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US: Food Security

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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.

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

Email address for group

us-food-security@m.resiliencesystem.org

The Elders of Organic Farming

      

Tom Willey, left, and Jim Gerritsen converse in the Esalen garden in Big Sur, Calif.
Peter DaSilva for The New York Times

nytimes.com - by Carol Pogash - January 24, 2014

BIG SUR, Calif. — Among the sleek guests who meditate and do Downward Facing Dog here at the Esalen Institute, the farmers appeared to be out of place. . .

. . . For nearly a week, two dozen organic farmers from the United States and Canada shared decades’ worth of stories, secrets and anxieties, and during breaks they shared the clothing-optional baths.

The agrarian elders, as they were called, were invited to Esalen because the organizers of the event wanted to document what these rock stars of the sustainable food movement knew and to discuss an overriding concern: How will they be able to retire and how will they pass their knowledge to the next generation?

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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How Our Food Has Become a Dangerous Addiction

Picture of a hamburger. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/ Jacek ChabraszewskiPhoto: Picture of a hamburger. Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/ Jacek Chabraszewski

alternet.org - Anthony Winson - December 2nd, 2013

In many of the food environments we encounter on a day-to-day basis, it is becoming difficult to find whole foods in anything like their natural form.

Healthy nuts are rendered unhealthy by prodigious amounts of added salt and sweet "honey" glazes.

Yoghurt is laced with copious amounts of sugar or high-fructose corn syrup sweetener, typically the equivalent of seven teaspoons of sugar in a small serving size.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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Hunger Is Rising Across U.S., Say City Leaders

Food being served.

Image: Food being served.

nation.time.com - December 11, 2013 - Denver Nicks

Hunger is on the rise in major cities across the United States, according to a new survey released Wednesday by the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

In the survey of mayors in 25 major American cities, 83 percent said requests for emergency food aid had increased over last year while budgets for emergency food purchases increased by less than one percent. Across all 25 cities, 21 percent of those applying for assistance did not receive it.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)
(VIEW 120-PAGE PDF REPORT - The United States Conference of Mayors - Hunger and Homelessness Survey)

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North Dakota Oil Spill: Tesoro Corp. Pipeline Breaks Near Tioga; Dumps More Than 20,000 Barrels Of Crude

www.huffingtonpost.com - October 10, 2013 - AP by James MacPherson

North Dakota Oil Spill

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — More than 20,000 barrels of crude oil have spewed out of a Tesoro Corp. oil pipeline in a wheat field in northwestern North Dakota, the state Health Department said Thursday.

State environmental geologist Kris Roberts said the 20,600-barrel spill, among the largest recorded in the state, was discovered on Sept. 29 by a farmer harvesting wheat about nine miles north of Tioga.

Steve Jensen, the farmer, said he'd smelled crude several days before the tires on his combines were coated with it. At the apparent break in the underground pipeline, the oil was "spewing and bubbling six inches high," Jensen said.

[Read entire article]

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New York's Looming Food Disaster

      

Julio and Belinda Ramos, who were hit with a power outage, hold their eight-year-old son Charles as they stand in line to pick up food supplies at a grocery store after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. (Adrees Latif/Reuters)

theatlanticcities.com - by Siddhartha Mahanta - October 21, 2013

In New York City, locating a bite to eat is rarely a difficult task. The city is a food paradise or, depending on your mood, a place of overwhelming glut.

But when Superstorm Sandy pummeled New York last fall, it revealed the terrifying potential for sudden food shortages.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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House GOP Works For Votes On Food Stamp Measure

huffingtonpost.com - by Mary Clare Jalonick - September 18, 2013

Republican House leaders are working to line up votes for nearly $4 billion in annual food stamp cuts, but some GOP moderates are questioning if that is too much.

The bill also would end government waivers that have allowed able-bodied adults who don't have dependents to receive food stamps indefinitely.

"I think the cuts are too drastic and too draconian," says Republican Rep. Michael Grimm of New York, who represents Staten Island, which was hard hit by Hurricane Sandy last year. "Those that really need the program will suffer."

- Read Full Article -

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Food stamps again a vivid symbol in poverty debate

Updated 6:40 pm, Saturday, September 21, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — Food stamps have figured in Americans' ideas about the poor for decades, from President Lyndon Johnson's vision of a Great Society to President Ronald Reagan's scorn for crooked "welfare queens" and President Bill Clinton's pledge to "end welfare as we know it."

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Chapter 7. Grain Yields Starting to Plateau - Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity

earth-policy.org

Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity

Chapter 7. Grain Yields Starting to Plateau

by Lester R. Brown

From the beginning of agriculture until the mid-twentieth century, growth in the world grain harvest came almost entirely from expanding the cultivated area. Rises in land productivity were too slow to be visible within a single generation. It is only within the last 60 years or so that rising yields have replaced area expansion as the principal source of growth in world grain production.

Chapter 7. Grain Yields Starting to Plateau
http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep/fpepch7

Full Planet, Empty Plates: The New Geopolitics of Food Scarcity
http://www.earth-policy.org/books/fpep

( ALSO SEE - http://resiliencesystem.org/chapter-4-food-or-fuel-full-planet-empty-plates-new-geopolitics-food-scarcity )

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Farmers Fight to Get River Flowing to Save Businesses

khou.com - July 26, 2013

MATAGORDA COUNTY, Texas --Rice farmers in Matagorda County said they will no longer be able to farm much rice if they don’t get any water within the next two years.

An estimated 200 farmers just southeast of Houston face the same fate.

A canal that was once filled with water is now bone dry. Farmers said it’s the worst drought they’ve ever seen.

Farm to Freezer - Preserving Fresh Food to Nourish the Hungry

submitted by Gina Angiola

Cheryl Kollin at TEDxManhattan 2013 - March 11, 2013

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