“The local food movement is going nowhere.” That’s according to my friend Mike. Mike is an intern at a nearby sustainable, organic farm, and he told me this while we were sitting at a locally-owned restaurant eating grass-fed bison burgers…

Data from the Rodale Institute’s long-running comparison of organic and conventional cropping systems confirms that organic methods are far more effective at removing the greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, from the atmosphere and fixing it as beneficial organic matter in the soil. Consider this fact: If only 10,000 medium sized farms in the U.S. converted to organic production, they would store so much carbon in the soil that it would be equivalent to taking 1,174,400 cars off the road, or reducing car miles driven by 14.62 billion miles. Right now, I’m on an initial conference call of the ad hoc Interfaith Food and Agriculture group, which is convened by Rodale. We are sorting through who else should be part of the conversation and what we might do together…

My eldest son loves blackberries. They have been his favorite food since he was old enough to pick them himself. Even when he was quite young he was not deterred by the thorns, which can be vicious on the wild…

Days ahead of the Summit, the negotiations on the Draft Declaration of the Summit are entering their final stage. What is at stake is our ability to take the necessary steps towards a global food system that will make decisive progress towards realizing the human right to adequate food and building our resilience against the risk of future economic shocks and increasing volatility of food prices. The Declaration coming out of the Summit should be coherent, ambitious and unambiguous on five issues: the right to food, governance, sustainability, trade, and the strengthening of international cooperation.

While it may be obvious to say this, it’s sometimes hard to remember: Our food, everything we eat and drink, comes from somewhere, not just the back room of the local grocery store. Coffee, in particular, has to get from…

Whilst The Co-operative and others are investigating what could be causing the disappearance of bees, here are some simple (and fun) things you can do to learn more and help save the bee. 1) Call for pesticides research Help secure funds for a systematic review of the impact of pesticides on our most important pollinators.Learn more… 2) Bee-friendly gardening Each and every one of us can make a difference, by encouraging bees into our own back gardens, patio pots and even window boxes. Learn more… 3) Take up beekeeping There’s an estimated 40,000 beekeepers in the UK. The majority of these keep bees as a hobby – it’s much easier to do than you’d think! So, if you’re really interested in helping bees, why not think about becoming an amateur beekeeper Learn more… 4) Sign up to Plan Bee There’s so much going on with The Co-operative’s Plan Bee campaign. Register to be the first to hear about campaign news and how to get more involved. Learn more… 5) Become a Co-operative Member There are lots of other ways to get involved with The Co-operative. Find out more about what we do and how you can become a Member. Learn more…

Peasants, landless workers, migrants, indigenous peoples and consumers, identified transnational corporations, especially Monsanto, which, together with Syngenta, Dupont and Bayer control over half of the world’s seeds, and are thus the principal enemies of peasant sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty for all peoples.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack’s addreses 600 folk gathered here at the Community Food Security Coalition Conference in Des Moines. He uses the story of the feeding of the 5000 to make his point about the culture of sharing that needs to be cultivated in this country. Some were against his appointment but the efforts they are making to support community food programs and better nutrition for kids are impressive. Jill Richardson, on the La Vida Locavore, reports how he avoided answering questions about the paradox of supporting community food programs and large-scale, mechanized agriculture by going on and on about Afghanistan – “Vilsack filibusters – then gets booed and hissed”

When you visit Iowa, you’re nearly guaranteed to see three things: corn, soy beans, and hog confinements. Those were the focus of the field trip I attended yesterday at the Community Food Security Coalition Conference To be totally blunt about it, maybe you’ve wondered: why are farmers so stupid that they keep growing corn and soybeans year after year?

Today is known in many countries as “Columbus Day” to celebrate Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the Discovery of the Americas. But this “discovery” of a continent of people (with thousands of years of previous existence) is not a celebratory event…