News

IPS World Desk

11/29/2018

ROME - Did you know bamboo can help combat climate change? Fast growing and flexible, bamboo plants and products can store more carbon than certain types of tree. Bamboo is also used around the world... Read more

11/01/2021

It isn’t your imagination — food prices have jumped. COVID-19 gutted much of the economy, but the grocery cartels controlling our food supply didn’t let the crisis go to waste for their profit margins... Read more

Once the degraded land has made the first timid steps toward recuperation, it is planted with agave, one of the few plants that will flourish in such barren soil — and the plant will begin to replenish its fertility. Image courtesy of Alejandro Vasconcelos.

Sue Branford

08/11/2021
  • Land degradation is impacting farmlands worldwide, affecting almost 40% of the world’s population. Reversing that process and restoring these croplands and pastures to full productivity is a huge... Read more

Kevin Cortez

08/18/2021

Buying new clothes can be fun, but it can also be costly—to both your wallet and the environment. The fashion industry accounts for 10% of the carbon emissions in the world, making it a major... Read more

Anna Guth

07/08/2021

As you read this, there are about 150 goats grazing their way through the grass and woodland areas surrounding Fitch... Read more

Natalie Peart

06/29/2021

A Vermont nonprofit is connecting independent farms with buyers and distributors, reducing food surplus and working to eliminate food insecurity.

Each year, farmers like Joe Tisbert of Valley... Read more

Plastic bottles and bottle caps are among the most frequent items found along Mediterranean shores. Credit: Eleonora de Sabata / Clean Sea LIFE

Guy Dinmore

07/01/2021

St David’s, Wales, Jul 1 2021 (IPS) - Documented images of albatross chicks and marine turtles dying slow deaths from eating plastic bags and other waste are being seared into our consciences. And yet... Read more

Jaisal Noor

06/10/2021

Millions went hungry when the pandemic hit, but at the Black-owned cooperative Brooklyn Packers, workers rose to the challenge by packing thousands of meals a week. In a sector known for exploitative... Read more

Alison Kentish

04/29/2021

UNITED NATIONS - As the United Nations prepares for its solutions-based Global Food Systems Summit in September, officials say resolving issues around water scarcity, pollution and wastage is crucial... Read more

Alison Kentish

04/28/2021

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 28 2021 (IPS) - A new global report on forests says that while the COVID-19 pandemic is the latest threat to achieving ambitious forest protection goals, it has brought the... Read more

Stephanie Kurose

04/21/2021

If you were in California this winter, you may have noticed something missing: the monarch butterflies.

Two decades ago, more than 1 million would arrive in California every winter, clustering... Read more

Producebluebook.com

04/14/2021

Monterey, CA (April 14, 2021) — Total organic fresh produce sales for the first quarter of 2021 saw a continuation of last year’s growth, increasing by 9.3 percent from the same period in 2020 and... Read more

Emilio Godoy

04/05/2021

MEXICO CITY, Apr 5 2021 (IPS) - In neighbourhoods like Tehuixtitla in southern Mexico City, rain brings joy, because it provides water for showering, washing dishes and clothes, and cooking, by means... Read more

Timothy A. Wise

02/24/2021

Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador quietly rocked the agribusiness world with his New Year’s Eve decree to phase out use of the herbicide glyphosate and the cultivation of genetically... Read more

02/25/2021

AE4EU: Building a European network on agroecology to accelerate the transition towards sustainable agriculture and food systems.

ECVC [European Coordination Via Campesina] is among 12 European... Read more

Ronnie Cummins

02/17/2021

My usual response to the question “What is Regenerative Food and Farming?” goes something like this: Regenerative agriculture and animal husbandry is the next and higher stage of organic food and... Read more

Avexnim Cojti

12/16/2020

On December 8, 2020, several media sources reported that fresh water started to be traded on Wall Street as a commodity such as gold and wheat. This comes as water scarcity is increasing in California... Read more

Associated Press

12/14/2020

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico’s Agriculture Department has proposed rules for phasing out the use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in weed killer Roundup, by early 2024.

