., and over US$20 million for the Periodic Table of Food Initiative, which is providing standardized tools, data, and training to map food quality of the world’s edible biodiversity.

RegenAG has worked with thousands of Australian farmers since 2010 through training and consultancy programs focused on soil carbon, profitability, and lower input costs, while Kiss the Ground advances regenerative agriculture in California through education and demonstration projects, and La Delia Verde applies soil-centered practices in Argentina to restore biodiversity, store carbon, and strengthen regional food systems.

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We have pushed countries—especially those most responsible for the climate crisis—to accelerate efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They tend to focus on numerical targets, such as achieving net zero to limit temperature rise to no more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. This kind of advocacy work is both necessary and insufficient.

We won’t be able to mitigate emissions or adapt to a changing world if we do not plan for a just transition. But we need to start with a broader definition of what just actually means.

The just transition was originally defined around creating green jobs, providing retraining, and ensuring social protection for workers in fossil fuel-dependent industries and countries. Yet that is only part of the picture.

Half the world’s habitable land is used for agriculture, which is the second-biggest contributor to the climate crisis, responsible for approximately one-third of global greenhouse gas emissions. The sector is also the world’s biggest source of livelihoods.

That’s why effective climate action needs to be driven by the world’s smallholder farmers, fishers, and pastoralists—people who are experiencing climate impacts most directly and already stewarding nature and sustainable food systems. Without connecting global climate and biodiversity policies and funding to the daily realities of billions of people who work the land, we risk creating solutions that exist only on paper.

Worse, some climate action has been pursued at the direct expense of small-scale food producers and Indigenous Peoples’ rights—and not always by accident. The scramble for critical minerals needed for solar panels and batteries is driving the opening of new mines, sometimes on Indigenous land or land that could otherwise be farmed.  Solar and wind installations have sometimes been deployed on land used by food-producing communities, often financializing it in ways that make it impossible for young people to enter farming. Offshore wind developments in parts of Africa have blocked small-scale fishers from waters their communities have relied on for generations. Pastoralists and Indigenous Peoples in Central Asia and Africa have found their traditional routes severed because land has been sold for carbon credits—without their Free, Prior, and Informed Consent. These are symptoms of climate policies being designed without the people most affected at the table.

For scalable, lasting change, the climate movement needs to come together with the land rights movement.

And last month, Colombia hosted the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development—the first such gathering in twenty years. The convening was necessary on the international agenda, as land rights have been conspicuously absent from climate policy discussions, even as pressure on land has been intensifying from every direction: carbon markets, new mining concessions, and the rollout of renewable energy infrastructure.

The conference brought together governments, civil society, and social movements to address urgent rural challenges—land governance, agrarian reform, climate-resilient development, and food sovereignty. Its outcome declaration, signed by 28 countries, reaffirmed the human right to land, providing multilateral backing that can now be leveraged across other major international processes.

Land rights and agrarian reform

In many parts of the world, smallholder farmers do not own or formally control the land they cultivate. They rely on informal, sometimes collective, arrangements rooted in tradition rather than secure rights, meaning they can lose access to their land with little notice and no legal recourse—despite producing the majority of the world’s food. The problem is most acute in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia and Latin America, where Indigenous Peoples, local communities, and women are disproportionately affected.

And insecure tenure is a direct barrier to climate action. When farmers, fishers, and pastoralists have the guarantee of legally recognized land rights and control over resources, they are far more likely to invest in ecologically sound practices, such as planting trees, investing in agroecology, and improving soil health over the long term—all of which absorb emissions and build resilience. Above all, social movements are asking for holistic agrarian reforms that recognize their ties to the land, a place of life, identity and culture, rather than a mere productive resource, with land redistribution as part of climate action.

Human rights must sit at the heart of climate and biodiversity policies; participatory processes must prioritize grassroots voices over top-down mandates; and funding must flow toward the communities doing the most to sustain the land.

By uniting the land rights and climate movements, we can build the just, sustainable food systems we so urgently need. The pieces are in place. Now we have to connect them.

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Has the Vertical Farming Bubble Burst?

The New York Times recently reported on the future of vertical farming in the United States.

In December, AeroFarms announced they lost their biggest investor and would be forced to close. And although they received temporary financing and have shared that they have a non-binding letter of intent to sell the company, they still could shut down this month. And both Bowery Farming and AppHarvest, have gone out of business despite raising US$938 million and US$792 million in venture capital funding, respectively.

According to the Times, 23 companies signed a Vertical Farming Manifesto in the Fall of 2022, as they came together to commit to feeding a rapidly growing population with fewer resources and protecting humanity. Today, less than half of these companies are still operating. 

Omar Asali, whose investment firm One Madison Group invested in the vertical farm Plenty says, “The industry went through a very difficult time” as they faced extremely thin margins, high energy costs, and less available funding from venture capital as interest rates rose. Nona Yehia, behind Vertical Harvest, also believes that few eaters are seeking out vertically farmed produce. That’s why she’s targeting a specific part of the market: schools, hospitals, and local grocers. 

The article asks whether vertical farming can truly compete with soil-based agriculture. And while some business leaders interviewed like Mike Zelkind, Co-Founder of 80 Acre Farms, believe that vertical farming will never be a replacement, Zelkind says there’s still “value there” in the work that is being done by the industry’s pioneers.

