Sustainable Agriculture & Food Policy

Never before have we sprayed so much of a chemical on our food, on our yards, on our children’s playgrounds. So it’s no surprise that Roundup – the world’s most widely used weedkiller – shows up in our bodies. What is perhaps surprising is how easy it is to get it out.

Fellow Lindsay Olsen, a native of Homer, Alaska, asks: Have innovations in the aquaculture industry removed the need for both the fisherman and the sea?

We need a new model for the National School Lunch Program that provides cafeteria workers with access to longer hours, higher wages and more meaningful work, writes Fellow Jennifer Gaddis in The Guardian. Only then can we begin to realize the potential of the program to reduce the long-term cost of preventable dietary diseases, encourage environmentally and economically sustainable diets, and create good middle-class jobs across the food chain.

“Happy hour” at the S-market store in the working-class neighborhood of Vallila happens far from the liquor aisles and isn’t exactly convivial. Nobody is here for drinks or a good time. They’re looking for a steep discount on a slab of pork.

A new study co-authored by Fellow Kendra Klein shows that the class of insecticides called neonicotinoids poses significant threats to insects, soil and water. In an op-ed with Anna Lappé for The Guardian, Klein writes that the war we are waging against nature with toxic pesticides must end.

Fellow Pamela McElwee was one of the lead authors of the recently released IPCC report on climate change and land use. From The New York Times: The world’s land and water resources are being exploited at “unprecedented rates,” a new United Nations report warns, which combined with climate change is putting dire pressure on the ability of humanity to feed itself.

Results from a recent study examining what's in organic versus conventional milk show that the majority of samples of conventional, non-organic milk tested positive for certain low, chronic levels of pesticides, illegal antibiotics and growth hormones. The organic samples tested at either much lower or non-existent rates in comparison.