The rules were praised by... Read more

Alexandra Genova

12/30/2020

Seeds need to be brought back into public ownership, rather than belonging to a small group of agrochemical companies, say campaigners, after a year in which seed-swapping and saving has reached new... Read more

Alexic Baden-Mayer

12/10/2020

In a Facebook LIVE conducted on December 3, 2020, renowned environmental activist, food sovereignty advocate... Read more

Andy Merrifield

10/31/2020

Our most insightful urban commentators generally agree that the liveliest cities are those with greatest diversity. Diversity of activities, diversity of people. Jane Jacobs long ago highlighted the... Read more

Sharon Kelly and Frances Rankin

11/18/2020

This article was published as part of the launch of DeSmog’s Agribusiness Database, where you can find a record of... Read more

Dr. Vandana Shiva

10/27/2020

Since the onset of the Neolithic Revolution some 10.000 years ago, farmers and communities have worked to improve yield, taste, nutritional and other qualities of seeds. They have expanded and passed... Read more

Dave Dickey

10/22/2020

As COVID-19 unrelentingly spread across the U.S. this summer it has become abundantly clear that our agricultural system – from farm to fork – can't handle a pandemic. The novel corona-virus exposed... Read more

Monica Nickelsburg

10/19/2020

Some states are addressing the bottleneck in the industry by allowing state inspectors to approve direct-to-consumer and interstate sales. And new federal legislation could make those efforts possible... Read more

Katharine Earley

09/24/2020

A critical new book released on 24th September by United Nations’ World Agriculture Report (IAASTD) members calls for an accelerated transformation of our food systems. In “Transformation of our food... Read more

Noah Cohen

09/16/2020

Despite much uncertainty and upheaval of our economy during the 2020 outbreak, many organic farms have been bright spots of the COVID-19 economy. With consumers now having 100% control over their food... Read more

Kristina "Kiki" Hubbard and Cathleen McCluskey

09/11/2020

When Brian Campbell and Crystine Goldberg of Uprising Seeds in Bellingham, Washington, opened a letter from German multinational chemical... Read more

08/24/2020

The Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) program, a rigorous sustainability certification for foods, fibers, and personal care products, is now publicly available after a yearlong pilot phase. The... Read more

Ian Angus

08/12/2020

Worldwide, there are now over a thousand coastal areas where fish can’t breathe. The nitrogen that makes crops grow is also destroying offshore ecosystems.

Talk about... Read more

Emily Kawano & Julie Matthaei

07/27/2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has upended our world. It has laid bare the inequity, the limits, and the failures of capitalism. The door to a better future beyond capitalism, already cracked open by the Great... Read more

Shrishtee Bajpai

06/18/2020

Universidad de la Tierra in Mexico is working to transform our ways of learning and our connection with the Earth. It is not often that you come across a university that centres respect and care for ... Read more

Leo Sammallahti

04/22/2020

Covid-19 is inflicting great suffering upon many of us upon many of us, whilst wreaking havoc on the economy on a scale not seen in the history of the modern world, according to many measurements. The... Read more

Samantha Demby

07/16/2020

In Oaxaca's Mixe region, the community of Ayutla has been without potable tap water for three years.

On the dusty path between the natural spring and her home, Laura Morales hauled as... Read more

Ronnie Cummins

01/20/2020

“Unsustainable land use and greenhouse gas emissions are delivering a one-two punch to natural ecosystems that are key to the fight against global climate change.

... Read more

Charity Robey

05/08/2020

When the restaurants closed, factory farms lost their customers. Local produce is suddenly in demand.

One Wednesday in early March, Abra Morawiec realized something seismic was... Read more

Jake Johnson

05/07/2020

Nearly 40 mayors representing more than 700 million people in cities across the globe are calling for a transformative recovery from the Covid-19 crisis that fundamentally alters global economic and... Read more

04/02/2020

Regenerative agriculture has gained a lot of attention since Robert Rodale coined the phrase fifty years ago. Many organizations use the word “regenerative” today, but the... Read more

Kristin Lawless

04/13/2020

As Chuck D says, it’s ‘food as a machine gun,’ and that’s even more deadly in this pandemic

When I finished working on my book, “Formerly Known As Food: How the Industrial Food System... Read more

Amanda Claire Starbuck

04/08/2020

When a crisis hits, Americans need a food system that's resilient enough to withstand the storm. Here's how banning factory farms can help make that happen. 

My great grandparents once... Read more

Stephanie Seneff

04/10/2020

Are glyphosate and COVID-19 connected? Glyphosate, one of the most toxic chemicals in the world, may be the key to why some people get severely ill from COVID-19.

The pandemic that we... Read more

Catrin Einhorn

04/09/2020

The destruction of forests into fragmented patches is increasing the likelihood that viruses and other pathogens will jump from wild animals to humans, according to... Read more

Sonia Shah

02/18/2020

Scientists have fingered bats and pangolins as potential sources of the virus, but the real blame lies elsewhere—with human assaults on the environment.

