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Wed, 2011-10-26 00:45 — mdmcdonald
Food supply, food politics, and food safety in the US, inclusive of global concerns and needs

Group focusing upon the food security needs of the US, and world.

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Members

Allen Clark Bob Ross Carl Taylor Christine Springer Corey Watts david hastings
drvroeg Gavin Macgregor... John Hoffman Kathy Gilbeaux LintonWells LuisKun
Maeryn Obley mdmcdonald Michael Gresalfi Rahul Gupta Ray Shirkhodai Samuel Bendett
Siftar Tim Stephens tom.mcginn William Lyerly
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us-food-security@m.resiliencesystem.org

A Grim Holiday Season Awaits America’s Hungry

Sat, 2015-11-28 17:57 — Kathy Gilbeaux

       

A pallet of canned food sits in a warehouse at the SF-Marin Food Bank on November 13, 2015 in San Francisco
Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

america.aljazeera.com - by Ned Resnikoff - November 26, 2015

. . . When ... households run out of money and food stamp benefits, many turn to food pantries and soup kitchens. At this time of year, emergency food assistance charities — often referred to as “the last line of defense against hunger” by the people who manage them — see a sharp spike in the number of meals they distribute per month.

That spike would be a challenge under normal conditions. The past few years, however, have been anything but normal for food assistance charities. Besides the usual ebb and flow of seasonal demand, soup kitchens and food pantries are now struggling to address skyrocketing year-round demand for emergency aid.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Food
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Problem
Situation Report

A Seismic Shift in How People Eat

Wed, 2015-11-11 16:44 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

Sarah Illenberger, photograph by Sabrina Rynas

nytimes.com - by HANS TAPARIA and PAMELA KOCH - November 6, 2015

It's easy to make fun of people in big cities for their obsession with gluten, or chia seeds, or cleanses.

But urbanites are not the only ones turning away from the products created by big food companies. Eating habits are changing across the country and food companies are struggling to keep up.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Food
Health
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Situation Report

Syrian Civil War Prompts First Withdrawal From Doomsday Seed Vault In The Arctic

Wed, 2015-09-23 21:25 — Maeryn Obley

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault was opened on Feb. 26, 2008. Carved into the Arctic permafrost and filled with samples of the world's most important seeds, it's a Noah's Ark of food crops to be used in the event of a global catastrophe. AFP/Getty Images

Image: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault was opened on Feb. 26, 2008. Carved into the Arctic permafrost and filled with samples of the world's most important seeds, it's a Noah's Ark of food crops to be used in the event of a global catastrophe. AFP/Getty Images

npr.org - September 23rd, 2015

A tall rectangular building juts out of a mountainside on a Norwegian island just 800 miles from the North Pole. Narrow and sharply edged, the facility cuts an intimidating figure against the barren Arctic background. But the gray building holds the key to the earth's biodiversity.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
General Topic Tags: 
Agriculture
Climate
Food
Resilience
War
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Problem

Rate Of U.S. 'Food Insecurity' Stubbornly High

Fri, 2015-09-11 10:24 — Kathy Gilbeaux

            

A shopper shops for food at a grocery store in Illinois.  CREDIT: BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES

Despite an improving economy, many Americans struggle to get enough good food.

huffingtonpost.com - by Arthur Delaney - September 9, 2015

WASHINGTON -- Fourteen percent of U.S. households lacked access to enough good food at some point last year, according to the latest annual food insecurity estimate from the federal government. . . .

. . . despite an improving economy, the rate is much higher than the 11.1 percent seen in 2007, before the onset of the Great Recession. 

"It's just appalling that in this country -- when at least from a GDP point of view we have a larger economy than we did before the recession -- we have millions more people struggling with hunger," James Weill, president of the Food Research & Action Center, an anti-hunger advocacy group, said in an interview. 

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

CLICK HERE - RESEARCH REPORT - USDA - Household Food Security in the United States in 2014

Country / Region Tags: 
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Food
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Problem
Situation Report

Vertical 'Pinkhouses:' The Future Of Urban Farming?

Fri, 2015-08-14 13:00 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

This "pinkhouse" at Caliber Biotherapeutics in Bryan, Texas, grows 2.2 million plants under the glow of blue and red LEDs.  Courtesy of Caliber Therapeutics

npr.org - by Michaeleen Doucleff - May 21, 2013

The future of vertical farming . . . lies not in city skyscrapers, but rather in large warehouses located in the suburbs, where real estate and electricity are cheaper.

And oh, yeah, instead of being traditional greenhouses lit by fluorescent lamps . . . these plant factories will probably be "pinkhouses," glowing magenta from the mix of blue and red LEDs.

