Kelp Gardens, Piñon Forests

By Tracy L. Barnett, Esperanza Project

It’s not as hard as you might think. If you have the right action for a couple of seasons — the Earth actually wants to be full of life. That’s it’s nature. We actually have to work to get it to not do that. So if we just get behind her and breathe life into what she’s already doing, it can change pretty fast. But we need the tools and we need the skills and we need the knowledge and most of all the wisdom that supports all of these things.

Lino’s Dream

By Alan Adams, Esperanza Project

But Lino did foresee the resilience, the determination, and the imagination of the Kañari people. He knew that, given the opportunity, they could solve the problems. That is what they are doing through TUCAYTA, the bilingual/bicultural education, the Savings and Loan Cooperative, the community cooperatives, and through Mushuk Yuyay, the association of seed and nutritious food producers.

Grassroots Groups and Growers Defy the “Food Desert” Label

By ThienVinh Nguyen, Island Press

There’s been a lot of discussion about the lack of grocery stores in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River in DC in the past few years. But it hasn’t always been this way, and there are a lot of people working to ensure their neighborhoods have access to high-quality, affordable food again.

Feeding the World: Archaeology can Help us Learn from History to Build a Sustainable Future for Food

By Kelly Reed, The Conversation

The enduring success of these ancient methods remind us that we could reimagine our entire food system to feed ten billion people while rejuvenating wildlife and locking carbon away. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we should look to what worked in the past and adapt it for the future.

Will the Future Be Rural?

By Tara Lohan, The Revelator

Despite the warning signs — climate change, biodiversity loss, depleted soils and a shrinking supply of cheap energy — we continue to push along with an economy fueled by perpetual growth on a finite planet.We’ll need to reckon with this discrepancy.

Restoring Native American Health with Indigenous Foods

By Lisa Waterman Gray, Food Tank

No matter where Sherman speaks and teaches, he advocates the importance of preparing native plants and animals in order to live sustainably. “There should be no such word as food desert because deserts are ripe with food if you know how to look for it,” he says.

Roadside Wildflower Meadows are Springing Up Across the UK – and They’re Helping Wildlife in a Big Way

By Olivia Norfolk, The Conversation

The joy of being immersed in a meadow – surrounded by the fluttering of butterflies, the chirping of crickets and the buzz of bees – is increasingly rare. Without urgent action to tackle dwindling biodiversity, these memories will disappear.

Agroecology is More than Science, Practice and Movement

By John Wilson, Cultivate!

When we introduce Agroecology we tend to throw out our little phrase that it’s ‘a science, a set of practices, and a citizen’s movement’. No, no, no, Agroecology is far more than this.

Saving Japan’s Seed Heritage from “Free Trade”

By Anja Lyngbaek, Local Futures

It’s time for us to wake up and practice direct democracy – to join with others to stop further corporatization and regain control over our commons, our communities, our cultures and our economies. Because if we don't, who will? Masahiko Yamada and the new citizens’ movement in Japan have come up with a few tricks we can learn from.

Intensive Agriculture Driving Worldwide Decline of Insects

By FCRN Staff, Food Climate Research Network

Over 40% of insect species are at risk of extinction over the next few decades and 75% to 98% of insect biomass has already been lost, according to this review of the current state of knowledge about insect declines, with habitat loss through conversion to intensive agriculture being the main driver. Agro-chemical pollutants, invasive species and climate change are also driving insect declines.