It could have been a... Read more

Jamison Ervin

03/31/2020

I attended one of three major biodiversity planning meetings this February, originally scheduled for China, but relocated to Rome. The day I arrived, there were three cases of the coronavirus COVID-19... Read more

Interview with Rob Wallace by Stephanie Bastek

03/13/2020

We are all inundated with news about the COVID-19 pandemic, but one thing is glaringly missing from the coverage: the underlying structural reasons for why this is happening. Yes, in... Read more

03/27/2020

Disgruntled farmers torched 6 vehicles belonging to the National Guard and the National Water Commission (Conagua).

The National Water Commission (Conagua) announced on Thursday that it... Read more

Pam

03/03/2020

A new federal bill, introduced by Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), would force... Read more

Angela Lovell

03/10/2020

Agricultural production used to be basically divided into two camps; conventional and organic. The two production styles have clear delineations and are pretty much exclusive of each other. Today the... Read more

Jon Queally

03/01/2020

Demonstration held "in solidarity with every community that has found itself staring down the barrel of a gun for daring to oppose Canada's ongoing colonial project through resource extraction."

... Read more

Anca Voinea

10/04/2018

Under the motto 'connecting solidarity', it allows people to search for co-op providers of goods and services.

Co-ops in Argentina can now connect with customers and other social and solidarity... Read more

Katherine Paul

02/06/2020

About a year ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) made it official: Consumers can no longer buy paint removers containing... Read more

Kyla Mandel

02/02/2020

Right across from Atholton High School in Columbia, Maryland, sits a garden roughly a third of an acre with rows of vegetable beds and a... Read more

Ronnie Cummins

02/01/2020

Positive news stories about the state of our environment are few and far between. More common are stories that we’re almost at the point of irreparable damage, that if we don’t act now, it will be too... Read more

Alexis Baden-Mayer

01/28/2020

About half of all American adults have one or more preventable, chronic, diet-related diseases.

Whether it’s factory-farm foods from animals raised on GMO feed, or sugary foods and drinks made... Read more

01/29/2020

ASHEVILLE — The city has become the first community in North Carolina to declare a "climate emergency," setting rigorous goals on warming greenhouse gases and renewable energy. The Jan. 28 emergency... Read more

David Korten

01/21/2020

In 1962, Rachael Carson warned us, with the publication of Silent Spring, that the indiscriminate use of pesticides was disrupting critical ecosystems and causing severe damage to human health.

... Read more

Leo Sammallahti

01/13/2020

I will make a guess that there will be two trends relevant to platform co-operativism that will shape how our economic system works.

Trend 1: Increasingly diverse models of... Read more

09/25/2019

This week's UN Climate Action Summit will be tricky for agribusiness CEOs. With forest fires raging in the Amazon, a damning new report about... Read more

Ronnie Cummins

01/01/2020

“They say the darkest hour is right before the dawn.”
– Bob Dylan, “Blood on the Tracks,” 1975

Beyond the media smog, the 24/7 fixation on the Trump cesspool and the endless... Read more

Darlene Schanfald

12/23/2019

The EPA and states must insist municipalities investigate alternative methods for reuse of sewage wastes.

You may not realize it but some foods you eat may have been... Read more

Matt McGrath

12/12/2019

Environmentalists and observers have been barred from UN climate talks in Madrid after a protest inside the conference.

Around 200 climate campaigners were ejected after staging a sit in,... Read more

Johnny Magdaleno

11/27/2019

In California, near immense industrial farms, small plots are rented out to field laborers so they can try to create their own farm businesses.

SALINAS, Calif. — The Salinas Valley is... Read more

Jordan Davidson

12/12/2019

A school in Queensland, Australia sent a note home to parents asking them to send their children with extra water bottles since its water supply has run dry, according to the... Read more

Paul Brown

11/12/2019

LONDON − When countries run short of food, they need to find solutions fast, and one answer can be urban farming.

That was the remedy Cuba seized with both hands 30 years ago when it... Read more

11/07/2019

Council of Canadians Honorary Chairperson Maude Barlow was in Los Angeles yesterday to help celebrate the city’s designation as a Blue Community.

Los Angeles is now the first major city in the U... Read more

A Reflection by Michael T. Hertz

11/08/2019

Yesterday, I went to a protest in San Miguel de Allende against a new gold mine in Dolores Hidalgo. A Canadian company wants to start yet another open pit mining operation in the Man Miguel region,... Read more

10/24/2019

The French government has passed a law that could revolutionize barbecues, picnics, and birthdays. Starting in 2020, most plastic cups, plates and cutlery will be totally banned. 

Introduced at... Read more

Julie Wilson

10/10/2019

Organic farming is a win-win for people, animals and the planet. But it’s so much more than a set of... Read more

A global campaign launched by UNECE Executive Secretary Olga Algayerova to promote climate action in cities

10/05/2019

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has said that climate change is “the battle of my life.” He is not the only one.

