April 22, 2009
Posted by Kristi Heim

Two characteristics seem to be emerging from the Obama Administration's agriculture policy -- a global outlook and confidence in technology solutions.

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack lately has been talking about the link between food security and global stability, warning that unless countries take immediate steps to sharply boost agricultural productivity and reduce hunger, the world risks fresh social instability.

Just how to do that is an important but controversial question.

ITHACA - Since 2005, the international food crisis has forced 75 million people into chronic hunger - and things could get worse, experts say, if the United States doesn't begin to recognize and respond to warning signs.
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by Eric Holt-Giménez & Annie Shattuck, CommonDreams.org
Wednesday, April 1, 2009

First Lady Michelle Obama was heartily cheered last week when she visited a food bank and then went home to break ground for an organic "victory garden" on the White House lawn. Mrs. Obama's high-profile activities are good news to anti-hunger groups and advocates of good, local, healthy food. This upbeat news contrasts starkly with the increasing probability of a return to the 2008 global food crisis.

by Eric Holt-Gimenez

Published in YES Magazine, Spring 2009, page 45

http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?ID=3331

This article offers a pre-release preview from the book Food Rebellions: Crisis and the Hunger for Justice to be released in June 2009.
http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2387

NEWS-PRESS, Ft. Myers, Fl
By AMY BENNETT WILLIAMS • awilliams@news-press.com • March 5, 2009
Eric Holt-Gimenez, left, executive director of Food First, chats with Ben Burkett, president of the National Family Farms Coalition, and LaDonna Redmond of the Institute of Community Resource Development on Wednesday as they tour Immokalee. (Terry Allen Williams/news-press.com)

A group of international food celebrities converged on Immokalee to see for themselves the place and its people - and learn what the Coalition of Immokalee Workers is trying to accomplish.

This e-debate was published by Engineers Against Poverty in their Current Views & News, No. 12 February 2009.