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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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Email address for group

us-food-security@m.resiliencesystem.org

Global Food Supply - We Need to Plan for System Failure

Wed, 2012-10-10 18:34 — Kathy Gilbeaux

ethicalcorp.com - by Mallen Baker - October 4, 2012

Mallen Baker argues that it’s irresponsible not to make contingency plans, especially when the potential failures concern the fundamentals – such as food

Imagine your critical business systems depend on one computer server. This server is huge – it has immense capacity – but you have grown into that space and now every single day you are pushing it to its limit. . .

. . . Now let’s substitute the global food system for the server. Here we have a system that is operating at full capacity. Any hiccups in normal production can lead to serious problems. This year we have seen such hiccups.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Country / Region Tags: 
Global
United States
General Topic Tags: 
Agriculture
Capacity
Disaster Risk Reduction
Food
Vulnerability
Problem, Solution, SitRep, or ?: 
Solutions
Problem

Ranchers See Increase in Grass Thefts Amid Drought

Sat, 2012-10-06 21:15 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

In this Sept. 26, 2012 photo, cattle graze on a ranch outside of Encino, N.M. With extreme drought drying out grazing land and driving up hay prices, authorities in drought-stricken states say some ranchers have started stealing hay, cutting neighbors’ fences or leaving gates open so their cattle can graze on greener pastures. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras)

finance.yahoo.com - by Russell Contreras - Associated Press - October 3, 2012

VAUGHN, N.M. (AP) — Petty crime and burglaries aren't unusual in New Mexico's isolated Guadalupe County, but lately Sheriff Michael Lucero has seen thieves steal something a bit unexpected: grass.

With drought drying out grazing land and driving up hay prices, some ranchers in New Mexico have started cutting neighbors' fences or leaving gates open so their cattle can graze on greener pastures.

Authorities in other drought-stricken states say they've seen similar fence cuttings, along with thefts of livestock and other materials as ranchers struggle to stay in business.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

Walmart Launches Fighting Hunger Together Fall Initiative To Deliver Up To 53 Million Meals and Give Consumers the Chance to Win a $50,000 “Golden Spark” for Their Community

Sat, 2012-10-06 00:51 — Kathy Gilbeaux

walmart.com

Consumers have two simple ways to help fight hunger alongside Walmart, Feeding America and 5 major food companies

Bentonville, Ark., Sept. 18, 2012 – Today Walmart ignites another initiative in the fight against hunger with the start of its $2.5 million “Golden Spark” promotion, giving consumers a chance to win “sparks” that will help fund childhood hunger programs in their communities.  The promotion is just one part of the company’s  Fighting Hunger Together fall initiative which brings together customers, associates, Feeding America and five of the nation’s largest food companies — ConAgra Foods, General Mills, Kellogg Company, Kraft Foods, and Unilever — to provide meals nationwide.

The campaign launches during Hunger Action Month when leading hunger advocates urge individuals to help fight hunger in their local communities. Following are the ways consumers can participate:

NECSI Food Briefing

Fri, 2012-10-05 20:05 — Kathy Gilbeaux

      

(CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE - .PDF FILE) - Food prices (black line) and food riots and the Arab Spring (red lines). See food riots paper.

necsi.edu - September 28, 2012 - Karla Z. Bertrand, Greg Lindsay, Yaneer Bar-Yam

This summer’s droughts in the American Midwest have pushed corn and wheat prices above their previous highs in 2011 and out of the reach of the world’s poorest, threatening to trigger a new wave of global unrest — perhaps even a second Arab Spring.

After a sharp rise in July — the steepest monthly climb since February 2011, according to the World Bank — prices stabilized in September at around $9.00 per bushel for wheat and $7.50 per bushel for corn. On Friday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that domestic corn supplies totaled 988 million bushels as of Sept. 1, the lowest level in eight years.

http://necsi.edu/research/social/foodprices/briefing/

(ALSO SEE RELATED ARTICLES IN THE LINKS BELOW)

The Food Crises and Political Instability in North Africa and the Middle East

Fri, 2012-10-05 19:45 — Kathy Gilbeaux

necsi.edu - August 10, 2011 - M. Lagi, K.Z. Bertrand, Y. Bar-Yam

Abstract

Social unrest may reflect a variety of factors such as poverty, unemployment, and social injustice. Despite the many possible contributing factors, the timing of violent protests in North Africa and the Middle East in 2011 as well as earlier riots in 2008 coincides with large peaks in global food prices. We identify a specific food price threshold above which protests become likely. These observations suggest that protests may reflect not only long-standing political failings of governments, but also the sudden desperate straits of vulnerable populations. If food prices remain high, there is likely to be persistent and increasing global social disruption. Underlying the food price peaks we also find an ongoing trend of increasing prices. We extrapolate these trends and identify a crossing point to the domain of high impacts, even without price peaks, in 2012-2013. This implies that avoiding global food crises and associated social unrest requires rapid and concerted action.

http://necsi.edu/research/social/foodcrises.html

USDA - U.S. Drought 2012: Farm and Food Impacts

Wed, 2012-10-03 18:08 — Kathy Gilbeaux

ers.usda.gov - September 25, 2012 update

The most severe and extensive drought in at least 25 years is seriously affecting U.S. agriculture, with impacts on the crop and livestock sectors and with the potential to affect food prices at the retail level. Below is current information on potential impacts of the drought on key commodities and food prices. We will update the material periodically as information becomes available.

