She had never thought of herself as an organizer or an environmentalist. She ran a restaurant. She published a cookbook. She was a mom to five kids. Of all the hats she wore, organizer wasn’t one of them.

“I had no idea about any of this stuff,” says Dougherty. “Literally zero—less than zero probably. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing.”

Dougherty is definitely not unique in this respect. It is very hard for most people to know what to do to organize against the threats presented by factory farming in their community. While reporting our story about some of the communities that have resisted or are currently resisting factory farms, including Dougherty’s, we came across a lot of great advice from people who themselves have been in this position. Whether you’re organizing in response to a particular factory farm site or advocating for systemic change, learning from the experiences of others can be a great place to start, so we’ve compiled some of those insights for you here. 

Align yourself with a supporting organization

Food & Water Watch addresses factory farming on a big-picture scale. Michaelyn Mankel of Food & Water Watch Iowa says connecting with others is valuable at that broader scope, too.

“If you’re really serious about getting involved in this work, the most important thing I think there is to do is to find your people.”

Jennifer Breon of Food & Water Watch Iowa echoes this point.

“I think collective action is key, whether it’s Food & Water Watch or any other environmental organization that’s working on factory farm issues, or environmental issues around agriculture, where you can have a sphere of influence. Don’t just do this on your own.” 

When Barb Kalbach became aware of a hog CAFO being planned for just up the road from her in 2002, she called on the help of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement. After successfully resisting the CAFO, she now works with Iowa CCI. According to Kalbach, aligning yourself with an organization can help you with strategy you might miss on your own. “It’s just those little things…that you and I wouldn’t think of, and that an organization that’s worked and helps people like that, they do think of that.”

Resources

Food & Water Watch has chapters across the US and organizes at a national level as well.

Iowa CCI provides assistance on a variety of social and environmental issues in Iowa.

Socially Responsible Agriculture Project (SRAP) has a Help Hotline for communities struggling against factory farming.

Environmental organizations can also be good to reach out to, especially ones that participate in water monitoring such as the Waterkeeper Alliance.

Communication is key

Dougherty, now senior regional representative with SRAP, recommends creating opportunities for community members to talk and be heard. Listening is key early on:

“Just literally holding space for folks and listening to them talk through the incredulousness of what they’re confronting…Tell me what’s going on, how is this impacting you? Are other people concerned? For me, at least the first couple of meetings are not spent devising a plan of attack; the first couple are completely based in, ‘Tell me more,’ as opposed to, ‘Let me tell you something.’”

Communication isn’t just important at the beginning. Emily Tucker of Food & Water Watch New Mexico recommends talking to others about what you’ve observed.

“Talk to your neighbors about it. Alone, we can’t get much done. But I think that the more folks work together and just say, Hey, I’ve noticed this, have you noticed this? I think that’s really important. Even if you don’t have a background in organizing, that is a wonderful place to start—just talking to your neighbor about the issue.”

Resources

Join Food & Water Watch’s Food Action Team as a volunteer to begin connecting with others in your community.

Get the word out

It’s important to make communication as easy as possible, and have streamlined ways of disseminating information. For ongoing battles, having a means of central communication is essential, says Starla Tillinghast of Oregon. 

“Kendra immediately got up a website full of information about it. And then people got signed up to be on email notification. And I think [the] number one most important thing is central communication because then that way we can be updated with anything coming up.”

Besides websites and listservs, other common ways to share information include Facebook groups and lawn signs. Bringing information to already established groups such as faith groups, schools, and community centers can also be helpful. 

Use public information and learn the laws

The industry isn’t going to publicize their plans, so seeking out information that is in the public domain but not advertised is a skill worth learning. These may include site plans, permit applications, and more. 

However, the process for getting access to public records looks different everywhere, says Kendra Kimbirauskas of State Innovation Exchange (SiX). Figuring out the unique process for making these requests in your area is a good early step.

“For somebody who’s kind of in the position that we were in, it’s really important to figure out who the public records officer or steward is, figure out what the process is, and then follow the process. And there’s going to be probably different processes for the different bodies of government that you’re talking to. We were interested in the state and the county, slightly different processes, but we had to understand what those processes were before we could get the records.”

It’s also okay to look at what other communities have done that could be a model for your community. When Farmers Against Foster Farms wanted to increase its  “setback” distance—the required distance between CAFOs and property lines— in Linn County, Oregon,  Tillinghast began looking at other agricultural states to see what their required setbacks were. Other states had much greater setbacks, and Tillinghast thought that this information could help Oregon follow suit.

“I went and looked up setbacks all across the nation, and I wrote that out in a table,” says Tillinghast. “I brought it to the planner, and I brought it to the county commissioners.”

Resources

SRAP has compiled the relevant laws concerning industrial livestock operations in each state. Find yours here.

Here’s a tutorial on how to make a Freedom of Information Act request.

Google “How to make a public records request in (county, city, or state name)” for more information.

Find out if your county has “local control”

It’s much harder to resist the effects of CAFOs once they are already built. Ideally, people would be able to know where CAFOs are going to go so they could prepare. Unfortunately, this is hard to do.

“It’s really tough to figure out where a CAFO will go next; they are pretty opaque when it comes to their next steps,” says Dougherty “From what I’ve seen, they like to come in under the radar and try to get the process started with little to no public knowledge. They seem to prefer communities with as  [few] regulations as possible.”

