I would love an issue exploring all things food - from local farmers (how are workers paid/treated, how are small farmers making any money with all the cuts that came earlier this year), how Big Ag works, SNAP/WIC benefits (how investing in food access, particularly for children, is key to a healthy society), food deserts, how food pantries are currently struggling and how to help, etc.
Absolutely. I would love to see some additional aspects covered too: How/why the US has become a net food importer (despite big ag insisting that we feed the world), how federal policies/subsidies affect what can be insured and what crops are actually gown and where, why we have policies that make the ag industry so financially dependent on exports to China.
Living in an ag state, I would appreciate discussion about how the way we do ag affects the people that live there. Iowa has the 2nd highest rate of new cancers in the country, and still rising. It also has atrocious water quality from row crop agriculture and tens of millions of hogs alone in addition to other livestock in cafos, not to mention ethanol plants that recently released known carcinogens into the air for years and received such paltry fines that they certainly will not be a deterrent.
Here, here! 👏 Agricultural subsidies and tariffs, and their effects on the local economy and on trade. I would love to have a better framework for this. When I think of agricultural trade wars my mind jumps to interrupted trade/blocked food supply in WWII with the British land girls trying to cultivate every last scrap of land to feed the nation, and the siege of Leningrad where an entire city was essentially cordoned off and starved. Regarding a nation mismanaging its agricultural resources, I think of the Holodomor in Ukraine. Messing with food supply is serious business. These are extreme examples; but, in that context, are there any potentially severe consequences for our food supply in the current and foreseeable trade and domestic political climates? In what ways are we potentially sinking our own agricultural battleship, and what do those potential ramifications look like? Can a trade war turn into a real war? Food!
I would love an issue exploring all things food - from local farmers (how are workers paid/treated, how are small farmers making any money with all the cuts that came earlier this year), how Big Ag works, SNAP/WIC benefits (how investing in food access, particularly for children, is key to a healthy society), food deserts, how food pantries are currently struggling and how to help, etc.
Absolutely. I would love to see some additional aspects covered too: How/why the US has become a net food importer (despite big ag insisting that we feed the world), how federal policies/subsidies affect what can be insured and what crops are actually gown and where, why we have policies that make the ag industry so financially dependent on exports to China.
Living in an ag state, I would appreciate discussion about how the way we do ag affects the people that live there. Iowa has the 2nd highest rate of new cancers in the country, and still rising. It also has atrocious water quality from row crop agriculture and tens of millions of hogs alone in addition to other livestock in cafos, not to mention ethanol plants that recently released known carcinogens into the air for years and received such paltry fines that they certainly will not be a deterrent.
I like the tie into water quality. Looking further out we could ask what impact extreme weather events have on small farmers.
Here, here! 👏 Agricultural subsidies and tariffs, and their effects on the local economy and on trade. I would love to have a better framework for this. When I think of agricultural trade wars my mind jumps to interrupted trade/blocked food supply in WWII with the British land girls trying to cultivate every last scrap of land to feed the nation, and the siege of Leningrad where an entire city was essentially cordoned off and starved. Regarding a nation mismanaging its agricultural resources, I think of the Holodomor in Ukraine. Messing with food supply is serious business. These are extreme examples; but, in that context, are there any potentially severe consequences for our food supply in the current and foreseeable trade and domestic political climates? In what ways are we potentially sinking our own agricultural battleship, and what do those potential ramifications look like? Can a trade war turn into a real war? Food!
I just found out about the water pollution in Iowa from the farming practices. Its so awful!
Thank you for learning about it!
This is a great idea!