Stewardship and the Difficulty of Shared Responsibility On July 25, 2024, farmers, scientists, and officials gathered in Nyankpala, Ghana, to debut Songotra T, a genetically modified cowpea. For over a...

3) Rock, Joeva Sean. 2026. "Stewardship and the Difficulty of Shared Responsibility." Theorizing the Contemporary, Fieldsights, April 7. www.culanth.org/fieldsights/...

Plant Responsability and the Politics of Vegetal Care The concept of care has become central to work on multispecies relations. In scholarship with vegetal beings, care sometimes involves a situated ...

📣New series alert! They explore how humans care for and interact with plants, examining both ethical responsibility and control. They highlight “response-ability” and show how human-plant relationships shape ecological, cultural, and political dynamics. Find them ⬇️
www.culanth.org/fieldsights/...

U.S. Considers Withholding H.I.V. Aid Unless Zambia Expands Minerals Access

U.S. Considers Withholding H.I.V. Aid Unless Zambia Expands Minerals Access

www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/h...

Happy to be quoted in this article on Ghana's ambitious plan to reduce pasta imports (while still relying on wheat imports)

Excited to celebrate with y'all in NYC!

Gene Editing Has Struggled To Go Commercial. This Nobel Laureate Has A $1 Billion Plan To Fix That. Crispr’s ability to cut genetic code like scissors has just started to turn into medicines. Now, gene editing pioneer Jennifer Doudna wants to build an entire ecosystem to bring these treatments mains...

“Crispr was the AI of 2018 ...There’s huge expectations. Then it takes longer and costs more money.”

www.forbesafrica.com/current-affa...

Burkina Faso Halts Gates Foundation-Backed Anti-Malaria Project Burkina Faso suspended a Gates Foundation-funded research program aimed at stopping the spread of malaria, one of the biggest killers in Africa, after the initiative drew criticism from anti-Western a...

Burkina Faso suspends Target Malaria www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's Giving Pledge after 15 years: Only 9 of the 256 billionaires actually followed through on giving away half their wealth The Institute for Policy Studies’ report “The Giving Pledge at 15” finds that the initiative remains mostly unfulfilled.

The Giving Pledge after 15 years: Only 9 of the 256 billionaires actually followed through on giving away half their wealth

fortune.com/2025/08/07/b...

New executive order puts all grants under political control All new funding on hold until Trump administration can cancel any previously funded grants.

More very bad news for researchers in the US. New executive order:

▪️pauses new federal funding
▪️places political appointees at federal agencies
▪️requires grants to "advance the President’s policy priorities"
▪️allows cancelation of active grants

arstechnica.com/science/2025...

The proposed destruction of the USDA: it's deja vu all over again. - Food Politics by Marion Nestle The USDA has just announced a plan for reorganization that will move most of the agency out of Washington, DC, as flagrant an act of self-destruction as can be imagined.

Great insight from @marionnestle.bsky.social on why moving the USDA out of Washington DC is bad for the agency and those it serves:

www.foodpolitics.com/2025/07/the-...

Weekend reading: The collapse of the FDA—a National Tragedy

The New York Times Magazine has published an astonishing investigative report about the FDA, totally worth reading: Inside the Collapse of the F.D.A.  How the new health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is dismantling the agency. She…

Trump’s A.I. Challenge: Focus on World’s Most Dangerous Weapons or Woke-ism?

Trump signed executive orders on Wednesday which, of many things, "bars the U.S. government from buying, using or promoting A.I. models that contradict the views of the president or his supporters"

#PoliticsofAI

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/23/u...

"2025 will likely go down in history as the year donors set fire to their international development commitments"

www.cgdev.org/blog/chartin...

U.S. Says It Will Withdraw From U.N. Cultural Organization, Again

What's interesting to me about the US withdrawing from UNESCO is how a Trump official describes the UN Sustainable Development Goals: “a globalist, ideological agenda for international development at odds with our America First foreign policy.”

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/22/w...