There are a few things that industry will look for when siting a CAFO, and perhaps the biggest one will be the ability to operate without being heavily regulated. One thing you can do today is find out if your state has “local control,” the ability to make certain decisions about agriculture at the county level instead of at the state level.

“Generally, CAFOs go where they can have a cluster, be within a certain distance to a processor, have access to transportation infrastructure, and feel that the local community doesn’t have the political power to prevent them from coming in. So, places are targeted where there [is] no local control—often, communities of color, often, communities with high unemployment rates so that they can sell the false narrative of job creation. Usually, the best way for communities to find out is through the community rumor mill. Sadly, a lot of times, communities don’t find out until the wheels are greased and the operations are being built,” says Kimbirauskas. 

Resources

Learn more about SB85, the recent law that gave Oregon local control here.

Think big picture, too

A lot of the work for a more sustainable food system is being done at the policy level. It’s important to go beyond individual site fights, because industry will always be looking for the next place to land. Alexa Moore of Food & Water Watch New Mexico points to the Farm Bill as a good example of legislation with a broad impact.

“There’s different levels of stuff—there’s your local level, there’s your state level, and then there’s your national level. We’re doing work on a fair Farm Bill. And so, that’s something that whether you’re in New Mexico, or Oregon, or Iowa, or Maryland, or South Carolina, or any of these states, this is going to impact you. And so, I think that’s something that whether you’re in a small community or in a very urban area, as a large farmer or small farmer or what have you, you can always connect through this larger issue that impacts everyone such as the Farm Bill.”

In your everyday life, you can support the kind of farmers you want to see, says Kimbirauskas. But beyond market-based solutions, she also encourages people to engage with legislators.

“Every single person in this country is represented by [legislators]. If you care about this issue, if you haven’t talked to them about this issue, they’re not inaccessible, typically. It’s pretty easy to connect with your state elected officials and let them know that this is something that you care about.”

Don’t think about these issues as siloed, says Rania Masri, PhD, co-director of North Carolina Environmental Justice Network.

“My advice that I have for people organizing is to make those links and not to organize in silos, not to just think about one aspect, but to make those links and then to connect them to state policies and federal policies. Have the courage to demand not a token seat at the table, but a completely different kind of table.”

Resources

The Farm System Reform Act would place an immediate moratorium on new factory farms. You can contact your legislators through Food & Water Watch about these issues here.

The House of Representatives’ Farm Bill draft has included language from the EATS Act. If included, this could take away states’ power to make decisions about the conditions of industrial animal agriculture locally. Learn more and take action here.

Avoid polarizing media narratives

Industrial farming can be an emotional topic for people involved. And according to Mankel, sharing stories with the media can be a powerful way to get the word out to others in the community.

“For the average person reading this, the best tool and the best place that you can put your focus on, at least to begin with, I think is the media…Look at local media and how you can get word out to the public and how you can get coverage on what’s going on and look to other organizations that you think might have a stake in this issue.”

Tucker advises people to tell their stories without contributing to polarizing anti-agriculture media narratives.

“I think that it’s really important to differentiate between small- and family-scale farmers and industrialized agriculture. And that’s something that can be kind of a struggle sometimes, and it can very, very easily get folks who farm small scale to be like, Well, why is this group organizing against me? And so, I think the narrative there is one that’s particularly important to challenge and say that, we want a food system that works for small farmers, and that works for consumers and works for the environment. And we think that we can do it. But that is a pretty difficult narrative to challenge in the media at times.”

Kimbirauskas of Oregon seconds the importance of this.

“A lot of times, we sort of get into these mindsets of them versus us. A lot of times, that kind of plays out as urban versus rural, and animal rights activists versus farmers. And that’s how the narrative is developed. That’s a losing battle for anyone who doesn’t like factory farms. And so, really striving to think about finding places of commonality, and not villainizing all farmers…I think our community saw this—when there’s a way for independent farmers to come together with advocates, and work together against factory farms, that is a winning strategy.”

Resources

You can contact us at Modern Farmer at contact@modfarm.com

Reach out to your local newspapers for coverage—most accept tips from the public. Try calling or emailing a reporter directly. You can usually find this contact information on the publication’s online masthead. If someone in your community is a writer, you can submit a letter to the editor—consult your newspaper’s pitch page for specific directions.

Take care of yourself, too

Organizing is hard work, and both site battles and systemic change can be long fights. Leslie Martinez, community engagement specialist for the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability says that this kind of work can be hard on the mental health of organizers.

“Take care of yourself, because this is a movement. This is going to take time. It’s going to be hard. There’s going to be a lot more battles. And I’d also encourage people to remember that being selfless is not a sustainable way of doing this work.”

Martinez draws power from working closely with the community.

“I can use what I know to push back. I find strength in that.”

The post Advice From Those Organizing Against Factory Farms appeared first on Modern Farmer.

For farmers: You’re not alone.

Connect with other farmers:

Craig Watts of Socially Responsible Agriculture Project says: “First and foremost, reach out to me directly and let me hear what is happening and see if there is something as it is a case-by-case process.”
Connect with Craig, or learn more about SRAP, here.

Tyler Whitley of The Transfarmation Project says: “Just know that there are possibilities, even if they’re tough, and spend your time looking into those. Reach out to some organizations. It doesn’t have to be just us—there are a lot of organizations that are out there; their purpose is to help farmers outside of a ‘Big Ag’ system. Quality of life is what a lot of the farmers bring up to us. And if you’re unhappy with your quality of life, the best thing that I can say is to look into making a change. I think that’s something that resonates with all readers, not just farmers. Change is possible, even if it’s tough. But you can definitely do it.”
Learn more about the possibilities available to you with The Transfarmation Project.

