Industrial agriculture could be hitting fundamental limits in its capacity to produce sufficient crops to feed an expanding global population according to new researchpublished in Nature Communications. The study by scientists at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln argues that there have been abrupt declines or plateaus in the rate of production of major crops which undermine optimistic projections of constantly increasing crop yields. As much as “31% of total global rice, wheat and maize production” has experienced “yield plateaus or abrupt decreases in yield gain, including rice in eastern Asia and wheat in northwest Europe.”

A growing number of hospitals are shifting the way they think about protecting and improving health, and taking a closer look at how and where the food they serve is grown. This is great news for the people who receive treatment, work at and visit the hospitals, but it’s also great news for local, sustainable farmers, and could become an important infrastructure pillar in building stronger local food systems.

A new analysis shows that the top four or fewer food companies control a substantial majority of the sales of each item, and they often offer multiple brands in each type of grocery, giving consumers the false impression they are choosing among competing products. The in-depth analysis, released by Food & Water Watch on Thursday, illustrates the consolidation of the grocery industry and the range of impacts it has on the food chain.

Food is so much a part of the fabric of our lives, reflecting our health, lifestyle, time, and values. Like so many of us, my childhood memories of specific events revolve around food and meals shared. Sunday dinners with my Polish grandmother preparing pierogis and czarnina. Luscious cream puffs eaten greedily at the Wisconsin State Fair. Ruby red tomatoes and thorny kohlrabi plucked from our backyard garden, fried fresh for that evening’s dinner. Food was a bond of love, care, and connection to our families and the wider community.

Everyone deserves affordable access to healthy, local food. For far too long, that hasn’t been the reality for low-income communities, leading to disastrous health impacts and related health care costs. Purveyors of fresh, sustainably-produced foods tend to concentrate in high-income neighborhoods, while stores and restaurants in both urban and rural “food deserts” offer mostly “cheap calories”: high-fat, high-sugar, nutrient-poor, low-cost processed foods.

For those of us interested in food system reform, there are now (thankfully!) hundreds of worthy organizations and causes competing for our time and resources. Should you volunteer to help launch a new CSA in your community? What about donating to a campaign to legalize backyard chickens? Worthwhile pursuits for sure, but if you are a big-picture thinker, I’ve got just the cause for you: farm to school. Farm to school is the practice of sourcing local food for schools or preschools and providing students agriculture, health, and nutrition education opportunities, such as school gardens, field trips to farms, and cooking lessons. Here’s why farm to school is positioned to be the biggest game-changer since canned food

As the local food movement, or, more properly stated, local food movements have taken root in the U.S. during recent years, advocates have discovered the need to express this evolving “locus focus” in new ways.  Despite its multiple uses and fuzzy boundaries, “foodshed” is a valuable part of our lexicon in moving forward. It can provide vision and cohesion; in fact, it may be less a geographical entity than a form of civic action.

We are going through what many call the sixth great mass extinction, and just as the Earth lost its dominant population 65 million years ago — the dinosaurs — this time, we’re in danger of losing the wealth of resources that compose the earth and, consequently, the human species. Indeed, there is a substantial difference between this extinction and those of the past: for the first time in history the trigger is the human being.

We live in a time when the need for sustainable food and farming systems has never been more urgent. Earlier this year, over 200 leading scientists signed a consensus statement onMaintaining Humanity’s Life Support Systems in the 21st Century.