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2020-04-20
Tiny Beam Fund;
HIGHLIGHTS: *Shines a bright light on several fundamental cultural drivers of meat consumption in Argentina: 1) Powerful belief system in favor of eating meat. 2) Deep stigmatization of veganism. 3) Pervasive narratives and behavior justifying meat-eating that most people consider as "common sense" and which are sustained by institutions (e.g. healthcare, legal, education systems). *Suggests a range of practical measures to tackle challenges faced by those seeking to reduce and end consumption of animal-based food in that country (e.g. influence school curricula and train teachers, professionalize the vegan activist community).
2020-04-20
Tiny Beam Fund;
KEYWORDS: Chickens and eggs. Industrial production. Consumption. Guatemala. HIGHLIGHTS: *This report or Guidance Memo explains the major role played by: (1) a few powerful home-grown businesses and brands, (2) cross-border and international trade and policies, in flooding Guatemala with industrially-produced chickens in the last half century. *It brings to the fore public health, food justice, and other significant issues that should be emphasized in campaigns to defeat "industrial chicken" there. *The Guidance Memo also exposes assertions and myths that help to hold in place chickens' current popularity with consumers (e.g. the claim that producing chickens industrially is important to the country's economy, but the fact is that economic benefits accrue mainly to the country's most powerful families like the Gutiérrez-Bosches who own Pollo Campero and Pollo Rey). *Provides practical strategies and actions that one can take to turn things round (e.g. challenge industry claims through magazine articles and social media, valorize indigenous culinary knowledge and promote consumption of nutrient-rich native legumes, form alliance across permaculture and other food movements).
2020-04-20
Tiny Beam Fund;
HIGHLIGHTS: *Using information gathered from visits to field sites and interviews with farmers in 2019, the authors of this report or Guidance Memo document the challenges faced by socially and economically-marginalized women in the Northern Mountainous Region (NMR) of Vietnam who raise local or heritage pigs on small-scales to supplement their family income. *These women have been greatly affected by recent growth in industrial-scale pork production in Vietnam. *Moreover, the African Swine Fever crisis in northern Vietnam in mid/late 2019 threatens to put an end to raising local/heritage breeds on small scales in NMR. *But there is clear evidence that smaller-scale pork production in NMR is viable and is good socially, economically, environmentally, and for animal welfare. *A number of concrete, practical ways to support small-scale producers are suggested, from providing training in pig breeding to simple steps like teaching the small producers to use Facebook to attract customers.
2020-04-10
Tiny Beam Fund;
HIGHLIGHTS: *This report or Guidance Memo is aimed at supporting cage-free egg production operations in China. It provides information regarding international best practices in relation to farm productivity and animal welfare in the context of the Chinese egg industry. *Collaborating and in consultation with local Chinese producers and animal welfare experts, and based on her surveys of cage-free farms in China, the author of this Guidance Memo offers practical information for key housing and management issues, including: Disease management; egg production; the provision of an appropriate environment; maintaining normal hen behaviors and avoiding mortality; humane killing on farm. *There is an emphasis on the importance in understanding, training and investment in key management aspects, particularly the prevention and control of severe feather pecking and infectious diseases in order to maintain a healthy flock and operate a successful and profitable production business. *This report shows compellingly that improving cage-free layer hen welfare in China is quite feasible and such improvement is hugely beneficial for producers and layer hens. Higher welfare cage-free systems are indeed increasing in China even though the vast majority of eggs in China are still produced in facilities with cages. *A Chinese translation of this Guidance Memo is available in late 2020.
2020-03-20
Tiny Beam Fund;
Keywords: GHG emissions. Industrial-scale food animal production. Extensive animal agriculture systems. Highlights of this report or guidance memo: *Scientific literature on greenhouse gas emissions of various forms of animal agriculture systems are synthesized. *Explains the complexities of models used to generate estimates of GHGs in these scientific literature, and the reasons why they are not very robust and they contain errors that often go unreported. *Points out that high-quality measurements that do exist consistently demonstrate that industrial animal agriculture's emissions are actually higher than typically estimated. Therefore the claim held by many experts and policy-makers that intensifying animal agriculture significantly limits global GHG emissions is unjustified. *Cautions about not jumping to the conclusion that extensive, pastoral systems is the perfect answer.
2019-12-12
Tiny Beam Fund;
KEYWORDS: Beef and dairy production systems. GHG emissions. Literature review. Science-based communication. HIGHLIGHTS: *Provides user-friendly explanation of basic concepts and terminology as well as summaries of current scientific thinking related to GHG emissions of different beef and dairy production systems around the world. The aim is to give those concerned about the negative impacts of industrial animal agriculture a clear understanding of these complex and confusing issues, and to supply them with a solid foundation on which to build their case against industrializing cattle production in low- and middle-income countries. For example, it explains the difference between "intensification" and "industrialization", and why understanding the difference is critically important. *Provides key points that are useful in countering certain prevalent claims in favor of industrialization. (One such claim is that industrialization is essential in order to reduce GHG emission because non-industrial systems generate too much greenhouse gases and do not produce enough meat and dairy to meet global demands). For example, it points out that: Animals from smallholder systems – especially those in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) – often perform many more functions than cattle on industrial farms, and this complicates the way in which emissions are divided between ("allocated to") multiple products from a farm. And farms in LMICs that have low climate footprints already exist, and it is quite possible to bring more on board.
