Backgrounders & Issue Briefs

Can Radical Researchers Get Their Act Together?

Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Alastair Iles, Annie Shattuck, Antonio Roman-Alcalá, Erik Hazard, Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, M. Jahi Chappell and Maywa Montenegro | Mar 26, 2020

What does it look like when activist-scholars, embedded in academic institutions that foster a culture of individualism and competition, work to collectivize their efforts and support social movements fighting for systemic change?

Scaling Agroecology from the Bottom up: Six Domains of Transformation

Academic Publication | Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Colin R. Anderson, Csilla Kiss, Janneke Bruil, M. Jahi Chappell and Michel P. Pimbert | Feb 21, 2020

How can agroecology be advanced, amplified, scaled up and out? In each context, there are enabling and disabling conditions that shape the potential for agroecology to be scaled. This Food First Issue Brief identifies six ‘domains of transformation’ that are essential to consider in agroecology transformations.

Philippine Banana Farmers: Their Cooperatives and Struggle for Land Reform and Sustainable Agriculture

Backgrounders & Issue Brief | David Bacon | Feb 13, 2020

Thirty years ago many banana workers in the Philippines made a radical change in their work and lives. They transformed the militant unions they had organized to wrest a decent living from the multinational corporations that control much of the world’s food production. Instead of working for wages, they used the country’s land reform law to become the owners of the plantations where they had labored for generations.

One of Belo Horizonte’s publicly-owned, Popular restaurants providing affordable, healthy food to the public. Photo courtesy of Cecilia Rocha.

Continuing on the Road to Ending Hunger

Backgrounders & Issue Brief | M. Jahi Chappell | Sep 17, 2019

It is within our reach to end hunger in the world. It has been within our reach for a while now. But the challenges we must surmount to achieve this have been fundamentally, essentially institutional.