Backgrounders & Issue Briefs
The Great Food Blackout of 2016: How the Presidential Election Ignored the Most Vital Ingredient to Human Survival
Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Christopher D. Cook | Jul 18, 2016
Click here to download this Backgrounder in full. Remember the great 2016 presidential campaign debate about food and agriculture, the…
Race and Corporate Power in the US Food System: Examining the Farm Bill
Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Elsadig Elsheikh | Jun 6, 2016
Click here to download this Backgrounder in full. In nearly every aspect—socially, economically, politically, and environmentally—the US food system is…
The True Extent of Hunger: What the FAO Isn’t Telling You
Backgrounders & Issue Brief | | Jun 1, 2016
This backgrounder is authored by Food First. Photo by ©FAO/Roberto Cenciarelli. Click here to download the Backgrounder in full. To read…
Ground Shaking? Assessing the FAO’s 2015 International Year of Soils
Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Eric Holt-Giménez and Katherine Mott | Apr 4, 2016
We assess the FAO's 2015 International Year of Soils by looking at the drivers of soil degradation and the most promising basis for soil restoration: agroecology.
Backgrounder: Dismantling Racism in the Food System
Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Breeze Harper and Eric Holt-Giménez | Mar 21, 2016
Here we discuss how racism and our food system have co-evolved, how present-day racism operates within the food system, and what we can do to dismantle racism
Seven reasons why the World Bank’s plan for agriculture will not help small farmers
Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Food First | Nov 20, 2015
We lay out seven reasons why the World Bank’s plan for agriculture will not help small farmers. We then present a set of recommendations.
World Hunger: Ten Myths
Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Frances Moore Lappé and Joseph Collins | Aug 15, 2015
In this Backgrounder we encapsulate 40 years of learning and in-depth new research to reframe ten such ways of thinking explored in our latest book World Hunger: 10 Myths.
Food First: Exploding Myths and Inspiring Change for 40 Years
Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Food First | Apr 8, 2015
For four decades, Food First has been analyzing development issues and amplifying the voices of local and global food movements.
Agroecology Saves the Farm (Where Fair Trade Failed): Surviving the Coffee Crisis in Costa Rica
Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Nicholas Babin | Dec 10, 2014
This Backgrounder examines the role of agroecology vs. Fair Trade in helping Costa Rican coffee farmers stay on the land during the global coffee crisis.
Brackish Waters and Salted Lands: The social cost of shrimp in Bangladesh
Backgrounders & Issue Brief | Jason Cons and Kasia Paprocki | Oct 20, 2014
What is the social and environmental cost concealed in those bags of frozen prawns found in supermarkets throughout the Global North?
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