Agriculture

COP16: The Convention on Biodiversity goes to Cali

On Oct. 21, representatives of the world’s governments will gather in Cali, Colombia for two weeks of negotiations, side events and maybe some big announcements, too. They will meet as the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD).

How to Fight a Factory Farm Episode Three: Communities Fight Back

In South Dakota, Iowa and all across factory farm country, everyday people are stepping up and organizing their neighbors to prevent factory farms from being built in their communities. How to fight a factory farm? People power.

How to Fight a Factory Farm Episode Two: The Price We Pay

What does it mean to get big or get out? As CAFOs began to take over livestock production in the U.S. through the 1990s, the consequences of this corporate-controlled, vertically-integrated system rippled throughout rural economies, putting smaller independent farmers and their suppliers out of business, and trapping others in debt and dependence on exploitative meat companies.

The Complicated Challenge of Protecting Peru's Forests

Agricultural commodity exports are driving deforestation around the world, spurred by consumer demand and directed by enormous agribusiness and finance interests.

Speaking on Factory Farms

The Congressional staffer moved up in their chair and looked up from the notepad with a quizzical expression. These farmers were asking for more regulation of the meat industry? They didn’t like factory farming and what it was doing to rural communities? And they wanted the government to stop subsidizing this factory farm system for livestock and dairy?

How to Fight a Factory Farm Episode One: Raising a Stink

What is a concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO), and what does it mean that nearly all farm animals in the U.S. are now raised in them? Independent family farmers and rural communities are facing the brunt of these consequences, but they're not going to take it lying down.

Hay’s in the field and a storm is brewing: Another year without a new Farm Bill?

You can’t make hay unless the sun is shining. If the Farm Bill is hay, and the sunshine is time left in Congress’s schedule, then the sunshine is waning for a new Farm Bill to be passed before the current bill’s Sept. 30 expiration date.