Commentaries

Stepping up: Will the G-20 allow the CFS to function? Will other countries allow the G-20 to stop them?

Rome, October 2011 – Multilateralism is in crisis. It is perhaps most evident in the painful and truly frightening failure of governments to come to grips with the implications of climate change. But it was also evident on a much less well-publicized stage in mid-October in Rome, where governments were gathered at the U.N.

Hungry for justice

This commentary was originally published September 29, 2011 on Twin Cities Runoff. The author, Chelsey Perkins, is a Food and Farm Journalism Intern at IATP.

Waiter, There's a Newfangled Technology in My Soup

Increasingly, the coatings that keep supermarket produce fresh-looking and the chemicals used in pesticide-intensive farming are incorporating nanotechnology. Nanomaterial residues in coated produce that could potentially fail to be washed away by consumers have been reportedly imported into the United States. What are the potential health, worker safety and environmental risks?

Landowners without land

Hundreds of thousands of American Indians own land on reservations, but few have access to it. The Cobell settlement will put almost $2 billion toward Indian land consolidation, but is it too little too late?

The hype versus the reality of carbon markets and land-based offsets: Lessons for the new Africa carbon exchange

Minneapolis, April 21, 2011 — The Africa Carbon Exchange (ACX) was launched in Nairobi on March 24; yet only two days before, Bloomberg headlines announced “Global Carbon Credits Die as Smart Money Backs Indian RECs (Renewable Energy Certificates).”1 While the ACX is positioning itself to be the