Each week, Food Tank is rounding up a few news stories that inspire excitement, infuriation, or curiosity.
Stronger Local Food and Farming Systems Needed to Stabilize Food Prices
A new report from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food) warns that shifting global politics are reshaping food security, and unless we change course, food prices, hunger, and corporate concentration are set to worsen.
Global food prices remain more than 35 percent above pre-pandemic levels, with conflict, trade tensions, aid cuts, and energy shocks disrupting supply chains and making food more expensive.
The authors argue that a heavy dependence on volatile global markets, high food imports, and long supply chains that are controlled by just a few countries and companies have made our food and agriculture systems dangerously vulnerable. And they’re not only fragile — they’re unjust, says Shalmali Guttal, an IPES-Food Expert.
But governments can chart a different path forward. The report argues for “resilient self-reliance” that is grounded in local supply chains and markets, support systems for farmers, and by reducing their dependence on these global markets.
Mamadou Goita, another IPES-Food Expert says we already have solutions building this resilience. He points to the West African regional food security reserve, which shows that “cooperation and public tools can stabilize markets.” Other success stories can be found in India, Canada, and Norway. What we need to scale these solutions, Goita says, is the political will.
Fiji Advances Organic Ag Policy
Fiji’s government is pushing a new national organic farming policy forward as part of a larger effort to improve food security and domestic food production.
According to Tomasi Tunabuna, the country’s Minister for Agriculture, Waterways and Sugar Industry, the National Organic Policy 2026-2030 isn’t just an agricultural framework. “It’s an economic resilience strategy, an environmental safeguard, and a public health investment.”
The government says the Plan is a direct response to increasing fuel and fertilizer prices as well the rising cost of living. They hope that, in the long term, it will help farmers save money, improve soil health, and boost climate resilience.The Ministry also sees this as an opportunity to strengthen their export markets, particularly for crops including turmeric, ginger, and coconut oil.
“In a time of global uncertainty, Fiji is choosing resilience over dependency and local solutions over imported vulnerability,” Tunabuna says.
India Released Nearly 3,000 Climate-Resilient Crop Varieties
In the last decade, India has released close to 3,000 climate resilience crop varieties, according to a recent update from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
The Council launched the National Innovations on Climate Resilient Agriculture program in 2011 to develop and disseminate climate-resilience agricultural technologies.
To complement the new varieties, the program also includes training and field demonstrations to help farmers transition to stress-tolerant crops and adopt practices that build capacity and strengthen the sustainability of their farm. To amplify their work in these vulnerable areas, researchers have also set up climate-resilient villages in more than 440 villages across 150 districts. In these areas, the government says they are demonstrating effective technologies for wider implementation and replication.
This work is urgently needed: Of the 650 agricultural districts assessed through this research, around half are highly or very highly vulnerable to climate shocks including droughts, floods, and heatwaves.
Three-Quarters of USDA Researchers Won’t Relocate to Kansas City
Around three-quarters of researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) say they will not move from Washington D.C. as part of the agency’s relocation plans.
For the second time in seven years, USDA is pushing to move D.C.-based employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to Kansas City. The transition is expected to go into effect this summer.
An internal survey conducted by the union reveals that we will likely see a repeat of 2019, when hundreds of ERS and NIFA employees were asked to make the same move. Around 85 percent either quit or retired in response to the request.
USDA claims that no programs will be affected by the changes, but Dr. Kathleen Merrigan, Executive Director of the Swette Center for Sustainable Food Systems at ASU, is one of many critics worried about the resulting “brain drain.”
The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3403 says, “By forcing this move on an accelerated timeline, with no promise of financial help or job security, the USDA is effectively dismantling decades of institutional knowledge, jeopardizing the very data and funding that farmers, policymakers and land-grant universities rely on.”
A Record High Investment to Transform School Meals
Last week, the World Food Programme (WFP) announced plans to strengthen home-grown school meals programs that reach hundreds of thousands of children in East Africa.
The support from Danish foundations Novo Nordisk Foundation (NNF) and Grundfos Foundation makes this the largest private sector commitment to school feeding in WFP’s history. The U.N. agency and the Foundations are entering into the third phase of a partnership, which will focus on models in Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia. The work will connect schools with local farmers and clean energy solutions while helping to build climate resilience.
Cindy McCain, WFP’s Executive Director calls school meals “one of the best investments a government can make in a nation’s future.”
WFP estimates that it will provide 366,000 children with nutritious, locally sourced meals while creating stable markets for more than 57,500 smallholder farmers over the next five years. The investment will also support the School Meals Accelerator, a global initiative from the School Meals Coalition, which helps governments with catalytic technical assistance scale national school feeding programs and improve meals for an additional 100 million children by 2030.
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Photo courtesy of Chrysanthi Ha, Unsplash
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