Sustainable Agriculture & Food Policy

Some environmental groups criticize the recommendations for suggesting that at first a quarter of the fish feed could be from sustainably wild-caught — but not organic — fish. A fish can't be organic, they argue, if it doesn't eat 100 percent organic feed. Wild fish would not be eligible for the organic label — that would be too difficult to monitor. The environmental groups also are concerned that fish in ocean pens would be able to escape and contaminate their surroundings. They also worry about ocean contaminants.

Santa Cruz-based Community Agroecology Network’s (CAN) Food Security & Sovereignty in Las Segovias, Nicaragua project was selected as a finalist for the 2015 Specialty Coffee Association of America Sustainability Award. Read more

Nathan McClintock, a professor at the school of urban studies at Portland State University, sees a link between the rise of urban farming and a diminishing social safety net. “With the stripping away of the welfare state, there’s a growing dependence on food banks and volunteerism; people can rely less on government assistance,” he said. “People are also moving back to cities and they want a back-to-the-land experience.”

James Downing is the new editor of the University of California's research journal "California Agriculture". Read more

Sharon Smith co-authored the Union of Concerned Scientists' Palm Oil Scorecard 2015, which found that many of America's biggest brands are still using palm oil that contributes to deforestation and peatland destruction. Read more

Demand for locally produced beef is surging as never before, but the butchers who for generations have prepared and sold meat to customers and markets are a dwindling profession. ... Lauren Gwin, a professor at Oregon State University who coordinates the Niche Meat Processor Assistance Network, said the demand for specialty meat is prompting some new businesses to open, but that getting started is costly and difficult.

Meredith Niles will begin as an assistant professor of food policy at the University of Vermont in August 2015. She will be in the Department of Nutrition and Food Sciences and also affiliated with the campus-wide multidisciplinary food systems initiative, which currently has a master’s program and will accept PhD students beginning in 2016. Meredith will continue her work related to farmer responses to climate change and assessing the environmental, production and economic tradeoffs of integrated crop and livestock systems across different policy and climate contexts.&nbs

Maine Farmland Trust announced Feb. 26 it has established a new Policy and Research Fellowship program. Amanda Beal, a sustainable food policy advocate and consultant who grew up on a Maine dairy farm and is widely respected within Maine’s agricultural community, will serve as MFT’s inaugural Fellow.

New research published in January reveals that vast stretches of the ocean interior abruptly lost oxygen during the transition out of the last ice age that occurred 17,000–10,000 years ago. This event was the most recent example of large-scale global warming, and was caused primarily by changes in Earth’s orbit around the sun. Past climate events provide informative case studies for understanding what is currently happening to the modern climate system, says 2013 Fellow Sarah Moffitt.