Federal Court Dismisses Challenge to Animal Welfare Regulations

A federal judge recently rejected the U.S. Department of Justice’s lawsuit against the state of California, Governor Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Rob Bonta and other state officials over California’s Proposition 12.

First passed in 2018 and going into effect in 2024, Prop 12 strengthened protections for California’s livestock by banning the in-state sale of products that came from the extreme confinement of egg-laying hens, pigs, and newborn calves for veal. The U.S. Supreme Court already upheld the constitutionality of Prop 12 in 2023 after it was challenged by the National Pork Producers Council and American Farm Bureau Federation—a decision that Harvard Law School’s Animal Law & Policy Clinic called “a momentous win for the animal protection movement.”

Then in 2025, the DOJ filed a lawsuit taking issue with the Proposition’s egg provisions, arguing that regulating eggs falls under the purview of the federal government. They said that Prop 12 was, on its face, meant to increase animal welfare by reducing threats to the health and safety of California’s eaters. But it was actually “driven by activists’ conception of what qualifies as ‘cruel’ animal housing, not by consumer purchasing decisions or scientifically based food safety or animal welfare standards.”

Last week, however, U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi, appointed by President Trump, tossed out the complaint, calling the allegations by the DOJ “undisguised legal conclusions in search of substantiating facts. The Judge also expressed concerns about “the potential for abuse of the federal courts” if the case moved forward simply because decision makers at the agency don’t like a state law at odds with their politics.

Companies and animal welfare advocates are now turning to Michigan where they are awaiting the results of a similar lawsuit against the state over cage-free egg laws.

More Countries to Face Critical Food Insecurity if World Heats by 2°C

A new analysis from the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) finds that the number of countries falling into critical food insecurity could almost triple if global temperatures increase by 2°C.

The burden is expected to be felt unequally, with low-income nations and countries facing conflict—whose systems are already fragile—expected to see the greatest decline in food availability and nutritional variety. Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Mozambique, are some of the most affected countries.

Rising temperatures are expected to widen the food security gap between rich nations and poorer ones, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. But the IIED states that richer countries are “far from immune” from the climate crisis, and “strain induced by climate change shows first in supply chains and countries’ underlying ability to keep quality food accessible over time—even in the rich world.”

According to Ritu Bharadwaj, Director of Climate Resilience for the Institute, “This research shows that, yet again, it’s the poorest countries with the least responsibility for climate change that will suffer its worst effects.” But she adds that catastrophe isn’t inevitable. She adds that the investment in social protection schemes can keep disasters from “becoming full blown crises.” This includes helping farmers adapt to extreme weather by improving water management, soil quality, and crop variety. 

New Initiative Launches to Support Climate-Resilient Agriculture

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) announced the launch of the Collaboration for Agricultural Transformation through Advanced Learning, Science & Technology, or CATALYST.

The initiative is focused on strengthening relationships between research and industry to deliver solutions for farmers, which Himanshu Pathak, Director General of ICRISAT, calls “essential to scaling climate-resilient agriculture.” It will focus on four broad areas—research for development, consulting and advisory, technology and digital solutions, and training and capacity building—and is meant to provide a structured platform for industry leaders to engage with ICRISAT’s research. 

This will help accelerate crop productivity, strengthen seed systems, expand agribusiness opportunities, and advance climate-resilient farming across the drylands of Asia and Africa.

Côte D’Ivoire Builds Tech Hubs for Women Farmers

Côte d’Ivoire is developing the country’s first technology hubs designed to empower women farmers.

Led by the country’s Ministry of Women, Family and Children and the Ministry of Digital Transition and Digitalization, the initiative will support women’s adoption of digital tools and strengthen their agricultural processing skills to improve their productivity. 

The Ministries are currently working to select sites for the hubs, where women will be exposed to modern technologies. Women will also have access to training and mentorship programs that will help accelerate the growth of women-led enterprises in the food and agriculture sector. 

This initiative is part of a broader plan to build modern agricultural processing centers across 15 localities in nine districts, which will be used to convert raw staple crops into value-added products. The centers will also include laboratories, processing workshops, training rooms, and exhibition spaces.

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.

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I want to share a fact that should blow us all away: According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), global pesticide use has just about doubled since 1990.

This is already quite worrying—but I’m even more concerned by the question of where we’re headed from here.

Amid a warming global climate, some pest problems are getting worse, not better. In hotter conditions, pests can reproduce faster, sometimes adding a generation or more per growing season, which can make them more virulent and damaging. A team of international biology researchers projected that, under 2ºC of warming, increased pest damage could drive additional yield losses of 46 percent for wheat, 19 percent for rice, and 31 percent for maize.

And we can’t sustain more significant increases in pesticide use to compensate—because the health consequences simply cannot be ignored. Chronic exposure to these synthetic pesticides is linked to a variety of health issues from cancer to Parkinson’s disease, plus other endocrine disruptions and neurological issues. These chemicals are also devastating for biodiversity, threatening a variety of bird, bee, and other insect populations that are integral to the health of our food and climate systems.

At the same time as we’re seeing these ballooning rates of synthetic pesticide use, we have an off-ramp out of this downward spiral. We just need to use it.

As part of food production and land management models rooted in agroecology—including regenerative practices like cover cropping and rotation and policy structures that support climate-smart, biodiverse, community-centric farming—what really deserves more attention are biopesticides, which are derived from natural sources including bacteria, plants, animals, and certain minerals.

