Food | IATP

Inventing new (food) democracies

Food democracy must start from the bottom-up, at the level of villages, regions, cities, and municipalities. – UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food Olivier De Schutter in March 2014

Growing Farm to Childcare

Teaching children about food and where it comes from is an important part of many childcare programs, but many childcare facilities want to go a step further and build a Farm to Childcare program that connects local farmers with young children by providing fresh, healthy foods in childcare meals.

Farm to Childcare: Highlights and Lessons Learned

Introduction: About our Experience with Farm to Childcare

Synthetically modified organisms aren’t “natural” at all

Synthetic biology is “Still in [the] Uncharted Waters of Public Opinion,” according to a recent focus group study by the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. That’s not surprising since the technology involved sounds like something out of science fiction.

Seeking the whole story: New metrics needed to evaluate agricultural practices

Jump straight to IATP’s new report, Measuring Success: Local Food Systems and the Need for New Indicators.

Measuring Success: Local Food Systems and the Need for New Indicators

In agriculture, policymakers, analysts and researchers often use a set of indicators to assess whether a farming system, or new technology, is succeeding. The most common indicators focus on increasing “yield,” often of a singular crop or animal unit, within large-scale production systems.

Fair is fair: Raise the minimum wage

Last week, Republicans in the Senate blocked a vote on whether to enact a modest raise of the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour, and the tipped minimum wage from $2.13 an hour to 70 percent of the minimum wage. Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid has vowed to bring it up for a vote again. He should. And it should pass.

Have it THEIR way

The illusion of choice takes away from our ability to get to a just, sustainable food system, meaning we’ll have to “Vote with our Vote.” We can’t afford to just “Vote with our Fork.”

Farmer, rancher and consumer groups celebrate new “COOL” Thanksgiving as improved food labels take effect this week

WASHINGTON (Nov. 26, 2013) – Following the recent implementation of new country-of-origin labels (COOL) for meat and poultry products, 15 farmer, rancher and consumer groups issued the following statement:

It’s not just the price of food, stupid

Eric Holt-Giménez, director of the amazing food policy think tank FoodFirst, recently wrote in the Huffington Post that if healthy, organic food is unaffordable, this is a problem of wages and rights, not inherently a problem with healthy, organic foods.