Explore information resources:

Tanner Faaborg of 1100 Farm says: “I think they should at least just have an open mind. Have an open mind and do a little bit of research to see what’s out there because people are farming differently. There are some really interesting things happening right now. And then just start to write it down. You don’t need to do everything all at once. You don’t need to make a decision overnight. But I think I would recommend them to just start making a plan. And then just continue to look for resources like Transfarmation or talk to the USDA…There are a lot of resources out there that will help you at least get started. It doesn’t have to be a massive project. You could start out with one small change.”
The Faaborgs went from hog farming to selling value-added mushroom products. See how they reimagined their farm. 

Angela de Freitas of Animal Outlook says: “I think knowledge is power. And I know that with a couple of the farmers that we’ve worked with, the first thing they did, which is eventually what led them to us, is they simply went online and started reading, because it helped them to understand that it wasn’t them. They were able to see that there are plenty of other nightmare stories out there of things that have happened to farmers, particularly in these contract situations. Start calling organizations—call Tyler, call me, call whoever you find, because there are resources out there to help and there are organizations out there to help. And there is no need to have to try and figure it out yourself because, at this point, there are a couple of us out there who have done it and had successes.”
Contact Angela at Animal Outlook.

Paula Boles of JB Farms and Grace Chapel Greenhouses says: “The first thing that I would advise them to do is just do research. There are so many places that you can reach out [to] and talk to other people. And just see what options are out there. Even writing down ideas or visions, missions, whatever you think that aren’t possible—write them down anyway. And, sometimes, it’s almost like, once you write it down, it almost becomes a real thing. And then you can start looking at other ways to get there.”
Read about how contract farming affects mental health, from Paula’s perspective.

Contact your representatives:

Kara Shannon of the ASPCA says: “One of the first things that [farmers] should do is to talk to their representatives, both in their state legislature and in Congress, and just tell their story, because this is not the story that those lawmakers are hearing, especially in Congress. [They hear] from Big Ag that these contracts and these growers, they’re building strong rural economies and creating jobs and feeding the world, etc. And they are not often hearing from people who have these stories of getting into contract farming because they wanted to be their own bosses and keep the family farm and maintain this way of life and then find themselves in something so far from what they thought. So, I think sharing those stories [is] really important, because that is what is going to get those policymakers motivated to make changes to fund programs to help get those farmers out of it, to improve the accountability for these big producers that are getting the farmers in these incredibly unfair contracts.”
Support farm system reform here.

For interested consumers: You can help.

Ask questions:

The ASPCA has a guide for buyers called “Shop with Your Heart.” It helps consumers navigate grocery store aisles and determine whether the language or certifications on animal product packaging is legitimate or greenwashing. They also have a list of questions you can ask producers if you have the opportunity, such as at the farmers market. Often, smaller producers will qualify for legitimate certifications, but actually becoming certified is a financial obstacle, so it’s helpful to know what to ask them if you have the chance to speak to them directly. 

The ASPCA’s Kara Shannon shares a question she likes that implies transparency: “My go-to would be, ‘Hey, do you allow people to come out to the farm? Do you allow visits?’ And if the answer is yes, that’s kind of all you need to know.”

Become a farmer ally:

Additionally, Angela de Freitas of Animal Outlook says: “Something that’s really important to us organizationally is that farmers are our allies and that we don’t engage in shaming farmers or making them feel bad for what they have done or chose to do. And we recognize that farmers are part of the solution. That is, I think, a really important way to think about this—supporting the farmer to get out, celebrating the farmer getting out, offering the farmer options to get out, as opposed to trying to create change through shaming.”

We love to connect with our Modern Farmer community. If you have a farm and are considering transitioning to a more sustainable model, we would love to hear from you. Comment below or send us a note at lena@modfarmer.com.

The post Advice and Resources for Getting Out of Factory Farming appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Along the way, we found some interesting data: Roughly 83 percent of folks in Vancouver compost. New York City diverts more than eight million pounds of organic waste from landfills every year. Many cities, including Boston, San Jose, and San Antonio, provide compost back to residents for use in home gardens. Most importantly, in each of these cities, there is some sort of compost program accessible to residents.

If your city doesn't offer a compost program, you may be able to change that. Here are a few ways to get started:

• Look for community compost groups. Many organizations, including community gardens or environmental clubs, hold seminars or introductory panels on how to start composting. Get up to speed on what’s offered in your area; in addition to learning the composting basics, you might be able to join a network that’s already established. You can also search for a local composter here, or use this EPA map to find opportunities to divert excess food near you. 
• Make your voice heard. If your city does not offer a compost program, let the waste management department know you want one! One of the biggest hurdles to starting a pilot program is ensuring that there are enough residents interested in composting in the first place. Make it clear that you want to participate in a program, which makes it much easier for city officials to greenlight one. There are also resources to help municipalities as they get started, including this template from the US Composting Council which helps cities look at land use ordinances and classifications. 

• Look at the zoning bylaws. Many municipal bylaws were written decades ago, and they may not be up to date with the best waste management strategies for cities. But when city officials see that there is interest from the public, they have more reason to look at updating those bylaws, or looking at new ways of waste diversion. 

For more on how to get your city to start composting, read our Q&A with a composter here.