This makes them “inherently less toxic than conventional pesticides,” according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Rather than conventional pesticides that affect a broad spectrum of organisms, biopesticides are generally more targeted, are able to be applied in much smaller quantities, and decompose much more quickly and cleanly without necessarily affecting crop yields.

And this is not theoretical—it’s proven on the ground. Across Africa and Asia, for example, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is using microbial biopesticides to control pests like the cotton bollworm.

“This is not just science in the lab. It’s innovation in the hands of farmers,” says Dr. Stanford Blade, the Deputy Director General for Research and Innovation at ICRISAT. “By working with nature instead of against it, we’re helping smallholder farmers build resilience against droughts, restore biodiversity, and grow healthier food.”

Like any solution, biopesticides are not perfect. Regulatory hurdles, skepticism from farmers, and challenges accessing the products themselves are all factors that are interfering with or slowing the adoption of biopesticides, according to analysts. Price is, too: While we know sustainable practices make better business sense long-term, we need to work to improve the immediate affordability of some of these techniques.

But as the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) is showing, public-private sector partnerships are effective at developing biopesticides and educating farmers to encourage their use.

“Globally, the replacement of synthetic pesticides with biological alternatives is seen as an ideal strategy towards sustainable agriculture and the conservation of biological biodiversity,” the organization’s experts say. I’m excited that I’ll be visiting icipe in early April as part of my ground-truthing work to document the impacts of the dismantling of USAID.

Building meaningful and effective partnerships between big players in the plant science industry, policymakers, and small-scale farmers and advocates is exactly what I had the opportunity to talk about this week on the Food Talk podcast with Emily Rees, the President & CEO of CropLife International.

It’s a nuanced conversation I hope you’ll check out, and one thing she and I agree on is the importance of what she called “radical collaboration”—giving everyone not just a seat at the table but also real decision-making power, because what affects one part of the food system affects us all.

As she phrased it, “If you’re not listening to the ground as to what the farmers want, then it will be difficult to respond to that in the international policy sphere.” Give the whole episode a listen or watch below.

Over the past week, at Summits in Austin, Texas, during SXSW and in Boston for our inaugural Blue Foods Summit, we’ve handed over our stages to farmers for evenings of authentic storytelling and films like Food Tank’s debut original documentary short “Irish Farmers: A Love Story.” I want to extend a huge thank you to all the Food Tankers who joined us in person and via livestream this month!

I can’t lie: I get emotional hearing farmers of all ages and backgrounds speak so powerfully and emotionally about their connections to the land. But there’s no question that these are fully tears of joy and hope. When we let passionate farmers and regenerative ethics and sustainable steps—like biopesticides rather than synthetics—lead the way, our future is in good hands.

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 Ilham Wicaksono, Unsplash

The post Biopesticides Can Work—But Only if We Let Them appeared first on Food Tank.

Created in collaboration with the national agriculture research systems (NARS) in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, the Atlas provides insights on climate risks and vulnerability for agriculture in these countries and identifies suitable adaptation measures.

“Engagement with NARS across has been central to generating and validating data on climate risks and adaptation options, ensuring that the Atlas is scientifically robust, locally relevant, and firmly grounded in regional expertise,” Pramod Aggarwal, the Principal Investigator behind ACASA and Regional Program Leader for South Asia at BISA, tells Food Tank.

ACASA’s detailed maps show village-level climate risk data for 15 crops and six livestock species. Climate risks include heat and cold stress, untimely rainfall, water deficit, and high temperatures, among others.

The goal is to support policymakers, researchers, insurers, private sector leaders, and development actors “by enabling high-resolution visualization of climate risks and adaptation options down to the sub-district level,” Aggarwal explains.

“With Sri Lanka’s journey towards climate-smart agriculture, recent evidence highlights the need for a comprehensive assessment of location-specific climate actions to bridge knowledge gaps within the country,” says Dr. W.A.R.T. Wickramaarachchi, Director General of Sri Lanka’s Department of Agriculture.

According to Aggarwal, the applications are abundant. Governments can use the data to determine where investment is needed to mitigate risk. Donors can identify high-impact locations and inform funding for climate smart agriculture. And banks can design women-focused credit solutions.

In the past two decades, more than half of all South Asians were affected by a climate-related disaster, according to the World Bank Group.

Aggarwal explains that increasing rainfall variability leads to short-duration floods, which damage crops, and longer dry spells that harm soils. Heat stress affects yields of staple crops including rice and wheat, while cyclones and storm surges are threatening coastal farming systems through crop loss and soil salinization.

“These climate events are especially challenging for smallholders, who have limited access to irrigation, insurance, and timely climate information, making their livelihoods highly vulnerable to climate shocks,” Aggarwal tells Food Tank.

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 Sigismund von Dobschütz, Wikimedia Commons

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We have a busy week ahead of us here at Food Tank!

At summits across the country, we’re bringing regional and global food system leaders together to break bread, share success stories, spotlight creative visionaries, and highlight ways we can build a stronger food system across urban and rural communities and sectors.

We’re tackling a lot—and that means there’s something for everyone! So I’m looking forward to meeting you all in person or seeing your faces in our livestream audiences as we learn together. I want to use this note to you today to highlight our upcoming events, and I hope you’ll find what resonates with you and inspires you.

Starting off, at the annual SXSW festival on March 11, I have the honor of emceeing the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (MUFPP) Regional Forum, “A Recipe for Change: Cities Leading Food Systems Change.”

