Foreign Policy Magazine recently released its list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers of 2011. We were disappointed—though not so surprised—by the paucity of women on this list. So, we’ve added six extraordinary women who deserve recognition. Leymah Gbowee, Liberia. You’ve probably heard a lot about Leymah Gbowee, in the news and on our blog. …
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Too often when policy makers in Washington make bad decisions, the people of Kampala, Port au Prince, and Bogotá pay the price. This is exactly what will happen in Colombia if Congress approves the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. AJWS’s partners in Colombia work on a wide range of issues—from securing resource rights for indigenous people, …
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I’m a serious coffee drinker. But, admittedly, I know little about roasts, brews, or the land on which my beans are grown. Coffee is the U.S.’s largest food import, the second most valuable traded commodity only after oil. It’s also entangled in a complex web of issues involving human labor, the environment, climate change and …
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The news has been buzzing with articles and commentary about the new UN report that about how agroecology can double food production in 10 years. “Agro-ecology mimics nature not industrial processes. It replaces the external inputs like fertiliser with knowledge of how a combination of plants, trees and animals can enhance productivity of the land,” …
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My visit to Familaires Colombia, an AJWS partner working to support relatives of forcibly disappeared people from the long lasting armed conflict, was profound. I came to understand some of the causes and the real impact of the conflict in the daily lives of people from small towns. It really surprised me, on the one …
Read MoreBeginning the Torah anew this year with Parshat Bereshit, I have been asking myself what God was trying to tell human beings by creating us at the very end of Creation. Are we the pinnacle of God’s achievements, meant to place our own needs ahead of other forms of life? My answer to this question …
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