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.

RFK Jr. did not come up with idea that diet is important to health. This has been promoted for decades, including, famously, by Michelle Obama.

In fact, he doesn’t even believe it himself.

If he did he’d be busy making sure kids in the U.S. had enough to eat, instead of cutting food benefits.

Stop Throwing Out Good Food: What “Sell By,” “Best By,” and “Use By” Really Mean Date labels in the US follow no federal standard—leaving consumers confused and costing us billions every year. New bipartisan legislation could change everything. Here's what to know.

From a new ReFED survey:

- 43% respondents say they always or usually discard food near or past the label date, up from 37% in 2016

- 88% said they discard food at least occasionally, up from 84% in 2016

We still need better labeling standardization.

www.seriouseats.com/sell-by-best...

Corn tortillas in California now must contain folic acid. More states are looking at it California is the first state to require food makers to add folic acid, a crucial vitamin, to corn masa flour used to make tortillas and other foods.

California is the first state to require food makers to add folic acid, a crucial vitamin, to corn masa flour used to make tortillas and other foods.

Yes! Let's do this in every city now!

Pentagon Called ‘God Squad’ to Cut Protections for Endangered Whales in the Gulf of Mexico Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cited national security concerns for the request, a new legal filing shows.

UPDATE: A federal judge just ruled that a “God Squad” meeting can go ahead for end of March.

The meeting was called by Pete Hegseth. He’s invoking national security to get the oil industry exempted from endangered species protections in Gulf of Mexico.

It is going to take an enormous amount of effort to rebuild the USDA after this administration is done.

Don't forget that fertilizer is getting more expensive due to the war and heat domes like this can make plant diseases even more difficult to manage!

Farming in the Dark: Unreliable USDA data jeopardizes a sustainable farming transition As farmers struggle to adjust to a changing climate that has led to an increased frequency of droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events, incomplete or inaccurate public data has become a grow...

Interesting new piece from @iatp.bsky.social showing how confidence in USDA data is eroding under the Trump Administration, with serious consequences. www.iatp.org/farming-risk...

Like everything the USDA has done recently, this was reckless and shortsighted.

Now they will waste more taxpayer money defending this cancellation in court.

farmstand.org/case/stoppin...