Want to add your city to our map? Fill out the form below, and let us know what composting is like where you live.

The post Map: Who Composts? appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Many people are eager to do their part, and individual actions, taken as a whole, can make a big difference. At the same time, it’s important to remember that individual responsibility alone cannot solve the plastic crisis. Government regulation that holds manufacturers and polluters responsible is key to addressing the issue. 

So, what can you do? 

Recycle right

Recycling won’t stop the tide of new plastic being produced, but it can make a dent in how much virgin plastic goes straight into the landfill. Make sure you’re up to speed on which items are recyclable in your area, and keep in mind that your waste doesn’t disappear into thin air the moment it goes into the bin. 

“Human hands touch everything,” says Logan Harvey, senior general manager of Recology Sonoma Marin, which recently debuted a new recycling facility in Santa Rosa, CA. Despite employing a plethora of the newest technology to sort mixed recycling, human sorters manually review all the materials, sometimes dealing with non-recyclable items that range from head-scratching (an elliptical machine) to disgusting (used diapers) to downright dangerous (hypodermic needles). Recycling guidelines aren’t merely abstract recommendations; rinse and dry items and pay attention to your municipal guidelines.

Reduce, reuse and refill

You’ve heard it before, now hear it again: Reducing consumption of plastic and learning to reuse items before or instead of throwing them away are among the most important things you can do at the individual level. 

“It’s really the reuse, refill models that are most effective,” says Erica Cirino, communications manager for the advocacy group Plastic Pollution Coalition and author of Thicker Than Water: The Quest for Solutions to the Plastic Crisis. “There are more and more refill shops, which are basically markets where you can get food and other home products, from washing machine powder to dish soap and toothpaste, without all the plastic packaging, by being able to fill up your own containers and bring them home.”

Reuse and refill map created by Plastic Free Future.

Short of that, Cirino advises looking for places where you can buy food that’s simply unwrapped, such as farmers markets and grocery stores that carry products loose or wrapped in paper. “Look for better options until more of these truly zero-waste shops can emerge,” she says. 

Get inspired 

Social media zero-waste influencers can perpetuate unrealistic standards for how little waste normal people with busy lives can realistically achieve. However, there are hundreds of clever ideas online to minimize waste or give items new life through repairing, crafting, decorating, gardening and reorganizing. To find ideas, search for keywords like “zero waste” and “plastic free” on your social media platform of choice to find accounts dedicated to creative ways to reduce and reuse. 

 

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A post shared by Emma // Zero Waste Living for all (@thesimpleenvironmentalist)

Join forces

As awareness of the plastic issue has grown, so have the ranks of nonprofit organizations dedicated to addressing the problem through education and action. Some, such as  the Surfrider Foundation, The 5 Gyres Institute and Plastic Oceans, are dedicated to ocean plastics; others, such as Break Free From Plastic and the Plastic Pollution Coalition, envision a global movement to stop plastic pollution. These types of organizations often have the most up-to-date information about campaigns and opportunities to act; they’ll also gladly accept monetary donations to support their work.

There may also be local groups and initiatives to get to know in your community, which can be the most immediate and actionable way to get involved. “Being active in your local policy-making efforts and being aware of what’s happening in your own community is the most important place to start,” says Cirino.

Support legislation

Local and state-level laws such as plastic straw and plastic bag bans have proliferated over the last decade. Such bans are largely effective, with some exceptions, but they are a piecemeal solution to a much larger problem. 

In Canada, a national ban on single-use plastics, instituted in 2021, was recently overturned, granting a win to plastics manufacturers. The federal government has since appealed the decision, and the ban remains in place while the appeal works its way through the courts this year. 

Although previous iterations haven’t had success, US lawmakers recently introduced sweeping legislation that would address the issue at the federal level. The Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act of 2023 “is largely considered to be the most comprehensive attempt to address plastic pollution in US history,” says Cirino. “It’s not perfect, but it would better protect communities that are already harmed by plastic pollution, hopefully address recycling issues and also shift the burden of plastic pollution off of municipalities and taxpayers onto the actual producers of plastic pollution.”

To support the legislation, you can contact your congressperson and let them know what you think about the issue. You can also submit a form letter here.  

Educate yourself and others 

The issue of plastic waste can feel scary, complicated and overwhelming. There’s no simple solution, and no single person can solve it alone. Educating yourself, and sharing what you know with your friends and family is a great first step to raising awareness. 

There exist many books and documentaries on the issue of plastic waste. One of our staff picks is Wasteland: The Secret World of Waste and the Urgent Search for a Cleaner Future (2023). Written by journalist Oliver Franklin-Wallis, the book tours readers through the history of waste and recycling and explores where our waste—from plastic and paper to food waste, sewage, nuclear waste and more—really ends up and what it means for our future. 

***

We want to know: What products, tactics and strategies are you using to cut down on your plastic waste? What resources are most helpful? Tell us in the comments—we’d like to publish a story with reader recommendations!

The post What You Can Do About The Overwhelming Problem of Plastic Packaging appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Customers who buy their eggs at the farmer’s market in downtown Hamilton or who swing through their farm store can pick up a carton with a very simple design. It displays the SweetRoot Farm logo—a beet sticking out of a row of dirt—and the text “Pastured eggs. Organic, GMO-free feed and whole grains, moved to fresh pasture regularly. Available for farm pickup at the farmhouse. Noah & Mary.” The label then tells you where to find them by listing their address and phone number. 

