Under the Clinton Global Initiative, Growing Power takes its grassroots-agriculture model to Africa

by Tom Philpott
Grist
September 28, 2009

"Growing Power commits to strengthen food security for school children and their care givers in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Growing Power will build a new model of local food systems to ensure adequate nutrition in the short-term and build a long-term foundation for competitive African human capital in the global market place."

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Dear Big Ag: World Hunger Is Not for Sale

TreeHugger
September 25, 2009

The objectives of this week's Global Harvest Initiative symposium, which focused on coordinated efforts to address world hunger, were compelling. World hunger already affects 1 billion people and the numbers are projected to climb. Unfortunately, thanks to big agribusiness sponsors ADM, DuPont, John Deere and Monsanto, the event ultimately amounted to nothing more than glitzy green packaging for the same old unnecessary gift of chemical dependence for the world's farmers...

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JBS: industrial meat’s new heavyweight champ

Grist Magazine
September 23, 2009

Remember two weeks ago, when Tom Philpott warned that if JBS snapped up Pilgrim's Pride, four transnational giants would dominate the U.S. meat market? Well, it happened. Philpott explains what it all means.

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Argentine Cattle No Longer Home Just On The Range

by Juan Forero
Morning Edition
National Public Radio
September 14, 2009

Argentina's vast plains are bigger than Texas, and for more than a century, great herds of cattle roamed and ate to their hearts' content. That helped build up Argentina's image as the producer of lean and natural grass-fed beef.

But ever so quietly, Argentina is increasingly fattening its herd in American-style feedlots. Promoters say it's efficient, but some Argentines wonder if quality isn't being lost for the sake of quantity...

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Big Food vs. Big Insurance

By MICHAEL POLLAN
The New York Times Op-Ed
September 9, 2009

...No one disputes that the $2.3 trillion we devote to the health care industry is often spent unwisely, but the fact that the United States spends twice as much per person as most European countries on health care can be substantially explained, as a study released last month says, by our being fatter. Even the most efficient health care system that the administration could hope to devise would still confront a rising tide of chronic disease linked to diet.

That’s why our success in bringing health care costs under control ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to take on and reform a second, even more powerful industry: the food industry...

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There's Power in a Potluck

by Jerusha Klemperer
Huffington Post
September 8, 2009

Nationwide "Eat-Ins" Take A Stand For Real Food In Schools

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