The program is hosted by the City of Austin in collaboration with the City of Baltimore, the City of Guadalajara, and Food Tank and aims to provide a platform for city food policy leaders to learn from one another, collaborate more effectively, and use the MUFPP framework as a pathway toward more sustainable, resilient food systems!

Plenary speakers include Karen Bassarab, Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future; Moe Garahan, Food Communities Network, Just Food in Ottawa; Tia Schwab, BITE (formerly Food for Climate League); Raj Patel, University of Texas at Austin; Ashanté Reese, University of Texas at Austin; and more for a day of expert presentations, interactive sessions, and tangible deep-dive workshops.

Then, on March 12, we’re kicking off our 7th annual “All Things Food and Environment” Summit at SXSW in collaboration with Organic Valley, the City of Austin, and Huston-Tillotson University. If you’re in Austin, find more info on joining us by clicking on the title of each program. Otherwise I hope to see you in our livestream audience, which you can join HERE.

And with five distinct events throughout the day, the schedule is jam-packed! From 10 to 11:30 AM, in collaboration with the Environmental Working Group conversations will focus on reimagining systems of urban sustainability and food processing.

From 11:30 to 1:30 with Organic Valley, we’re tackling “Farmstead to Future: CEOs, Chefs, and Farmers Building a Better Food System.” Then, we’ll explore “From Cowboys to Carbon: Grazing Solutions for Carbon, Water, Biodiversity & Supply Chain Resilience” from 1:30 to 2:30 in collaboration with Grassroots Carbon.

After a short afternoon break, we’re hosting an amazing short film festival from 2:30 to 5:30PM in collaboration with American Farmland Trust and Common Table Creative. We’ll be able to see clips and selections from works including “America the Bountiful,” “Farm Hero,” “Food 2050,” and Food Tank’s debut original documentary short “Irish Farmers: A Love Story.”

To close out the day, we’re handing over the stage to the folks who know the food system inside and out—farmers. From 5:30 to 8:30 PM, we’re excited to present “Voices of Female Farmers: A Love Story” with Whole Foods Market and in collaboration with Harvest Earnings.

Here’s the lineup of amazing speakers who will be joining us: Xiye Bastida, Climate Justice Activist; Sara Burnett, ReFED; Capri Cafaro, Host, America the Bountiful; John Chester, Farmer and Filmmaker; Richard Chute, Kerry Dairy Ireland; James Clement, EarthOptics; Katie Collins, ROAM Ranch; Chef Kareem El-Ghayesh, KG BBQ; Oliver English, Common Table Creative; Simon English, Common Table Creative; Scott Faber, Environmental Working Group; Brooke Freeman, Food Systems Coordinator, City of Kansas City, MO; Jerome Foster II, OneMillionOfUs; Vanessa Fuentes, Austin City Councilmember; Filippo Gavazzeni, Milan Urban Food Policy Pact; Johanna Hellrigl, AMA; Michelle Hughes, National Young Farmers Coalition; Steven Jennings, Ahold Delhaize; Diana Johnson, Bezos Earth Fund; Ora Kemp, New York City’s Mayor’s Office of Food Policy; Taylor LaFave, City of Baltimore; Jenny Lester Moffitt, American Farmland Trust; Chef Adrian Lipscombe, 40 Acres and Muloma Heritage Center; Finian Makepeace, Kiss the Ground; Gerardo Martinez, Wild Kid Acres; Edwin Marty, City of Austin; Amanda Masino, Huston-Tillotson University; Melanie McAfee, Barr Mansion; Chef Joshua McFadden, Chef and Author; Shawna Nelson, Organic Valley; Jim O’Toole, Bord Bia; Raj Patel, University of Texas at Austin; John de la Parra, The Rockefeller Foundation; Chef Colter Peck, Dashi Hospitality; Ashanté Reese, The University of Texas at Austin; Carina Roseingrave, Burren View Farm; Grace Rude, City of Minneapolis; Rick Simington, Organic Valley; Dr. Jason Slipp, Rodale Institute; Brad Tipper, Grassroots Carbon; Stephanie Tranel, Tranel Family Farms; Todd Wagner, FoodFight USA; Jake Wedeberg, CROPP Cooperative; Haven Worley, Filmmaker; Laura Zaspel, Farm Hero; and more.

Again, please CLICK HERE to join us in-person, and our livestream link is HERE to bookmark in advance.

Then, we’re heading to Boston for Food Tank’s inaugural Blue Foods Summit on Sunday, March 15, presented alongside our friends at Better Food Future, Marine Stewardship Council, the Culinary Institute of America, and Bluefina, taking place at WBUR-NPR’s CitySpace starting at 2:00PM.

I hope you’ll lend your voice to these important conversations we’re having on the future of aquaculture, either in person by CLICKING HERE or in our livestream audience, which you can join HERE.

Throughout the afternoon, we’ll be joined by experts to discuss everything from traceable supply chains and sustainable protein sources to diversifying blue food systems and strengthening retail leadership—plus a book giveaway opportunity by celebrity chef and seafood expert Barton Seaver.