Tech billionaire Trump adviser Marc Andreesen says universities will ‘pay the price’ for DEI Tech investor and Trump adviser Marc Andreessen in a private group chat attacked colleges for promoting diversity, saying they had discriminated against “native born kids.”

In a WhatsApp chat with Trump officials, Marc Andreesen advocated for the destruction of the NSF: “Raze it to the ground and start over.”

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Japan has more than doubled its foreign aid budget in just five years

ourworldindata.org/data-insight...

Aid cuts spark a rethink of African food systems rooted in agroecology With the dismantling of USAID and a shift away from traditional official development assistance, activists see a chance to reshape the future of African agriculture.

Aid cuts spark a rethink of African food systems rooted in agroecology

www.devex.com/news/aid-cut...

Why I’m Resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress I cannot participate in systems that require dishonesty as the price of belonging.

In an essay outlining why she is resigning from the NSF and Library of Congress, Alondra Nelson writes that "DOGE [has] by fiat the authority to give thumbs up or down to [NSF] grant applications"

time.com/7285045/resi...

Fulbright-Hays Grants Canceled for the Year The grant programs have supported the international research of students and scholars for more than 60 years.

The Department of Education has cancelled 2025 Fulbright-Hays grants. Devastating news for students and faculty alike!

www.insidehighered.com/news/global/...

The National Science Foundation Is Being Dismantled. What The Economy Needs Is More Investment In Research, Not Less The economic consequences of restricting scientific inquiry on this scale could be far-reaching.

The National Science Foundation is being dismantled

www.forbes.com/sites/johndr...

Bill Gates has announced the Gates Foundation will close in 2045.

The GF was never designed to be like the Rockefeller or Ford Foundations, both of which have lasted long beyond their founders. This should raise more Qs - not less - re how the GF dominates global health & development spaces.

Under Trump, National Science Foundation Cuts Off All Funding to Scientists National Science Foundation staff were told to freeze outgoing funding days after NSF leadership introduced a new policy that requires that grants be screened for “alignment with agency priorities”

National Science Foundation Halts Funding Indefinitely

www.scientificamerican.com/article/unde...

As aid ends, empire endures Western donors are cutting budgets, but the aid model they built—rooted in control, dependency, and depoliticization—still shapes Africa’s development.

"The current moment feels both urgent and misleading. Yes, African states must build independent systems. But the real issue isn’t just the loss of money, it’s the legacy that money has left behind." - Marjorie Namara Rugunda (via @africasacountry.bsky.social)

africasacountry.com/2025/04/as-a...

Meta faces Ghana lawsuits over impact of extreme content on moderators Workers at contractor in Accra say they have suffered from depression and anxiety as a result of their work

Content moderators in Ghana are suing Meta over extreme and disturbing content and poor working conditions

www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

Trump Administration Reverses Course on Student Visa Cancellations

The Trump administration is pausing student visa revocations

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/u...

Where Students Have Had Their Visas Revoked The Trump administration has quietly revoked hundreds of student visas across the country, wreaking havoc on the system.

As of April 24, 1,879 international students from 280+ colleges and universities have had their visas revoked

www.insidehighered.com/news/global/...

As of April 24, 1,836 international students from 280+ colleges and universities have had their visas revoked

www.insidehighered.com/news/global/...

DOGE to Dismantle Millennium Challenge Corporation Millennium Challenge Corporation staff members were offered early retirement or deferred resignation in the latest effort by the Trump administration to gut the foreign aid apparatus.

Oh wow, Trump/DOGE are dismantling the Millennium Challenge Corporation

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/23/u...

Where Students Have Had Their Visas Revoked The Trump administration has quietly revoked hundreds of student visas across the country, wreaking havoc on the system.

As of April 23, 1,803 international students from 270+ colleges and universities have had their visas revoked

www.insidehighered.com/news/global/...

Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs Free Higher Education News, Jobs, Career Advice and Events for college and university faculty, adjuncts, graduate students, and administrators.

As of April 22, 1,730 international students from 265+ colleges and universities have had their visas revoked

www.insidehighered.com/news/global/...