Food, Hunger & Environment
Food, Hunger & Environment
Additional Reports top
Feeding the World? Twelve Years Later, U.S. Grain Exports Are Up, So Too Is Hunger
In the 12 years since an IATP report debunked the industry claim that corn and soybean exports help reduce global hunger, both exports and hunger are still on the rise. What has changed in that time, and what hasn’t?
Julia Olmstead, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 2011
Harvest of Heat: Agribusiness and Climate Change
Gar Smith, Agribusiness Action Initiatives – North America, 2010.
Report submitted by the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Olivier De Schutter
Human Rights Council, UN General Assembly, 2010
Towards Ecological Food Provision, UK Food Group, 2010
Small Scale Sustainable Farmers Are Cooling Down the Earth
La Via Campesina, 2009
Eric Holt-Gimenez and Annie Shattuck, ActionAid International and Food First, 2009.
Gundula Azeez, Soil Association, 2009
Union of Concerned Scientists, 2010
by Daniel Kaboré and Chris Reij
EPTD Discussion Paper No. 114, International Food Policy Research Institute, 2004
Toward a Post-Carbon Food System, Richard Heinberg and Michael Bomford, Post Carbon Institute, 2009
Sara J. Scherr and Sajal Sthapit, Worldwatch Institute, 2009.
Resolving the Food Crisis: Assessing Global Policy Reforms Since 2007
Timothy A. Wise and Sophia Murphy, Global Development and Environment Institute and Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 2012
Books top
by Herbert Girardet and Miguel Mendonça
(Devon, England: Green Books, 2009)
by Barbara Kingsolver
(New York: Harper Perennial, 2008)
by Randolph Hester
(Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2006)
by Vandana Shiva
(New York: South End Press, 2005)
by Miriam Horn and Fred Krupp
(New York: Environmental Defense Fund, 2008)
by Miguel Mendonça
(London: Earthscan Publications, Ltd, 2009)
by Peter Rossett
(London: Zed Books, 2006)
by Van Jones
(New York: Harper Collins, 2008)
by Claire Hope Cummings
(Boston: Beacon Press, 2008)
Climate and Agriculture top
A frequently updated collection of reports, videos, articles, and more from the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy.
This site offers many resources regarding the climate change benefits of organic production, including a number of studies about the benefits in greenhouse gas emissions reductions of organic production.
Administered by Tuft’s Global Development and Environment Institute, this blog brings together thoughtful analysis on the simultaneous crises in finance, development, and the environment occurring globally and includes ample material on food and climate.
This site brings together the resources of all United Nations agencies pertaining to the topic of women, gender equality, and climate change.
This international campaign is dedicated to uniting citizens behind the message that the solution to climate change must be grounded in science and on a scale large enough to combat the crisis. The focus on the number 350 refers to parts per million- the level scientists identify as the safe limit for CO2 in our atmosphere.
La Via Campesina is a network of 148 farming organizations in 69 countries that promotes small-scale, sustainable agriculture as a catalyst for social justice. The movement bases its actions on the belief that small farmers are capable of producing food for their communities and feeding the world in a sustainable and healthy way. This site of the international peasant network has reports, statements, action alerts, and updates on the campaign to cool the planet through its vision of food sovereignty.
Co-op Movements top
Green America (formerly known as Co-op America) works to harness economic power—the strength of consumers, investors, businesses, and the marketplace—to create a socially just and environmentally sustainable society. It operates as a collaborative and participatory workplace, where staff members reach consensus through democratic decision-making processes on key strategic issues for the organization.
International Co-operative Alliance is an independent, non-governmental association which unites, represents and serves co-operatives worldwide. Founded in 1895, ICA has 238 member organizations from 90 countries active in all sectors of the economy. Together these co-operatives represent more than 800 million individuals worldwide.
Organic Valley is a cooperative of family farmer-owners. Its mission is to create and operate a marketing cooperative that promotes regional farm diversity and economic stability by the means of organic agricultural methods and the sale of certified organic products.
Environmental and Sustainability Organizations top
Applegate Partnership is a community-based non-profit organization involving industry, conservation groups, natural resource agencies, and residents cooperating to encourage and facilitate the use of natural resource principles that promote ecosystem health and diversity. Through community involvement and education, this partnership supports management of all land within the watershed in a matter that sustains natural resources and that will, in turn, contribute to economic and community well-being and resilience.
Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund was formed to provide free and affordable legal services to community based groups and local governments working to protect their quality of life and the natural environment through building sustainable communities. Increasingly, that means teaming up with people and their municipal representatives to mount campaigns that challenge the legal clout of corporations to overrule decisions made by citizens for their communities.
ETC Group is dedicated to the advancement of agricultural and ecological diversity. The organization addresses the potential socioeconomic and ecologic issues surrounding the impact of new technologies on the world’s poorest and most marginalized populations. Operating at the global political level, the organization instead supports socially responsible technologies as a means of food security.
This national organization works to build up the green economy and provide access to green jobs across America. It not only puts green-collar jobs at the center of its agenda, but also seeks to ensure that every community has access to the opportunities provided by the new economy.