The label describes their feed, which Jackson has recently started buying from a ranch a few miles north. It emphasizes the use of pasture, sections of which the hens are rotated through every 15 days or so during the summer. The part about the lack of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in the feed was added after input from customers.

“We get a lot of questions about that,” says Jackson. “So, that’s why we put that additional label on there.” 

Food labels tell a story through words, images and designs on the packaging and even the size of the font and shades of the colors used. Some of those stories are truthful, and some are certainly less so. For visitors who pull into Jackson’s farm store in Hamilton, what they see on their egg label matches what they see on the farm—right down to the beet leaves popping out of the earth. But when consumers can’t see the source for themselves, they can be led astray by misleading packaging.

Regulated terms

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulates some of what you see on your food labels. There are common phrases you might see on everything from produce to egg cartons to pork chops that reference earned certifications, such as “USDA certified organic” and “grassfed.” 

Other certifications, such as  “Fair Trade” or “Certified Humane,” are administered by organizations dedicated to a specific cause such as animal treatment or farming standards. Some certification programs are more rigorous than others, requiring more proof, more frequent updates and in-person inspection. Others are relatively lax. But where there’s a certification, there’s usually also a website where you can learn more about who regulates it and what their evaluation standards are.

Legally, standards are not static. In June of this year, the USDA announced it would launch a review process to determine if it needed to establish more thorough regulations for producers claiming to sell beef raised without antibiotics. The Food Labeling Modernization Act is a Senate bill that would push for stricter monitoring of words such as  “natural” and “local” on labels. In September, the Center for Food Safety filed a lawsuit against the USDA for a lack of clear GMO labeling. 

As confusing as evolving legal standards are, things get even murkier once you look at labels that are legal but not standardized, such as “all-natural,” “locally grown” and “eco-friendly.” (To learn more about these terms, review our starter guide here.) There can be an economic incentive to add these words and phrases to food labels. For example, a joint study between McKinsey and NielsenIQ found that many consumers will pay more for items they perceive as sustainable. In another study published in 2022, a survey administered to 1,000 people revealed that 89 percent of the participants who purchased an item with an animal-welfare-related claim on it consciously did so because they thought it implied higher animal welfare standards—whether the claim was regulated or not. 

Fake farms vs. real farms

In 2016, popular British grocery store chain Tesco made the news when it was determined that some products it depicted as coming from local, smallholder farms were, in fact, imported. With names like Woodside Farms and Boswell Farms, the branding conjured up the image of a fresh, single-source and local product, sparking criticism that the grocer was misleading consumers.  

Dr. Alison Barnes, a senior lecturer at Western Sydney University, examined this phenomenon, known as Tesco’s “fake farms,” and how terms such as  “premium,” “local” and “authentic” convey confusing messages to customers. 

“Language is quite slippery, generally,” says Barnes. “Language is never a stable thing.”

The meaning of different words evolves over time, shifting in what they mean to customers. She points to the word “local” as an example. 

“I think it is enshrined in law in quite a few places,” says Barnes. “But then the constraints as to what that enshrines or what you can and can’t do with that, or what it actually means, varies quite a lot.”

In the US, that’s true—the USDA defines local as within the state where the food is produced or within 400 miles of its production point. Depending on how someone has interpreted that word, the product you’re buying could be from down the street or from hundreds of miles away.

The consumer brings meaning to the label as well, through interpretations and associations they have with certain words.

“I think both the law and our differing perceptions of the meaning of certain words, in certain contexts, leaves a bit of a space for designers to explore the power of those words to tell certain stories,” says Barnes.

Storytelling is an effective way to market products, as emotional connections, even subliminal ones, can sway buying decisions.

“We can’t help but do that—we read things into things. Designers understand that. And that’s what designers work with, and they try and tell the story of a brand in a way that will resonate with people.”

For Tesco’s fake farms, the imagery had clearly been created digitally. But the design evoked a handmade style that felt reminiscent of a traditional farmhouse, creating an idea of a personal connection between the producer and the consumer, although there never was one. This isn’t illegal, and in fact, Tesco still sells these brands.

In Beavercreek, Oregon, Chase’n Eggs Farm sells goose and duck eggs directly to customers, either through delivery or farm pick-up. Aimee Chase, who started the business, hired a designer to help with their logo. 

“My family and I were trying to come up with some creative logo that featured a duck and a goose because we sell both eggs,” says Chase. “But also that reflects our property. We have so many trees on our property.”

The resulting image, a duck and a goose, framed by evergreens, conjures up a small family farm, just like the Tesco brand label. The difference is, for Chase’n Eggs farm, this picture is an accurate reflection. 

Designing for truth

Dr. Rick Schifferstein is the director of the Food & Eating Design Lab at the Delft University of Technology. He works with other researchers and designers to improve people’s interactions with their food. Schifferstein’s research into food labels has included one study that found that meat labels linking meat consumption with poor animal welfare discouraged customers from buying the product. But, in general, it doesn’t need to be an explicit claim to sway a customer. Even the feel of the packaging, he says, can inform the associations the consumer makes with the product. In the supermarket, consumers might not even realize how the words, designs, colors and textures used in the design are influencing their buying decisions, especially when confronted with multiple options on the shelf. Decision-making in the supermarket is very fast, says Schifferstein. 

Angela Larisch, strategy director for Murmur Creative in Portland, Oregon, says that often what she sees with the brands she works with is not intentional deception but a lack of clarity.

