The USDA has released its data for hunger in the United States, and the numbers aren’t good.

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Photo: G Online

I often get asked whether I think fair trade is a bad idea, and my response is usually “it’s much better to buy fair trade than to buy unfair trade- but if you care about farmers, ask them what they want”. In general, I’m not favourably inclined toward green consumerism.

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I know I bang on a lot about food sovereignty on this blog, but it’s not all hot air. I’ve just guest edited a section of The Journal of Peasant Studies (really the most hard-hitting academic journal of its kind) and was lucky enough to pull together some excellent papers and interviews. Although the JPS can get dry in parts, the section I edited was the Grassroots Voices bit, which is intended as a forum and resource for activists. And they’ve decided to make it available free (as opposed to the $100+ individual subscription rate).

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Last night, I had the chance to be on a panel with Brahm Ahmadi, Vini Bhansali and a new friend, Jeff Conant.

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Well, it has only been two years, but in Internet time, that’s almost a generation. Which is why, soon, StuffedAndStarved.org will be taken out behind the sheds, patted on the head, and put out of its all-too-2006 misery.

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Variants of this quote have been cropping up a great deal recently:

It is not acceptable for women to constitute
70 per cent of the world’s 1.3 billion absolute poor. Nor is it acceptable for
women to work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, but earn only one-tenth
of the world’s income and own less than one-tenth of the world’s property.

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From the Pesticide Action Network and the national Family Farm Coalition, here’s a last-minute heads up on key positions in the US Dept of Agriculture about to be filled by agribusiness insiders. Click here to find out more (and to sign a petition), the text of which is below the fold…

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In another piece of New York Times-related news, I’ll be on the BBC World Service in an hour or so (12.30pm Pacific time, Nov 1) talking with Nicolette Hahn Niman, about her Times oped on meat and climate change. Tune in here.

Last week, I chipped in a contribution (below) to a New York Times discussion on biotech. The debate garnered about a quarter as many reader responses as a previous one about the future of laundry in the 21st century. I’m not sure how to interpret that other than, simply, more people have opinions about laundry than about food. But don’t let that put you off visiting the site. There are some very fine (and sometimes very obtuse) comments beneath our interventions. More here.

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A mere two weeks late, published on World Food Day, here’s something I wrote for Reuters/Alertnet about what to expect from our leaders in the upcoming World Food Summit and Climate Change summits…

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