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Wall Street speculators need tough limits
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) should limit excessive speculation by Wall Street firms to help address extreme volatility in energy and agricultural markets. IATP has submitted comments to the CFTC - which is accepting public comments on a proposed rule to limit speculation through April 26.
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Market Deregulation and Food Prices
The Spring 2010 issue of Food Ethics Magazine examines how our global finance system has undermined food security. IATP's Steve Suppan reports on how commodity market deregulation in the U.S. affects food prices.
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IATP Trade Observatory | Geneva Update: Documenting the WTO
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Beyond the USDA
USDA is not the only federal body influencing what, and how, food is raised and consumed in the United States: many other spheres of governance shape our food system. This report details opportunities for change—and funding—in government agencies other than the USDA that can help create a healthier, more sustainable food system.
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Farm to School in Minnesota
The number of Minnesota school districts purchasing fresh food from local farms has more than doubled in the last 15 months, according to a new survey by the Minnesota School Nutrition Association (MSNA) and IATP.
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IATP Ag Observatory | Environment and Agriculture Program
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Farm Bill is Lost Opportunity
The 2008 Farm Bill continues a path of deregulation that has increased market volatility to the benefit of global food companies. IATP comments on the Farm Bill conference agreement of May 13.
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IATP Ag Observatory | Latest headlines
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Fueling Antibiotic Resistance?
The ethanol industry could immediately stop the unnecessary use of antibiotics at production facilities because better alternatives are readily available, finds a new IATP investigation.
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Assessing Biofuels' Carbon Footprint
In a commentary published in the Star Tribune, IATP President Jim Harkness, Michael Noble of Fresh Energy and Patrick Moore of Clean Up the River Environment discuss biofuels and global climate change.
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Latest headlines | Rural Communities Program | In the Field blog
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Food Systems and Public Health
There is a disconnect between agriculture policy and public health. The latest issue of the Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition offers a great collection of ideas on how to make our food system healthier, including contributions from IATP's Dr. David Wallinga and Mark Muller.
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Cheap food policy contributing to childhood obesity
A decades-old “cheap food” policy has helped create a broken U.S. food system where unhealthy foods are both cheaper and more available to children than are healthy foods, writes the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s David Wallinga, M.D. in a new article in the influential journal, Health Affairs.
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IATP Health Observatory | Food and Health Program
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Child Nutrition
As Congress takes up the reauthorization of the Child Nutrition Act, IATP's Food and Society Fellows report in a new digest that unhealthy food environments are detrimental to the long-term health and educational success of children.
We also spoke with Rosemary Dederichs, the Director of Nutrition for the Minneapolis Public Schools. She also served on the Institute of Medicine's commission that revised the nutritional standards for the Child Nutrition Act.
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Reports
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Fact sheets
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IATP News
February 2010
Ideas for a healthier food system, hunger and human rights, a Copenhagen climate wrap-up and more...
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February 22
Radio Sustain's Child Nutrition Edition: Former USDA official Rod Leonard discusses the origins of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, Director of Nutrition for Minneapolis Public Schools Rosemary Dederichs talks about new USDA child nutrition standards, and JoAnne Berkenkamp fills us in on the state of farm to school in Minnesota.
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Brownbag lunch: Free Trade and Food Security in West Africa
Wednesday, March 24, 11:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m.
IATP, 2104 Stevens Avenue South, Minneapolis
What role have neoliberal policies played in Africa’s rising hunger rates? A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looks at the effect of two decades of neoliberal policies on food production and household livelihoods in the Western Africa countries of Gambia, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali. Macalester Geography professor Dr. William Moseley was the lead author of the study, which looks at rice, cotton and sorghum production and food security in the three countries.
Dr. Moseley will present his findings at an informal brownbag lunch at IATP’s Stevens building. Please bring your lunch and join us!
Please RSVP to events@iatp.org
Sustainable Alternatives to Conventional Agriculture
Thursday, April 8
7:30–9:00 p.m.
Bell Museum, University of Minnesota—Minneapolis campus
Rural areas are experiencing significant population losses, and industrial farms are not sustainable in the long term. What can be done to revitalize rural communities and ensure environmental stewardship in farming practices?
Speakers:
Kathy Draeger, director of the Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships and Big Stone County farmer;
Jim Kleinschmit, director of IATP's Rural Communities program
Film:
"A Farm for the Future" (2009) investigates how to transform a family's farm into a low-energy farm for the future and discovers that nature holds the key. Originally aired on the BBC's Natural World series. 50-minute run time.
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A joint project of IATP and Minneapolis' Wedge Coop to support sustainable food systems.
Commentaries