Murmur Creative designs branding and packaging for its  clients, many of which are food and beverage companies. Part of what it  does is help companies cut through buzzwords to get specific about the information they want to convey. For example, when food companies describe their product as “clean,” Murmur Creative will dig into what that actually means to them and how to communicate that to consumers.

“Even though they’re saying, ‘oh, it’s a clean product,’ and they’re not meaning to mislead anyone, they might be doing it just because there’s so much ambiguity to these terms,” says Larisch.

Being specific, says Larisch, conveys more information about the product, which adds value for both the brand and the consumer. When they do focus groups, they consistently see people gravitate towards specificity.

“‘Only five ingredients’ is generally a stronger claim than ‘clean,’ which people don’t know what it means,” says Larisch. “People gravitate to things they understand.”  

The graphics or design can be more misleading than the actual words, says Larisch. For example, if the design of an item is green or has plant leaves on it, “people will assume that it’s organic, they will assume that it’s natural,” says Larisch. “You’ve never made any claim. But that would be very misleading. And it happens all the time.” In one study, the inclusion of nature imagery in advertising made consumers more likely to accept false environmental claims that they wouldn’t believe otherwise.

But while design can be used, either intentionally or unintentionally, to convey misleading messages, it can also be used to communicate accurate information truthfully about the brand or product. One of the brands Larisch and Murmur Creative have been working with is called Scratch and Peck Feeds, a chicken feed brand.

“They are a company that’s been around for a little while, they’re very natural and homegrown, they started in somebody’s garage, I think. And so they’ve got this kind of wood blocky feel, it feels a little bit homemade, but it also feels really premium,” says Larisch. “You could assume or infer the story of the brand from the logo without knowing anything about them.”

Back at SweetRoot Farm in Hamilton, Noah Jackson says that when people want more information about what’s on his egg label, they just call him at the number on the carton and ask. He encourages it, because the sense of community it fosters benefits the farm, too.

“We get lots of questions and lots of emails, and lots of people showing up,” says Jackson. “We’re grateful for that.” 

This story is part of ‘Phonies, Fakes and Food Fraud’, a special Modern Farmer series. See the full series here.

The post When Labels Lie appeared first on Modern Farmer.

The US Farm Bill is a package of legislation that gets passed approximately every five years, and it more or less shapes the landscape of American agriculture. There have been 18 iterations of this legislation. A lot of important items are rolled into it: crop subsidies, crop insurance, nutrition assistance, conservation programs and much more. The legislation affects farmers, of course, but also every person in the country who eats and buys food, whether you realize it or not. This means that when a farm bill is delayed long enough, everyone may feel the effects in some way.

For a more thorough explanation of what the farm bill is, see our breakdown here.

What was the September 30th deadline? Why didn’t Congress meet it?

Our last farm bill was passed in 2018, so we’re due for our five-year refresh. In preparation for creating a farm bill that will last until 2028, relevant committees in the House and the Senate both draft versions of the bill, then debate and rewrite until the bills pass in both chambers. Then the bills are combined and must be passed by both the House and Senate before being sent to the president. But there have been a few key issues this time around that have held up the process. 

Republican-proposed cuts to SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) prompted House Agriculture Committee Ranking Member David Scott to say in a press release, “I urge my Republican colleagues to proceed with caution. If they want to pass a farm bill that supports America’s farmers and families, they need to keep their hands off SNAP.” Lack of consensus about how to handle the farmer “safety net,” which includes crop subsidies, as well as how to allocate funds within budget constraints have also been notable issues. To learn about other priorities from US groups for this farm bill, read our recap here. 

Do farm bill-related programs stop now that the bill hasn’t been re-authorized?

It’s complicated. The stakes are higher for certain programs. 

For programs with mandatory funding from the farm bill, operations cease after the funding expires. Programs that get their funding through government appropriations (how the federal government decides to spend money), such as SNAP and federal crop insurance, can continue on without a current farm bill. There are also some programs that get amended and changed with each farm bill that, without reauthorization, would revert back to the law that introduced the program. Unfortunately, many of those laws are extremely outdated and wouldn’t work effectively in the present day. 

Here’s what can happen to some of these programs now that the farm bill has expired:

• Title I crop subsidy and dairy support programs will expire at the end of the year. After that, the law reverts back to how it was written in the 1940s. This means less support for dairy farmers. For the consumer, it means prices for food items such as  milk could go up by a lot. 
• Title II conservation programs have been extended as part of the Inflation Reduction Act through 2031. “Those programs will continue to run as normal,” said economist/senior policy analyst for the House Agricultural Committee Emily Pliscott in a webinar discussing what to expect from this year’s farm bill. 
• The Federal Crop Insurance Act is amended through farm bills but has permanent authorization and funding separate from the farm bill and, therefore, will not expire with the farm bill.
• SNAP, in theory, will be unaffected by the farm bill expiring because it runs on appropriations. 

There are many other programs that depend on the farm bill for funding or authorization, and those will cease until the bill is reauthorized. These include USDA programs supporting organic farmers, farm-to-food bank assistance and some agricultural research. Read about how some of these programs were affected when the farm bill was delayed in 2018.

Is the narrowly avoided government shutdown a factor?

Yes. Congress just barely passed a continuing resolution on Saturday in time to dodge a government shutdown. If this stopgap hadn’t passed, the shutdown would have had an immense impact on programs funded by appropriations, such as nutrition assistance. 