2019-12-01
Michigan State University Center for Regional Food Systems;
This report is the first in a series summarizing a 2019 workforce assessment of Michigan's local and regional food system. The local and regional food system can be defined in a number of ways. For the purposes of this study, the local and regional food systems encompass organizations that produce, process, or distribute food from Michigan that is available to Michigan consumers, and/or organizations that support this system.
The research included: a scan of Michigan's food system jobs: where we collected and analyzed secondary labormarket data to identify local and regional food systems employment; demand; projected growth; median wages; and worker demographics, an employer's perspective of Michigan's local and regional food system workforce, and a scan of education and training opportunities in Michigan's local and regional food system: an inventory of education and training programs for local and regional food system jobs.
2019-10-13
Rockefeller Archive Center;
This report introduces the Turkish Wheat and Training Project, one of the Rockefeller Foundation's flagship agricultural programs in the Near East, and a relatively unstudied player in Turkey's "green revolution." From 1970 to 1982, the Ankara-based, multinational staff collected plant samples from around the world, experimented with high-yielding varieties of (mostly) winter wheat, facilitated Turkish scientists' education abroad, and advocated for wheat's centrality to the Turkish economy. While grafted from the green revolution's most emblematic institution—the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)—the Turkish Wheat Project had roots in two deeper processes: the concept that Turkey was not living up to its agricultural potential and Ankara's engagement with US aid and expertise. After sketching these themes with sources from the Rockefeller Archive Center, this report narrates the wheat project's origins, participants, activities, and shortcomings. While the project's role as an engine of Turkey's agricultural "modernization" was—and remains—difficult to assess, its archive, situated at a confluence of institutions and epistemologies, is a valuable source for approaching the histories of Turkish agriculture, the green revolution, and the Cold War.
2019-10-07
CIVICUS - World Alliance for Citizen Participation;
The Goalkeepers Youth Action Accelerator is a youth-led and multi-partner global programme dedicated to accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It brings together a pioneering and truly inspiring generation of 26 young and diverse leaders to address the world's major challenges. These leaders create impact by sharing powerful stories, analysing data, forming robust partnerships and ultimately holding governments accountable for their SDG promises.
This brief shares key outcomes, reflections and recommendations from the young people who have taken part in the Youth Action Accelerator programme. It suggests ways of ensuring strengthened and more meaningful youth engagement across partnerships, policies and programmes, specifically in the areas of resourcing, health, climate change and technology.
2019-10-07
Rockefeller Archive Center;
Wheat is one of the world's most important crops, source of almost a fifth of the world's calories. The Rockefeller Foundation has played a major role in wheat development, through its agricultural program of research, technical assistance, and educational extension. This work began with the foundation's support for the Mexican Agricultural Program in 1943, which later developed into the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). Over the following two decades, the foundation expanded its wheat program in South America, South Asia, and the Middle East. Yet while a number of scholars have examined the impacts of this work on wheat cultivation in Mexico and South Asia, little scholarship has looked at how this influence spread to the Middle East (with the exception of some work on Turkey.)
2019-10-01
Council of Development Finance Agencies;
Food serves as a foundation for neighborhoods, towns, and cities of all sizes - as a building block of local economies, and as a determinant of human and environmental health, as a medium of cultural expression, as a feature of the physical landscape. It can also act as a catalyst in places where there is great potential yet to be realized, where new investment is welcomed for new or continued progress. Although there has been hesitation in years past to direct financing to food businesses or food-related projects, the opportunity to rebuild local and regional food systems for the wellbeing of communities exists throughout the country.
This paper continues a white paper series demonstrating the ways in which traditional development financing is already supporting food systems, with a focus on finance tools that help to stimulate investment. An overview of this category of tools is provided, with examples of current programs as well as an extensive collection of case studies to illustrate how these tools can make an impact.
2019-09-01
Community GroundWorks;
This resource is based on "Got Veggies? A Garden-Based Nutrition Education Curriculum", first published in 2009. Got Veggies? ECE Edition builds on the lessons and activities in Got Veggies? by adapting them to meet best practices for the early care and education (ECE) setting. Each of the four themes and two à la carte activities are aligned to the Wisconsin Model Early Learning Standards and offer concepts and tools developmentally appropriate for children aged five and under.
Gardens provide an excellent learning environment for teaching young children through hands-on exploration. Teaching concepts like how a plant grows from a seed and the benefits of eating a variety of foods are well-suited to a garden setting. When provided an opportunity to grow, explore, and prepare food from the garden, children of all ages develop a deeply personal connection with the food that sustains them. Research shows that lifelong healthy habits formearly in childhood. This makes the early care and education setting the perfect place to support our youngest eaters through garden-based education!