This website is a great doorway for connecting individuals with local farmers' markets, family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in their area. Type in your zip code to locate local food sources near you!
Natural Resources Council of Maine is a nonprofit membership organization protecting, restoring, and conserving Maine's environment, now and for future generations. They work to improve the quality of Maine's rivers; to reduce toxic chemicals threatening the health of Maine families and wildlife; to decrease air and global warming pollution, and to conserve Maine lands. NRCM harnesses the power of the law, science, and the voices of more than 12,000 supporters statewide and beyond.
Participatory Ecological Land Use Management (PELUM) is a network of smallholder farmers in East, Central and Southern Africa that works to improve the livelihoods of farmers and the sustainability of farming communities by promoting policies, skills and research for ecological land use management.
Real Food Challenge is an exciting effort to leverage the purchasing power of university campuses in order to transform the food industry into a just and sustainable food system. The campaign aims to increase the amount of "green" foods purchased by colleges to 20 percent by 2020.
Sierra Club is the oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization in the United States. With over 1.3 million members, the organization focuses on reversing global warming and increasing our renewable energy resources.
Sustainable Connections works with local, independently owned businesses that have the autonomy to make any transformational change in their business that they can imagine… reexamining where we buy goods and services, how we consume energy, grow and distribute our food, build homes, and even, how we define success in business.
This project connects more than thirty leading youth organizations across North America to organize for the passage of 100 percent clean energy policies in high schools and on college campuses. Its network is building a movement of young people for a just and sustainable future.
GRAIN is an international, non-governmental organization that supports local farmers and social movements in sustainable, biodiversity-based food systems. Focused on Asia, Africa and Latin America, GRAIN has established a decentralization process to protect the world’s food supply through independent research and analysis.
One of RAN’s focus areas is the impact of the world’s largest agribusinesses on rainforest destruction and climate change. Check out their latest news and action alerts.
Multimedia resources top
Compilation of Feature-Length Documentaries on Food, Farming and Health
Set of 4 DVDs, plus booklet, Deccan Development Society (DDS) Community Media Trust, P.V. Satheesh and Michel Pimbert, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the Deccan Development Society, London, 2008.
Food Systems and Climate Change: Impacts and Solutions
presentation by Dr. Molly Anderson of Food Systems Integrity at the 2008 Community Food Security Coalition Conference, October 8, 2008
includes an excellent address by Vandana Shiva and Wangari Maathai
Presbyterian Hunger Program
a short film by WhyHunger
Documentary chronicling the development of the UMASS permaculture garden, one of the nation's first student-led gardens created on a 1/4 acre campus grass lawn.
Websites for Further Learning & for Taking Action top
Selected Contributors to Creating Sustainable Food and Farming to the End of Hunger
Policy Innovators top
The World Development Movement (WDM) is an anti-hunger campaigning organization based in the UK that focuses on establishing economic justice. Known for tackling hard-hitting, controversial issues, WDM investigates and challenges governmental policies and corporate actions by researching and promoting positives solutions to global inequality.
Resources on Animal Agriculture top
Danielle Nierenberg, Humane Society of the United States, November 2007 Nierenberg provides a great summary of the literature on animal agriculture’s contribution to climate change.
Feeding China’s Pigs: Implications for the Environment, China’s Smallholder Farmers and Food Security
Mindi Schneider, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, 2011
Skillful Means: The Challenges of China’s Encounter with Factory Farming
from Brighter Green, August 2008 Brighter Green explores the emerging superpower’s “livestock revolution,” which is having serious impacts on public health, food security, and equity in China—and the world.
Resources on Climate Change & Organic Agriculture top
Prepared for the Pew Center on Global Climate Change and published in September 2006, this paper provides an in-depth role of the agriculture on greenhouse gas emissions.
Failure to Yield: Evaluating the Performance of Genetically Engineered Crops
This report from Doug Gurian-Sherman of the Union of Concerned Scientists evaluates the contribution of genetic engineering (GE) to increasing crop yield in the United States, contrasts that contribution with yield gain from other agricultural methods and technologies, and discusses the challenge ahead for the global food system.
Dr. Vandana Shiva and the International Commission on the Future of Food This is perhaps the best summary of the connection between climate change and the food system and what actions we should take to secure our food for the future. Author of Soil Not Oil, among many other brilliant texts, Dr. Vandana Shiva does a masterful job of summarizing the crisis and the solutions. (Read an article related to Soil Not Oil here.)
Organic Agriculture and the Global Food Supply
This report by Catherine Badgley et. al, in the June 2006 edition of Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems, evaluates the ability of organic agriculture to significantly contribute to the global food supply.
A report from Richard Heinberg and Michael Bonford of the Post Carbon Institute, on transitioning our food system away from it’s current dependence on fossil fuels.
Voices From Africa: African Farmers and Environmentalists Speak Out Against a
New Green Revolution in Africa.
This report compiled by the Oakland Institute gives voice to African farmers and activists in a direct challenge to “Western-led plans for a genetically engineered revolution in African agriculture… [it] presents African resistance and solutions rooted in first-hand knowledge of what Africans need.”
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