Fortunately, this temporary extension gives Congress 45 extra days to sort out the 12 appropriations bills that keep the country going. That means the next few months should contain big developments for government spending as well as the farm bill.

Has the farm bill been delayed before?

Yes. “It typically does take more than one Congress in one year to get a farm bill done,” said Jonathan Coppess, director of the Gardner Agriculture Policy Program, in the webinar. “So, if in fact we get into extension territory or this drags out past 2023, we are not in an anomalous situation.”

According to Coppess, the longest process was for the farm bill that was passed in 2014. Discussions began in 2011, and it was supposed to be reauthorized in 2012.

“The 2018 farm bill is actually the only one in recent history that has been reauthorized within the year of the expiration,” said Coppess.

What happens now? 

Congress has until December to get it together to avoid dairy price hikes in January. “It puts a lot of pressure on us to not reauthorize right now but by the end of the year and either finish a conferenced farm bill, which will be really tight at this point in time, or to do a short-term CR [continuing resolution],” said Pliscott.

Continuing to avoid a government shutdown will also be critical.

“These farm bills, they’re the biggest give and take in the ag community that we have to deal with,” said Regents Fellow, extension economist and professor at Texas A&M University Joe Outlaw in the webinar. “We’ve done this 90-plus years, and they’ve never been easy.”

The post The Farm Bill Expired. What Happens Now? appeared first on Modern Farmer.

But what does regenerative agriculture mean? There is still no hard and fast definition despite this excitement and celebrity endorsement. Now, 60 percent of the biggest agribusinesses in the world use the term, all in different ways. It’s official: Regenerative agriculture has been hijacked. 

Two organizations want to put an end to the wild west of claims and prove, through certification, that food labeled regenerative is genuinely the gold standard of sustainability and not just another marketing buzzword. 

But it’s not quite that simple. Even these two organizations—Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) and the Land to Market—can’t agree on what, exactly, regenerative farming means. They have different approaches to certification, according to Peter Newton, associate professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. 

“This distinction,” says Newton, “raises interesting implications about how you define regenerative agriculture.” 

For some, the term is a step beyond simply organic farming. Elizabeth Whitlow, executive director of Regenerative Organic Alliance, the non-profit that governs ROC, says its new standards came into existence because “organic isn’t enough.” 

The certification, funded by the Rodale Institute, Patagonia and Dr Bronner’s, insists on five practices to improve soil health: integrating livestock, keeping the soil covered, minimizing soil disturbance, incorporating diversity and zero chemicals, as well as a soil test every three years. Plus, there are rigorous worker and animal welfare standards, such as paying staff a living wage and ensuring animals can display natural habitats. 

“A lot of those principles are missing from the federal organic program,” says Whitlow, who views the social and animal welfare outcomes as just as important as the carbon these practices should, in theory, store. 

But she maintains that “organic is still really important,” and that’s why USDA organic standards, food grown without most pesticides and synthetic fertilizers, is the minimum baseline for the ROC certification. 

“Doing no-till while using [glyphosate] is not going to regenerate the planet,” says Whitlow, who points to the spectrum of regenerative farmers, some who prefer not to plough but still spray herbicides. 

Nut farmer Benina Montes of Burroughs Family Farms in California says she chose to certify her almonds with ROC because of the environmental and economic benefits of ROC’s practices and brand. 

“By having some diversity and building soil health, we will be more resilient to drought and major rain,” says Montes. As a result of the ROC standards, livestock now graze the cover crops in the almond orchards, fertilizing the soil with their manure and providing space for beneficial insects. 

Plus, the buzz of regenerative farming has provided ample commercial opportunities for Montes and the farm’s almond butter, with contracts with major retailers such as Whole Foods and Amazon.  

“It’s all tied together,” says Montes, who sees strong synergies between soil health, staff well-being and profit. Her family farm has been organic certified since 2006, but it only adopted the ROC standards in June 2022.  She is excited to see if the new regenerative organic practices improve soil health, having tested it at the start of the certification process, with planned tests every three years to track progress. 

But whether the soil will show changes or indeed lead to ROC’s promised outcomes of “mitigating climate change and restoring communities” has yet to be seen. And the assumption that it will work is a bone of contention for Newton and what distinguishes the two sets of standards. 

“What scientists, researchers and also consumers might reasonably ask is, ‘What is the evidence that shows these practices will reliably lead to these outcomes?’” asks Newton. 

In contrast to this practice-based certification, the Savory Institute’s Land to Market certification is verified through outcomes. In theory, this means the standard directly measures and rewards a farmer’s tangible progress on carbon storage, biodiversity, soil health and water, but it doesn’t matter what practices a farmer employs to get there. 

In the words of Land to Market’s co-CEO, Chris Kerston, “We’re letting the outcomes speak for themselves.”

“Just by removing chemicals doesn’t mean that the land is healing,” says Kerston. “You can feed an animal grass and still overgraze the hell out of the land.” 

Land to Market brand certifies land through its third-party Ecological Outcomes Verification (EOV) methodology developed by Savory Institution founder and TED Talk phenomenon Allan Savory more than 20 years ago as a management tool for graziers. 

While ROC certifies a wide spectrum of crops, livestock and fibre, Land to Market only covers animal products: meat, dairy and leather. 