Vertical farmers can lower the energy bill . . . by giving plants only the wavelengths of light they need the most: the blue and red.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

(ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLE HERE)

Country / Region Tags: 
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Agriculture
Food
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Solutions

What Would You Do if Restaurants and Your Local Grocery Store Closed Tomorrow?

Thu, 2015-04-16 23:07 — Kathy Gilbeaux

           

huffingtonpost.com - by Joseph Agoada - April 14, 2015

If all the supermarkets and restaurants in your neighborhood closed their doors tomorrow, would you know how to source your next meal? Would you be able to survive in a world without a local grocery store or eatery? While the thought of losing your local market may seem extreme, hundreds of thousands of people around the world are faced with the daily challenge of finding the food to fuel their day.

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Country / Region Tags: 
Global
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Agriculture
Food
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Solutions
Problem

US faces worst droughts in 1,000 years, predict scientists

Sun, 2015-02-15 13:21 — Maeryn Obley

Cattle roam dirt-brown fields on the outskirts of Delano, in California’s Central Valley. Scientists predict future droughts will be far worse than the one in California. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images

Image: Cattle roam dirt-brown fields on the outskirts of Delano, in California’s Central Valley. Scientists predict future droughts will be far worse than the one in California. Photograph: Frederic J Brown/AFP/Getty Images

theguardian.com - February 12 2015 - Suzanne Goldenberg

The US south-west and the Great Plains will face decade-long droughts far worse than any experienced over the last 1,000 years because of climate change, researchers said on Thursday.

The coming drought age – caused by higher temperatures under climate change – will make it nearly impossible to carry on with current life-as-normal conditions across a vast swathe of the country.

Country / Region Tags: 
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Agriculture
Climate
Collapse
Drought
Ecosystems
Research
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Problem

Zoetis Granted Conditional License by USDA for PEDv Vaccine

Sun, 2014-09-07 17:34 — Kathy Gilbeaux

submitted by Albert Gomez     

          

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, February 1, 2013.  Credit: Reuters/Brendan McDermid

reuters.com - by P.J. Huffstutter and Tom Polansek - September 3, 2014

(Reuters) - Zoetis Inc has received a conditional license from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its vaccine against a deadly piglet virus and will begin selling it this month in the United States, the company said on Wednesday.

Shares of Zoetis, the world's largest animal-health company, reached an all-time high of $36.65 and were up 0.7 percent at $35.73 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

With its new vaccine, Zoetis joins a growing push by both the agriculture and pharmaceutical industries to combat the spread of porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDv), which has killed about 13 percent of the U.S. hog herd over the past year.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Food
Health
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Solutions
Situation Report

In shadow of oil boom, North Dakota farmers fight contamination

Sun, 2014-09-07 14:45 — Maeryn Obley

North Dakota is in the midst of an oil boom. Farmers are coping with the environmental and financial costs of wastewater spills from the drilling.Dermot Tatlow / LAIF / Redux

Image: North Dakota is in the midst of an oil boom. Farmers are coping with the environmental and financial costs of wastewater spills from the drilling.Dermot Tatlow / LAIF / Redux

america.aljazeera.com - September 6th, 2014 - Laura Gottesdiener

Last summer, in a wet, remote section of farm country in Bottineau County, landowner Mike Artz and his two neighbors discovered that a ruptured pipeline was spewing contaminated wastewater into his crop fields.

“We saw all this oil on the low area, and all this salt water spread out beyond it,” said his neighbor Larry Peterson, who works as a farmer and an oil-shale contractor. “The water ran out into the wetland.”

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Agriculture
Energy
Environment
Food
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Problem

Seeking A Saner Food System, Three Times A Day

Sun, 2014-08-10 12:06 — Maeryn Obley

Image: Not all cows get to spend their days with soft green grass under hoof. For many, the picture isn't so pretty, according to the book Farmageddon.

Image: Not all cows get to spend their days with soft green grass under hoof. For many, the picture isn't so pretty, according to the book Farmageddon.

npr.org - July 31, 2014 - Barbara J. King

For Philip Lymbery, head of the U.K.-based Compassion in World Farming and his co-author Isabel Oakeshott, a visit to California's Central Valley amounted to an encounter with suffering.

In Farmageddon: The True Cost of Cheap Meat, Lymbery and Oakeshott write that the mega-dairies of the Central Valley are "milk factories where animals are just machines that rapidly break down and are replaced." At one huge dairy they visited, cows stood idly outdoors, some in shade and some in the sun.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Climate
Environment
Food
Water
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Situation Report

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