Yesterday, the Partnership to Cut Hunger and Poverty in Africa hosted a conference on Food Aid and Agricultural Cargo Preference (ACP)—a controversial but little understood aspect of U.S. food aid programs. I caught up with AJWS’s Global Food Justice Consultant Patty Kupfer who was at the conference. Here’s the skinny: The ACP is a 56-year-old policy …
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Originally posted on the Pursue blog. On Tuesday November 30th Pursue hosted it’s final Chewing on Food Justice event at Congregation Sha’ar Zahav in the mission neighborhood of San Francisco. While the first three panels focused on secular issues pertaining to local and global food issues, the final panel pertained to the practice of keeping Kashrut …
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The Sinú River in northern Colombia has supported a diverse community of indigenous people for generations. The Zenu and Embera people who live by its banks depend on the river for fish, irrigation and drinking water. But in 2000, the Urrá Dam, built by a consortium of Colombian, Swedish and Russian companies, submerged over 7,400 …
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Originally published on the Pursue blog. U.S. foreign food aid dates back to U.S. reconstruction efforts in Europe following World War II. Over the last 60 years, it has morphed into a $2.2 billion business with vested interests ranging from international development organizations to farmers, processors and shipping companies. Our foreign food aid has become highly politicized …
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A recent IRIN article (posted on AlertNet) affirmed what many of us at AJWS have been saying for a long time: that local aid and local humanitarian assistance are crucial to sustaining developing countries. According to IRIN, local assistance in northern Uganda has played a key role in post-conflict recovery in the Pader and Katakwi …
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After months of political pressure, the U.S. government is really starting to get it: local food is the key to a healthy, sustainable future. Back in August, I’d blogged about the floods in Pakistan and the country’s exacerbated food aid crisis following the devastation. The good news is that Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States …
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Originally published on the Pursue blog. The second ever United States Social Forum (USSF) was convened from June 22 through June 26 in Detroit, Michigan, bringing together over 15,000 activists from across the US and from around the world. More than just a conference, the USSF was a historic convergence and a movement-building process, aimed at …
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Originally published on the Pursue blog. Pursue’s Mind Your Agri-Business event on Tuesday, the second in its Chewing on Food Justice series, featured three panelists: Eleanor Starmer (Western Region Director at Food & Water Watch), Leon Vehaba (farmer from Everett Family Farm in Soquel, California), and Deborah Sellers (co-founder of Sellers Markets, a successful local sustainable multi-unit fast-casual …
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September 29th is National Coffee Day? Who knew?! For all you justice-seeking java-holics, here’s something to consider: For the majority of small-scale coffee farmers in the developing world, the benefits of their hard work and economic investments are extremely limited. Rural farmers are isolated from global markets, and the long journey of a harvested coffee …
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As we approach Sukkot, the week-long holiday of agricultural thanksgiving and a time when wewelcome those who are less fortunate to sit in a sukkah and partake in our bounty, we must not forget about those for whom harvests and bounty are scarce. A few sobering headlines: Not a Food Crisis [The New York Times] Russia’s misguided decision to …
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