Our speaker and moderator lineup includes: Deb Becker, WBUR; Daisy Berg, New Seasons Market; Jayson Berryhill, Wholechain; Imani Black, Minorities in Aquaculture; Adam Brennan, Thai Union Frozen and Chicken of the Sea; Niaz Dorry, NAMA; Alexandra Emery, Wakefern Food Corp; Alicia Gaiero, Nauti Sisters Sea Farm; Citlali Gomez Lepe, COMEPESCA Mexico; Kelly Hilovsky, ButcherBox; Robert E. Jones, Culinary Institute of America; Mark Kaplan, Wholechain; Charlotte Langley, Nice Cans; Jackie Marks, Marine Stewardship Council; Barton Seaver, Chef and Author; Huw Thomas, Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability; Manuel Vazquez Escudero, Baja Aqua Farms Group; and Andrew Young, Baja Aqua Farms Group.

Following the Summit, we’re headed to the 4th annual Night at the New England Aquarium, an invite-only opportunity to continue the conversation around traceability, transparency, and needed change within seafood supply chains.

At the Aquarium, in collaboration with Wholechain, Envisible, BlueYou, Pesca Con Futuro, Sea Pact, and Better Food Future in support of the UN Global Compact Ocean Stewardship Coalition, we’ll hear from leaders including Mark Kaplan, Wholechain; OB Bera, Beacon Fisheries; Sam Grimley, Sea Pact; René Benguerel, BlueYou; Nick Andoni, Envisible; Blake Stok, Chicken of the Sea; Erin Taylor, Wholechain; Stephanie Pazzaglia, JJ McDonnell; Jon Black, Floribbean; Alex Golub, Acme Smoked Fish; and more to be announced. More info can be found 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 Vitolda Klein, Unsplash

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Pretty, an Emeritus Professor of Environment and Society at the University of Essex, launched Story for Climate and Nature Recovery to explore how people can build agency in the face of today’s most pressing challenges. The channel’s videos, each five to ten minutes in length, cover topics around storytelling, climate, and nature.  

“Transformations are hard. They’re psychologically difficult, physically difficult to do,” Pretty tells Food Tank. But, he asks, “how do we talk about these things without increasing anxiety and stress?”

Too often narratives of nature loss and the climate crisis are overwhelmingly negative, Pretty says. And while there is a time and place for this messaging, he voices caution about relying too heavily on fear.

“We have to choose our moments when we talk about the bad stuff really carefully because it’s scaring people,” Pretty states. “Maybe scaring them is not the right thing to do. Maybe people are scared enough.”

But Pretty believes that stories, when crafted skillfully, can inspire action and lend strength, helping communities tackle challenges that are both old and new. The best ones, he argues, do three things: They map multiple pathways forward, create agency, and bring people together.

“It’s about the journey that we go on and how we acquire that inspiration, that feeling that we’re not alone, that humanity has been doing this forever,” says Pretty, noting that imagination will be key.

“Imagine things,” Pretty tells Food Tank, “because that’s going to give us a sense of a range of possibilities in front of us.”

Listen to or watch the full conversation with Jules Pretty on “Food Talk with Dani Nierenberg” to hear about the buy-in that’s needed from communities to drive systems change, the power of rituals and celebrations, and the vulnerability we need to move forward.

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.

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The post Beyond Doom and Gloom: Transforming Climate Anxiety into Agency and Action appeared first on Food Tank.

In my experience, most people—even those excited about alternative meats—believe that making plant-based meat is a culinary endeavor. Mix the right ingredients, get creative with spices and flavors, and voilà: meatless meat.

Their intuition is failing them. That’s not it at all.

GFI scientist Erin Rees Clayton explained to me that plant-based meat is asking biology to do something outside its nature: Plant proteins are globular; animal proteins are fibrous. Plant oils are liquids at room temperature; animal fats are solids. Replicating the structure and functionality of meat with entirely different ingredients isn’t just a matter of culinary craft; it’s a scientific problem.

The two plant-based meat pioneers, Impossible and Beyond, understand this. They weren’t playing with recipes. They hired tissue engineers, molecular biologists, chemists, meat scientists, extrusion engineers, plant breeders, and more. Their goal was not different in degree from the plant-based meat companies that had existed up until that point; their goal was different in kind. They were building a brand-new category from scratch, applying the rigors of science and engineering to food.

Erin expanded on this challenge, explaining her view that the underlying science of plant-based meat is, contrary to my intuition, a lot more complex than the science of cultivated meat: “Virtually no one is trained across the entire plant-based meat production process. Plant breeders can modify and improve crops but often don’t know what happens once those crops leave the field. Protein chemists can extract high-purity proteins but may not understand how different extraction techniques affect flavor, digestibility, or food functionality. Food scientists understand formulation but may not have experience with extrusion. Meat scientists know meat, but they’ve rarely applied their knowledge to plant proteins.”

Pat Brown put it bluntly: “The most important scientific problem in the world,” he said, was “What makes meat taste delicious?” And Impossible Foods was going to find the answer. Pat recruited a team of scientists and treated plant-based meat like an Apollo-level mission.

Allen Henderson joined Impossible in 2014 and worked there for about a decade. He spent his first two years as one of many scientists working on the 2016 burger launch. He told me that most meat and food companies spend less than 1% of their budgets on research, while pharma companies often invest closer to 30%. Pat’s goal, he said, was to out-science pharma. Allen holds a PhD in biochemistry and focused his doctoral and postdoctoral work on protein science. Still, “during my time at Impossible, I learned so much,” he told me. “It felt like we were all living in the protein Renaissance.”

