COVID-19 | IATP

Transformation now!

The COVID-19 pandemic exposes sharp injustices and system wide failures of today's prevailing food and agriculture systems - injustices that had already been accelerating over the past decade, which has proven to be the most destructive period of food production and consumption in modern history.

Africa at the crossroads: Time to abandon failing Green Revolution

Originally published by Inter Press Service (IPSNews). 

Don’t grant global meat corporations immunity, hold them accountable for COVID-19 failures

As the Senate reconvenes this week, a lobbying blitz to grant corporations special immunity protection is ramping up. Global meat companies are helping lead the charge, and it’s easy to see why.

Pandemic Response to Protect and Increase Resilience in the Food and Farm System

The coronavirus pandemic has exposed and exacerbated vulnerabilities and inequities in our food system, disproportionately harming tribal, immigrant and communities of color, farmworkers and food system workers, small and mid-scale farmers, historically underserved, tribal and beginning family farmers and ranchers, and low-income consumers, including children.

Call for Resignation for Secretary Eugene Scalia and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary

The undersigned organizations call on you to resign immediately because you have failed to perform your sworn duty to enforce the law. As American workers have risen to the challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic, you have, instead, stooped to new lows to jeopardize workers, public health, and our country’s economic recovery.

The CFTC shrinks the enforceability of a cross-border trading rule

On July 14, the Financial Times published an interview with Heath Tarbert, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in which he all but announced the results of votes to take place the following week and beyond.

Despite Global Health Crisis, Bilateral Trade Negotiations Move Forward in Secrecy

MINNEAPOLIS—While most of the world was on lockdown to the COVID-19 pandemic from March through May, top United States trade officials began fast-paced and comprehensive negotiations with the United Kingdom and continued ongoing talks with the European Union.

Rising calls for supply management amidst COVID-19 crisis

“You can't shut down cows. You can't turn them off like a faucet.”

US-Kenya FTA and the rights to land and food

You might be surprised to learn that while we’re all sheltering in place and wondering what comes next, trade negotiations that could set labor, environmental and climate rules for decades to come are moving forward. The U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced plans to negotiate a free-trade agreement with Kenya. This would be the first free-trade agreement the U.S. has negotiated with an African nation.

Cold hard (storage) facts about meatpacker threats of scarcity

"It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running,” said Smithfield Chief Executive Officer, Kenneth Sullivan when he announced the closing of its Sioux Falls, South Dakota slaughterhouse due to a COVID-19 outbreak among more than 200 Smithfield workers.