agriculture definition

The sugar program is back in the news. Alexandra Wexler of the Wall Street Journal reported this week,  Big Sugar Is Set for a Sweet Bailout:   Candy Makers Will Suffer if the U.S. Government Buys Sugar . I am not usually moved to write about my concerns for the candy industry. My concern about sugar generally goes in the other direction. For example, consider the upcoming IATP webinar,  Sickly Sweet: The Science and Policy of Fructose Overconsumption in America  (Mon., Mar. 18, 2013 11:00 a.m - 12:00 p.m. CDT) and the recent book by Michael Moss,  Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us. However, my interest peaked when I read the news reports that our "no-cost" federal sugar program may cost U.S. taxpayers a significant amount of money this year. And yet, I recently heard from a friend in Minnesota that sugar beet profits are way high - great crop last fall. So, I wanted to explore - The sugar program has been around for a long time. Although sugar supp...

That is the title of Professor Olivier De Schutter's op-ed in the  New York Times  today ,  but it reminds me of another catchy (if depressing) phrase feminists coined a few decades ago:   the feminization of poverty . As it turns out, De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the the right to food, brings together issues of gender equality and food security in his op-ed in a way that shows the link of both to, you guessed it, poverty.  As most of us know, women are more likely than men to be living in poverty, wherever they are in the world.  Turns out, according to De Shutter, as women get more and more responsibility for growing food in the developing world--partly as a result of male migration for work--women's poverty and hunger, along with that of their families, is exacerbated, not eliminated. Specifically, De Schutter discusses a report released today  to the United Nations Human Rights Council  in which he calls for a "comprehen...

I thought to follow up Susan�s post below with an introduction to �A Place at the Table� from the Los Angeles Times . �A Place at the Table� takes on hunger in the U.S. Filmmakers Kristi Jacobson and Lori Silverbush�s new documentary examines the politics and possible ways out. By John Horn, Los Angeles Times (February 28, 2013) When people think of hunger, they might picture a starving Third World child. The makers of the new documentary �A Place at the Table� suggest the face of undernourishment can be found much closer to home: Tens of millions of U.S. citizens go to bed hungry every night. �Americans are for the most part unaware of how vast the problem is,� said Kristi Jacobson. She co-directed the film, which premieres in limited release this weekend, with Lori Silverbush, who added, �You can�t see hunger in America.� In keeping with the modern wave of activist non-fiction filmmaking, �A Place at the Table� is no impartial documentary � albeit without a Michael Moore-like rabble...