The Impossible team figured out how to mitigate the off flavors from plant proteins. Nature creates many of those off flavors, Allen told me, specifically to protect plants from being too delicious. They don’t want to be eaten. The team built a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer to identify flavor molecules created when meat cooks. They tested heme (an iron-containing compound that contributes to the meaty taste of meat) from 31 different sources, from clover to cattle to soy, finally settling on a process that produces a synthetic soy-based heme.

Even someone as deeply trained in protein sciences as Allen said there was no way around trial and error: “You really don’t know what you’re going to get until you try it,” he told me. Scaling up or down changed everything. Small tweaks could dramatically shift texture or flavor.

The Quest to be the Next Gardenburger

After Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods started raising substantial sums and Beyond went public at a multi-billion-dollar valuation, a flood of plant-based startups appeared, each pitching themselves as “the next Beyond Meat” or “the next Impossible Foods.” Over and over, their pitch decks featured Impossible and Beyond as comparators. And over and over, though with a few notable exceptions, it was obvious they were fooling themselves.

The biggest red flag? The R&D budgets for almost all these companies were tiny or nonexistent, they didn’t have a chief science officer, and they projected product launches within six to eight months. That’s possible, but only if you’re not actually trying to compete with conventional meat on taste. They weren’t. And they didn’t.

Recall that Impossible Foods—founded by one of the world’s top scientists—spent north of $100 million and more than five years before releasing a product. Similarly, Beyond Meat spent tens of millions of dollars and three years on research before launching its first product. Its breakout hit, the Beyond Burger, took seven years and tens of millions more. That Beyond Burger was the only product besides the Impossible Burger that performed well in FSI’s 2019 taste panels.

Another flag: expensive ingredients and clean labels. Many of these companies’ pitch decks for investors would distinguish themselves from Impossible and Beyond by noting that they used healthier proteins like lupine or lentils. They would also display side-by-side nutrition comparisons indicating that their products would have fewer ingredients, less fat, less sodium, and no unpronounceable ingredients. The focus on lupine and lentils guaranteed that the product would cost a lot more. The focus on low fat and clean labels guaranteed that it would taste nothing like animal meat. In other words: the health food strategy of the past four decades.

All of these veggie meat companies with no research budgets and a commitment to non-soy plant proteins, low fat, and clean labels? They were not the next Impossible; they were the next Gardenburger. That’s fine; that was the entire category until Beyond and Impossible were launched. But just be clear: You’re competing for a share of the $1 billion dollar US veggie meat market; you’re not ever going to compete with the $2 trillion global animal meat and seafood markets.

Pat Brown believes the deeper issue is a failure of imagination: People can’t picture plants precisely mimicking animal meat. Their thinking is stuck in the era of veggie burgers and tofu dogs. He told The New Yorker’s Tad Friend in 2019: “Nobody else has caught on to the fact that this is the most important scientific problem in the world, so their results are just a reheated version of veggie burgers from 10 years ago—maybe with a little lipstick on them.”

Publishers Weekly selected Meat as a top 10 new release in science, writing: “This packed account makes food science feel like an urgent and essential undertaking.” Find out more at MeatBook.org

Photo courtesy of Kateryna Hliznitsova, Unsplash

The post Book Excerpt | Meat: How the Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food―and Our Future appeared first on Food Tank.

Precision agriculture (PA) refers to technologies including GPS, drones, robotics, and AI, used to efficiently apply chemical inputs on specific areas of a field. Public sector investments in PA technologies have been increasing–amounting to about US$11.1 billion in 2021, according to the HEAL Alliance–as corporations and lawmakers suggest that technologies can boost agricultural automation and productivity.

But HEAL’s report calls PA a “false solution that diverts attention and resources away from proven solutions.” They believe that regenerative farming methods such as intercropping, agroforestry, and silvopastoralism are more climate-resilient, and more accessible to small and mid-sized farms.

The wide-spread adoption of PA is a conflation between efficiency and sustainability, Celize Christy, Member Organizing Lead at HEAL, tells Food Tank. She says that while proponents of PA argue innovations can reduce the amount of water or fertilizer used per acre, it doesn’t cut the emissions from these fertilizers.

According to HEAL’s report, precision agriculture technologies were utilized on approximately 50 percent of U.S. corn and soybean acreage by 2010 to 2012. But data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows fertilizer use did not go down over this time—it actually increased. After 30 years of observing developments in the field, the Alliance concludes that there is minimal reliable evidence to support that PA has reduced the use of chemical inputs.

There are also concerns about the resources needed to power PA tools.  According to Christy, as farms harness efficiency through technology, “precision ag might make one farm more efficient, but across the system it drives more extraction of water and energy to power the data centers.”

HEAL finds that the 2,600 U.S. data centers used to operate AI in agriculture were among the top 10 water users in the country’s commercial and industrial sectors as of 2022. The report calls this an example of the Jevons Paradox, the principle that increased resource efficiency can actually lead to an increase in resource consumption in the long-term.

“What [PA] has done is drive consolidation, putting more power and land into the hands of corporation giants like Bayer and John Deere,” Christy tells Food Tank. “Precision ag doesn’t transform agriculture; it just makes industrial systems more efficient at causing harm.”

PA technologies also disproportionately favor large farms, predominantly owned by white farmers, HEAL argues. Due to discriminatory land access and lending practices excluding Black, Indigenous, and People of Color, the U.S. Government Accountability Office finds that BIPOC farmers are more likely to operate small-scale family farms. HEAL also notes that BIPOC farmers are more likely to grow diversified specialty crops with regenerative practices. But their research shows that PA technologies are better suited to large monocropping systems of commodity crops like corn and soybeans. And research published in Journal of Rural Studies states that they can give inaccurate and unreliable assessments for more diversified cropping.

