This article series is sponsored by General Mills and produced by the TriplePundit editorial team.
In cases of widespread foodborne illness, like last year’s E. coli outbreak linked to romaine lettuce, the next step is to determine where along the food supply chain the contamination occurred. That’s where food traceability—the ability to trace a product through every step in the supply chain, from point of origin to final retail location—comes into play.
The demand for organic foods continues to increase at astounding rates. While U.S. sales of organic food and beverages totaled less than $4 billion in 1997, that number is anticipated to hit more than $100 billion by 2025. Yet, supply and demand are not matching up.
Volcom, in partnership with the social enterprise CottonConnect, is launching Farm to Yarn – a socially conscious raw materials initiative in India that features certified organic cotton that’s traceable back to the program’s farmers and that provides social and professional education programs for the farmers and the women in the farming villages of Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, where the cotton was sourced.
How One Agricultural Training Ground is Changing Traditional Farming Methods Across Zambia
Blog
Mr. Cipolo worked at an airport in Lusaka, Zambia for most of his adult career. In 1994, at the age of 50, he was suddenly laid off. He applied to other jobs in the city but no one wanted to hire him because of his age. Yet he still needed a full-time income to support his family. He tried farming, but after balancing his books at the end of first year, he found he was losing money.
Article by Catherine Courtney et al., Marine Policy Journal, December 2018
Multimedia with summary
In this article, Tetra Tech’s Catherine Courtney, the University of Connecticut’s Robert Pomeroy, and the U.S. Agency for International Development's Stephen Brooks developed and tested an assessment framework and process to assist national and subnational governments to assess progress in meeting the Voluntary Guidelines on Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines).
A food product distributor is supporting small to medium farmers to give them fair prices, product development support and access to international markets.
Press Release
LONDON, December 24, 2018 /3BL Media/ - Ethical food sourcing company Coconut Merchant has signed on as Business Call to Action (BCtA)’s newest member, with a commitment to focus on sourcing food products from underserved communities and farmers in developing countries to provide sustainable income, and new routes for their products to international markets.
The world is inhabited by eight billion people. In the next 30 years, there will be two billion more people who will need to be fed. Today, already 30% of all land globally is considered degraded with 28% of crop land in water-stressed regions, malnutrition is endemic, and climate change is accelerating. There is a growing and urgent need for fertile farmland.
EMERYVILLE, Calif., December 5, 2018 /3BL Media/—Following on the heels of the historic 16th Annual Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia, SCS Global Services (SCS) has become the first certification body in North America accredited to conduct assessments under the stringent new RSPO Principles & Criteria (P&C) Standard. This accreditation sets the stage for SCS to certify sustainable palm plantations and mills internationally.