(READ COMPLETE ARTICLE)

UPDATE (8-21-19): The government source within the link above has unpublished this report.  An archived version of this report can be accessed within the link below . . .

WEB ARCHIVE - USDA - U.S. Drought 2012: Farm and Food Impacts
https://web.archive.org/web/20130116030109/http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/in-the-news/us-drought-2012-farm-and-food-impacts.aspx

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

Ocean-Based Food Security Threatened in a High CO2 World

Tue, 2012-10-02 22:57 — Kathy Gilbeaux

oceana.org - September 24, 2012

Emissions from human activities are changing the ocean’s chemistry and temperature in ways that threaten the livelihoods of those who depend on fish and seafood for all or part of their diets. The changes may reduce the amount of wild caught seafood that can be supplied by the oceans and also redistribute species, changing the locations at which seafood can be caught and creating instability for ocean-based food security, or seafood security. This report ranks nations based on the seafood security hardships they may experience by the middle of this century due to changing ocean conditions from climate change and ocean acidification. This is done by combining each nation’s exposure to climate change and ocean acidification, its dependence on and consumption of fish and seafood and its level of adaptive capacity based on several socioeconomic factors. Country rankings are developed for risks from climate change and ocean acidification independently, as well as from both problems combined.

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

Probability Maps Help Detect Food Contamination

Mon, 2012-10-01 22:51 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Sandia's stochastic network metholodogy accelerates spread of food-borne illness // Source: sandia.gov

submitted by Luis Kun

Homeland Security News Wire - October 1, 2012

Researchers demonstrate how developing a probability map of the food supply network using stochastic network representation might shorten the time it takes to track down contaminated food sources; stochastic mapping shows what is known about how product flows through the distribution supply chain and provides a means to express all the uncertainties in potential supplier-customer relationships that persist due to incomplete information

Uncovering the sources of fresh food contamination could become faster and easier thanks to analysis done at Sandia National Laboratories’ National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC).

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

Questions to Stimulate Discourse Regarding A Collapse in Food Distribution Systems

Sun, 2012-09-23 18:10 — Kathy Gilbeaux

Michael McDonald’s Original E-Mail

 

From: Michael McDonald
Sent: Monday, September 17, 2012 5:48 AM
To: John T. Hoffman; Tom McGinn
Cc: Ross, Robert G; Linton Wells; Samuel Bendett; David A Hastings; Gresalfi, Michael; Timothy Siftar; Rahul Gupta; Luis Kun; Carl Taylor; gavin; Tim Stephens; Christine Springer; Lyerly, William; Gavin Mcgregor-Skinner; Ray Shirkhodai; Allen Clark; David Franz; Gary Vroegindewey
Subject: Questions to Stimulate Discourse Regarding A Collapse in Food Distribution Systems

 

John, Tom, and colleagues, 

 

I will be interacting with food distributors, state emergency managers, a state food council, and other food and emergency management stakeholders regarding preparations for a massive food crisis in the U.S.  They have asked for a series of general questions for stimulating a discussion about their management and governance in severe crises associated with food.  I would like to have your input into the framing of this discussion.  Many of the same questions need to be directed at medical supply distributers as well.  Here is the first draft series of my questions:

 

Alzheimer's could be the most catastrophic impact of junk food

Sun, 2012-09-16 20:19 — Maeryn Obley

Because regulation is light, the industry can kill off the only effective system for telling us how much fat, sugar and salt food contains. Photograph: Brownstock Inc/Alamy

Image: Because regulation is light, the industry can kill off the only effective system for telling us how much fat, sugar and salt food contains. Photograph: Brownstock Inc/Alamy

guardian.co.uk - September 10th, 2012 - George Monbiot

When you raise the subject of over-eating and obesity, you often see people at their worst. The comment threads discussing these issues reveal a legion of bullies who appear to delight in other people's problems.

When alcoholism and drug addiction are discussed, the tone tends to be sympathetic. When obesity is discussed, the conversation is dominated by mockery and blame, though the evidence suggests that it may be driven by similar forms of addiction.

(VIEW COMPLETE ARTICLE)

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