Considering the financial barriers to adopting PA, authors worry that these tools will further exacerbate the deeply-rooted racial and economic equities in agriculture. “High costs and data-driven platforms will push out small BIPOC farmers… it creates a future where farming is dictated by algorithms, not ecosystems,” Christy tells Food Tank. “It’s a model that prioritizes machines over communities, and efficiency over equity, deepening the very crises it claims to solve.”

HEAL calls for policymakers to reckon with the environmental and social costs that accompany the production and use of precision agriculture technologies. They recommend divestment from PA methods and more investment in federal support and incentives for practices that holistically reduce input use. Christy also wants policymakers to promote Farm Bill initiatives that better reach small, diversified, BIPOC producers. “Redirect funding toward practices that regenerate soil, strengthen rural economies, and prioritize equity,” she says.

HEAL also wants to see policymakers have greater oversight in PA use, and more collaboration with small and mid-size farmers to determine what practices benefit their production – including fair labor and pay practices. In turn, collaboration with farmers can support practices that naturally transform farming systems such as agroforestry and silvopasture, cover crops, integrated crops, and livestock production.

The HEAL Alliance already sees biodynamic farming systems, relying on agroecological practices such as intercropping and cover cropping, adopted across the country that have been shown to decrease emissions and increase nutrient availability—reducing reliance on chemical inputs. Now they want to see them adopted at scale.

“Climate solutions should serve communities,” Christy tells Food Tank. “Not corporations.”

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 New HEAL Report Calls Precision Agriculture a ‘Distraction’ appeared first on Food Tank.

Next week, I’ll be writing to you from Australia.

Australia—like everywhere on this planet—is beautiful and complicated. It’s one of the most biodiversity-rich countries in the world, from the arid Outback to tropical urban coastlines to temperate rainforests in Tasmania. At the same time, also like many other nearby South Pacific island nations, Australia is experiencing the effects of the climate crisis particularly acutely.

Nine out of the country’s 10 warmest years on record have taken place within the past two decades. As sea levels rise, more than 1.5 million Australians are at risk. And severe weather events are becoming much more devastating: The summer bushfire season, which peaked last month, was the worst in more than five years and burned around 1 million acres (400,000 hectares).

It’s also a place where people struggle to afford food. The country’s official Bureau of Statistics reports that 1 out of every 8 Australian households is food-insecure, but organizations like OzHarvest say it’s actually closer to a staggering 1 in 3 households.

But here’s what gives me hope: In the face of these cascading crises of food insecurity, climate change, and land degradation, Australia is showing how farmers and ag system leaders can be key players in building more resilient food and climate systems!

This year, Australia is stepping up in a big way on the global stage as the country prepares to lead negotiations at COP 31, the United Nations climate change conference in Turkey, this fall. And on the ground, sustainability work has long been deeply engrained: The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), for example, has worked since 1965 to push governments and businesses to not only protect but also regenerate the country’s wildlife and natural resources—and to support farmers doing the right thing.

“Australian farmers care for over half the country’s land, nurturing some of the richest ecosystems on this incredibly biodiverse continent,” Nathaniel Pelle, the Business and Nature Lead at ACF, told Food Tank. “It makes sense for a conservation organisation like ACF to work with farmers who are producing food in harmony with nature—we know we can’t fix our climate nature crisis without farmers.”

And because some 22 percent of food waste in Australia originates on farms, we need farmers on the front lines of building food security, too. Every week, the organization OzHarvest saves over 250 tonnes of good food from over 2,600 food donors and delivers it directly to more than 1,500 charities. Agriculture, the organization has said, is “largely untapped for food rescue.”

“We have forgotten how to value our farmers and the effort it takes to grow food,” Ronni Kahn, the Founder and Visionary in Residence of OzHarvest, told me on the Food Talk podcast.

Uplifting the voices of farmers—giving farmers the microphone to tell their own authentic stories—is itself a food system intervention! As Pelle put it: “With smart, sustainable practices, and the community’s support, farmers can heal damaged land, restore soil health, lock away carbon, and help create a food system that works for people and nature.”

Next week, on the opening night of Adelaide Fringe, Food Tank is presenting “Voices of Australian Farmers: A Love Story,” with our partners OzHarvest, Woolworths, Aquna Murray Cod, and the Australian Conservation Foundation. We’re so excited to celebrate Australian farmers as the kickoff to the world’s second-largest annual theater festival—and we’re thrilled to announce that the evening’s special celebrity guest host is none other than the renowned actress, director, and regenerative farmer Rachel Ward.

For the evening, we’re handing the stage over to mushroom farmer Georgia Beattie; cod aquaculturist Mat Ryan; poultry and beef farmer Hannah Greenshields; Ngarrindjeri Elder and pipi harvester Derek Walker; grain farmer Matthew Haggerty. We believe deeply in the power of bringing artists and farmers together for deeper collaborations like this, so we’re grateful for an amazing creative team including director Shannon Rush, the Artistic Associate at State Theatre Company South Australia; producer Isabella Strada; and musician Jamie Hornsby.

If you’re in the Adelaide area and want to join us, be sure to grab a ticket before they sell out! Public tickets are HERE, but as a Food Tanker, you can CLICK HERE to reserve a free spot as our special guest.

Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you at another “Voices of Farmers” event! Within just the next few months, we’re visiting Dublin, Ireland; Austin, Texas, during SXSW (find info and access free tickets HERE); Boston, Massachusetts; and more.

In Australia just as in each of your home communities, it’s the wisdom of farmers that can help solve our most pressing challenges!

Hearing farmers’ stories firsthand—listening as they describe the love they have for the land, for their animals, for the food they produce—is incredibly powerful. I’m moved to tears and filled with hope by these folks who literally embody resilience in the face of 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 Jeff Muir, Unsplash

The post In Australia, Farmers Lead the Way to a More Resilient Food System appeared first on Food Tank.

Agricultural Leaders Warn of Collapse Without Congressional Action

A bipartisan coalition of former U.S. Department of Agriculture officials and agricultural leaders is warning of a potential “widespread collapse of American agriculture,” citing policy failures and economic stressors, the New York Times reports. In a letter sent to Congressional agriculture committee leaders, the authors point to mounting farm bankruptcies, rising production costs, labor shortages, and declining profits.

The letter argues that the current administration’s actions and Congressional inaction have “increased costs for farm inputs, disrupted overseas and domestic markets, denied agriculture its reliable labor pool, and defunded critical ag research and staffing.”

It urges lawmakers to pass a new Farm Bill, expand international market access, restore research funding, and relax trade tariffs.

Jon Doggett, former CEO of the National Corn Growers Association, says that farmers are deeply concerned but that “we’re not having this discussion in an open and meaningful way.”

Mozambique Expands Farmer-Led Seed Systems with ICRISAT, FAO Support

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) are expanding support for farmer-led pigeonpea seed enterprises in Mozambique. The effort aims to strengthen food security, boost rural incomes, and improve soil fertility through the distribution of improved pigeonpea and groundnut varieties via local cooperatives.

“Farmers are becoming seed entrepreneurs and reliable suppliers within their own communities,” says James Mwololo, ICRISAT legume breeder. Though 70 percent of Mozambicans rely on agriculture, only 10 percent of arable land is cultivated, presenting an opportunity for farmers to expand production.

The initiative comes as Mozambique experiences historic flooding. More than 60,000 hectares of farmland and over 58,000 livestock have been lost, according to Mozambique’s disaster agency, highlighting the urgency of resilient seed systems and sustainable production models.

Farmers in Karnataka Pivot to Pulses Amid Climate Shifts

Farmers in Karnataka, India, are shifting away from traditional cereal and commercial crops due to climate variability and labor shortages, turning instead to pulses and horticulture.

Between 2020 and 2025, crop area for cereals like rice and maize declined by 4 percent, while the area under pulses rose 10 percent, the Times of India reports. Farmers also doubled their cultivation of minor millets and increased spice production by 19 percent.

Erratic rainfall patterns have led to crop losses for approximately 1.5 million farmers annually, with Rs₹4,401 crore (US$48.58 million) in insurance claims between 2023 and 2025. Dr. M.N. Thimmegowda of the University of Agricultural Sciences in Bengaluru explains that “increased pre-monsoon showers in April-May allow short-duration crops like pulses” to thrive.

Officials including C.B. Balareddy, Director of the Department of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare say the shift toward horticulture, particularly arecanut and spices, reflects an effort to adapt to changing climate conditions and labor dynamics.

Study Flags Methane Blind Spot Among Global Investors

A new report by the Changing Markets Foundation and Planet Tracker finds that most of the world’s largest asset managers are failing to address methane emissions from agriculture in their climate strategies. The analysis reviewed 25 major investors, including Vanguard, BlackRock, and Fidelity, and found that only four explicitly recognized methane’s climate impact or mitigation potential.

Methane is over 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period and is responsible for roughly 0.5°C of global warming, yet most investors treat it as a secondary concern with no standalone targets or agriculture-specific policies, according to the report.

Only Norges Bank Investment Management includes agriculture-related methane in its climate strategy and references the Global Methane Pledge. Others, like J.P. Morgan and State Street, focus solely on oil and gas.

Without immediate action, the report warns, investors face mounting risks, including falling productivity and disrupted supply chains. It calls on investors to “act decisively” to address this blind spot, offering recommendations that include adopting methane policies and frameworks, and redirecting capital toward sustainable proteins and resilient food systems.

Deadly Nipah Virus Detected in India, But Risk of Spread Remains Low

Two cases of the Nipah virus have been confirmed in Barasat, West Bengal, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Both cases were identified in healthcare workers from the same hospital.

Nipah is a zoonotic virus with a fatality rate between 40 and 75 percent. Humans can contract it through direct contact with infected animals, such as fruit bats, pigs, or horses, or by consuming contaminated fruit products. While human-to-human transmission is possible, it is uncommon, according to the WHO.

The WHO emphasized that there is no evidence of increased transmissibility and assessed the risk of spread beyond India as low. Nevertheless, airports across Asia, including those in Thailand, Nepal, and Vietnam, have heightened screenings.

India’s health ministry reported that the cases were contained quickly. The source of the current outbreak is still under investigation.

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 Yogesh Pedamkar, Unsplash

The post Food Tank’s Weekly News Roundup: Farm Leaders Warn of Collapse, Investors Ignore Methane, and Nipah Virus Alerts appeared first on Food Tank.