Aquaman would know...

Ottawa councillor wants to explore city-run grocery stores to improve food access An Ottawa councillor wants the city to explore the development of a municipal food strategy, including city-owned grocery stores to improve food access and tackle food insecurity.

The Mamdani effect has broken containment!!!

Very exciting to see this concept get more traction in other cities!

The Forces of Scarcity Hitting Asia May Soon Spread Across the World

Vietnam farmers facing impossible fertilizer costs for rice. Factories in Bangladesh can’t churn out fast fashion due to polyester shortages. Cancelled air flights and steep declines in tourism. All due to dependence on fossil fuels and current skyrocketing costs www.nytimes.com/2026/04/20/w...

Out of pocket: the real cost of fossil fuels on our groceries - IPES-Food Why are food prices rising? Fossil fuel dependence in food systems drives price spikes, climate impacts, and corporate profiteering - by Nicole Pita.

🛒 Why are food prices still rising – and set to rise again?

⛽ Because our food systems run on fossil fuels. When energy prices spike, so do grocery bills.

We have to break food’s dependence on fossil fuels. Here's how.
👉 ipes-food.org/out-of-pocke...

#FuelToFork

When Policy Changes Become Hunger: Mali’s Food Crisis Explained Aid Cuts and Regional Policy Conflict Lead to Increased Hunger in Mali

Mali is listed as one of the countries of greatest concern for food insecurity, not only in West Africa but globally.

Now, regional policies are exacerbating the problems with the food supply chain, leading to an even more severe crisis.

open.substack.com/pub/platingp...

When Policy Changes Become Hunger: Mali’s Food Crisis Explained Aid Cuts and Regional Policy Conflict Lead to Increased Hunger in Mali

Mali is listed as one of the countries of greatest concern for food insecurity, not only in West Africa but globally.

Now, regional policies are exacerbating the problems with the food supply chain, leading to an even more severe crisis.

open.substack.com/pub/platingp...

Climate Change Concern Near Its High Point in U.S. The 44% of U.S. adults who currently worry "a great deal" about climate change or global warming is near its 46% high point from 2020.

According to a new poll by Gallup, public concern about #climatechange is on the rise: "44% of U.S. adults worry a great deal about global warming or climate change, among the highest in the full trend since 1989, along with 46% measured in 2020 and 45% in 2017."
news.gallup.com/poll/708050/...

Chef José Andrés warns of multi-year world famine from Iran war World Central Kitchen founder believes the war could cause a ‘silent’ collapse of the global fertilizer trade

“The amount of money we are now increasing in the defense of every single country – if we would only put 3% on the side, there would be plenty of food to make sure we wouldn’t have hunger on planet Earth,” Andrés argued.

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

When Policy Changes Become Hunger: Mali’s Food Crisis Explained Aid Cuts and Regional Policy Conflict Lead to Increased Hunger in Mali

substack.com/@platingprog...

This is the way. Allow free market competition, but provide a low-profit competitor to guide that market.

We need this in every industry, in every town.

It’s not just Corpus Christi. It’s happening throughout Texas.

Yet our officials keep welcoming water hogs like AI data centers to arid areas.

We have water for AI or for Texans. I choose Texans. Sign if you agree >>

www.claytontuckertx.com/water

#water #farms #datacenters #ai #texas

“You use a stove every day, if that’s electric and that works well then I think people will accept the whole house going that way.”

In New York, a $32 million pilot program will install top-of-the-line induction stoves 10,000 public housing apartment units. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Montana wants to ban ‘junk food’ from SNAP. Experts warn the waiver could backfire. Researchers say many of the costs for SNAP waivers fall on individual grocery stores, and that the restrictions don’t help improve health outcomes for low-income people.

Researchers say many of the costs for SNAP waivers fall on individual grocery stores, and that the restrictions don’t help improve health outcomes for low-income people.

New York City Is Learning to Feed Itself This Grocery Experiment Could Change Everything

A grocery store that sells food at wholesale with no markup is a relatively new concept in the grocery market.

NYC is about to build five of them.

Here's why that might actually be a good thing.

open.substack.com/pub/platingp...

The newsletter covers some of the biggest criticisms from both food policy experts and grocery chains

That's true, most stores have low profit margins. The product markup (around 40% from wholesale) tends to cover operating costs like payroll, store maintenance, and taxes. But, with these costs not applicable to NYC's proposed stores, the food prices should be noticeably lower.

New York City Is Learning to Feed Itself This Grocery Experiment Could Change Everything

A grocery store that sells food at wholesale with no markup is a relatively new concept in the grocery market.

NYC is about to build five of them.

Here's why that might actually be a good thing.

open.substack.com/pub/platingp...

The richest 0.1 percent of the global population are hiding nearly $3 trillion in offshore accounts to evade taxes — more than the wealth held by the entire bottom half of humanity.

It would take about $93 billion per year to eradicate extreme hunger by 2030.

Taxing the rich is a global necessity.

Starbucks Expands Tipping and Adds Bonuses to Boost Barista Pay Coffee giant seeks to reward baristas for service, sales goals in chain turnaround.

The coffee giant won't extend these benefits to its unionized stores, as it continues engaging in some of the most egregious and rampant union busting in modern US history.

www.wsj.com/business/hos...

UK looks to relax planning rules for factory farms after industry lobbying Exclusive: documents chronicle years-long campaign to make it easier to build intensive livestock units

Just what we don't need. Already, our rivers are overloaded with both human and livestock waste, leading in many cases to #rivercide. Now the government, responding as always to lobbyists, wants to make it worse. Then it wonders why it loses public support. www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Rather than regulate the makers of ultra-processed foods, Texas chooses to regulate people who are already struggling financially

How Food Policy Councils Are Shaping Local Food Systems Empowering Communities: The Rise and Challenges of Food Policy Councils

Food policy councils are changing how communities access healthy food.

My latest article explores their impact, recent challenges, and what the future might hold for building healthier, more equitable communities.

Dive in to learn more:

open.substack.com/pub/platingp...

After Chemical Industry Lobbying, EPA Considers Dropping Clean Air Protections for Plastic Waste Recycling  - Inside Climate News When former top Environmental Protection Agency official Judith Enck noticed a cavalcade of chemical and plastics industry lobbyists visiting the agency’s Washington headquarters in February, she wond...

Chemically recycling plastic has proven to be a technical and economic challenge. Now, the chemical industry wants the EPA’s help. Environmentalists are raising alarms.

Love this!

Why Indonesia Keeps Clearing Forests It Can't Farm They Tried This Before. It Failed. They're Doing It Again.

Andddd, here is my newsletter going into this topic more:

open.substack.com/pub/platingp...

Why Indonesia Keeps Clearing Forests It Can't Farm They Tried This Before. It Failed. They're Doing It Again.

What do you call it when a country repeats its biggest environmental mistake… but bigger?

Indonesia's new Food and Energy Estate is being called the world's largest deforestation project. We got into it in this week's newsletter.

open.substack.com/pub/platingp...

I researched this issue for Food Tank last year and found that experts are skeptical about the food security claim behind mass deforestation.

Indonesia tried something similar in the 90s and ended up with over 1.2 million hectares of cleared and abandoned land (not suitable for food production).

Love this! We need more farmers like him

Michelle Obama created the groundwork for the Food is Medicine movement!

She created the most extensive vegetable garden on the White House lawn, worked with the White House chef, Sam Kass, to improve food policy, and brought attention to U.S. school meals.