Climate change is a battle we are all fighting. More than ever, cities... Read more

Tom Perkins

10/05/2019

Residual sludge from treating waste water has been turned into a money-spinner but what are the costs to health of ‘the most pollutant-rich manmade substance on Earth’?

By some estimates,... Read more

Somini Sengupta and Lisa Friedman

09/24/2019

Speaking at the United Nations climate summit, the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg delivered a speech criticizing world leaders for their inaction on protecting the environment.

... Read more

09/19/2019

Film by Swedish activist and Guardian journalist George Monbiot says nature must be used to repair broken climate

The protection and restoration of living ecosystems such as... Read more

09/23/2019

On Friday, September 20, an estimated 400 to 500 people in San Miguel de Allende joined millions of people around the globe to demand "an end to the age of fossil fuels." The global climate strikes in... Read more

09/23/2019

On Saturday, September 21, the removal of 41 trees was scheduled to begin on Avenida Guadalupe in front of the San Juan de Dios market. The trees, which line the center of the street, are more than 20... Read more

08/18/2019

Climate activist Greta Thunberg will cross the Atlantic on a zero-emissions sailboat on her way to speak at the UN Climate Action Summit on September 23.

Setting off mid-August from an... Read more

Jackie Flynn Mogensen

08/30/2019

It’s called “wishcycling,” and pretty much all of us do it.

If you’re like me, you’ve looked at a paper coffee cup or an empty tube of toothpaste and thought, “Is this... Read more

Victor Feldman

09/02/2019

Fairlee, Vermont — Americans are more concerned about climate change than ever. An average of national polls conducted by... Read more

Kirsten James and Barbara Grady

08/02/2019

Last year California set a goal to become carbon-neutral by 2045. Some called it unrealistic, while we call it mission-critical. But how do we get there? As we search for ways to reduce greenhouse gas... Read more

Dr. Max Liboiron

12/21/2018

Nain is the most northern Inuit community in Nunatsiavut, Canada. It was ... Read more

Ellen Knickmeyer / AP

07/31/2019

(WASHINGTON) — A conservative lawyer and writer who argues for selling off the nation’s public lands is now in charge of a nearly quarter-billion acres in federally held rangeland and other wilderness... Read more

Joseph G. Allen

07/25/2019

Joseph G. Allen is assistant professor at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and faculty adviser to the Harvard Healthy Building Materials Academy.

Here’s a question: Do you... Read more

Lyndsay Walsh

07/23/2019

Do you prefer to hear good news or bad news first? I will begin by giving you the (unsurprisingly) bad news. Today’s world is an unequal place. Standards of living vary massively both between and... Read more

Daniela Schulman

07/23/2019

“The land that my father has given me, I hope to be able to pass on to my children in good condition, so that they can pass it on to future generations and that for them it will be even better than... Read more

11/27/2017

[The Education Collaborative is including this 2017 news as background information on the current protests in Dolores Hidalgo.]

Toronto, Ontario - Argonaut Gold Inc. (... Read more

Pat Thomas

06/21/2019

If the biotech industry has its way, the meat, eggs and milk on your plate could soon come from genetically engineered farm animals—and without laws requiring these products to be labeled, you’ll never... Read more

Janet Cotter

06/20/2019

On June 11, President Donald Trump issued an executive order to "streamline" GMO regulations in the US. Trump's order also aims to brainwash the US people into accepting GMOs. There is to be no open... Read more

Desmond Brown

06/20/2019

ANKARA, With two-thirds of the world’s population projected to be living in cities by 2050, increasing pressure continues to be placed on forests which are being cleared to make way for agricultural... Read more

Baher Kamal

05/20/2019

Amazingly organised social communities, bees ensure food chain. ‘Bee’ grateful to them… at least on their World Day! While the (surprisingly) still called homo sapiens continue to destroy... Read more

05/07/2019

Where, when, and how work is done is changing. Advances in artificial intelligence, automation, and data processing continue to shift responsibilities from workers to digital systems. These disruptions... Read more

Phil McCausland

05/20/2019

Annually, for weeks at a time over his more than 30 years of farming, John Barton would spray a thousand gallons of Roundup every day to kill the weeds springing up among his cotton crop outside... Read more

Bob Quinn

05/10/2019

Agricultural chemicals aren't helping us to be better farmers or make more money. Rather they are harming our health and undermining the economic and agronomic viability of our farms.

As a kid... Read more

Desmond Brown

04/29/2019

Jamaica and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are embracing renewable energy as part of their plans to become decarbonised in the coming decades.

The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew... Read more