Land to Market frames its products as coming “from land that is regenerating.” If farmers, through an independent EOV test, show that the ecology—based on soil health, carbon storage, biodiversity and water—is improving, then their land can be certified and they can sell their animals for a premium to brands that increasingly want to reduce the impact of the products, such as EPIC Provisions, Timberland and Applegate. 

For livestock farmer and Land to Market certified producer Reuben Hendricks of Cabriejo Ranch, good ecology is good for business. The higher prices he can justify are “just the gravy on top” of focusing on land quality. 

“[We] make more money by improving the land management,” says Hendricks. At his ranch, they perform short-term monitoring of data points such as species diversity and the amount of bare soil. The results have impressed Hendricks, too. In a carbon test, the organic matter in the sample has increased from one percent in 2018 to slightly less than five percent in 2023. 

“This holds and stores water for longer, increases the fertility of the soil and diversifies plant species, which increases nutrition to the animals,” says Hendricks. It also means “more carbon in the ground.” 

Instead of prescribing practices that farmers can or can’t do, Kerston says it’s a “model of continuous improvement,” which is accessible to any farmer, whether they are on degraded land or a top-performing producer, as long as they are improving the state of the land. 

Newton suggests this model could be “more open to innovation” than practice-based certifications, because an outcome such as carbon sequestration could be achieved through any number of mechanisms. 

Meanwhile, Whitlow from ROC maintains that it matters what practices you use to get to the outcome. 

“I can load my truck up with coal dust and spread it all over my fields. What’s that going to do to my carbon?” asks Whitlow. “You can totally game the system.”

Kerston, however, insists that bad practices such as using synthetic fertilizer consistently show up in the data. “If you’re using the wrong tools, we’re going to see it in the outcomes.”

But outcomes of the land don’t show the whole picture in a globalized food system. Although feedlots are banned, Land to Market doesn’t yet monitor animal feed. This means that a farmer’s land could be verified to be regenerative, but they could still feed their animals soy and corn sprayed with chemicals from deforested sources. 

That’s why the product itself is not regenerative, only the land on which the animal is raised. 

The Land to Market community is growing at an impressive rate, with five million acres and 1,152 farms being monitored through EOV and “doubling every six months,” according to Kerston. 

ROC currently certifies more than one million acres of land globally, 142 certified farms and nearly 50,000 smallholders (farms between one and four acres) but is limited because producers have to be organic certified first, a process that takes three years. During this transition period, farmers have to adhere to organic regulations without benefiting from the price premium. There are currently 8.3 million acres of organic certified land in the US. 

Newton highlights that exclusivity isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “Certification programs encourage the high-performing producers to push the boundaries of what’s possible.”

“The role of government and regulation can be to push up the bottom,” says Newton. 

Ultimately, the aim for these certifiers is for all farming to be regenerative. But for the government, brands and consumers to support it, they need to know what that means first. While questions remain around who gets to define regenerative agriculture, at least there are two clear criteria and definitions. That much is a start.

The post Regenerative Food Certification: Gold Standard or Greenwashing? appeared first on Modern Farmer.

The colorful packages are trending on Tik Tok and Instagram, (#tinfish has 38.6 million views on the latter platform), with influencers touting high nutrient value, long shelf life and convenience. Cookbooks such as Tin to Table  by Anna Hezel and The Magic of Tinned Fish by Chris McDade feature tinned-fish recipes. In the United States, the tinned-fish industry has been valued at almost $9.5 billion, and a package of tinned fish can range in price from $8 to $27, depending on the brand and the fish species.

That can be a pricey can of sardines. Many brands claim the high price tag is due to their sustainable practices, but in a complex seafood system, that can mean something different for every brand. For each purveyor, sustainable practices can mean different methods of sourcing, canning and labeling tins; there is no universal standard for a product to be labeled as sustainable. 

For some purveyors of tinned fish, sustainability is about the carbon footprint. For others, it’s about recognizing the labor of the fishermen or utilizing bycatch, fish caught unintentionally when fishing for specific species or sizes of fish. “I really try to avoid the word ‘sustainable.’ Food systems are so extractive, to use [the term]) ‘sustainability’ is really complicated,” says Bryan Szeliga, owner of Fishtown Seafood in Philadelphia. 

 Sara Hauman, chef and founder of the Tiny Fish Co. in Seattle, says she wanted to reduce her carbon footprint by sourcing local fish species and canning locally. Hauman uses bycatch and sells less-well-known species that are caught in the Pacific Northwest, including rockfish, geoduck and black cod. 

“I feel it’s a more responsible decision than throwing them overboard,” says Hauman. She sources her octopus from bycatch and says one 15-kilogram octopus can produce around 100 tins of octopus in butter with lemon and dill. Hauman develops the recipes herself and works with local fisherman and a local cannery to produce her tinned fish. “Historically, canned fish has been a cheap pantry staple, but I feel strongly that fish should be expensive because it is a fleeting food resource,” says Hauman, who wants consumers to view tinned fish as a gourmet item. 

But for every brand that is trying to be transparent, there are also purveyors that may not think twice about greenwashing a seafood product’s labels. “Perfection in labeling might not be possible. With that said, there is some level of responsibility that [seafood sellers] need to take if they want to make a profit off of buying and selling seafood,” says Szeliga, who adds that honest mistakes can be made in a complicated seafood industry. 

Sometimes, tinned fish can be mislabeled, as it was when he placed an order for squid ink and instead received cuttlefish ink. Cuttlefish are much harder to sustainably trace—that is, to know where and when they were caught and if they were ethically sourced. Szeliga says  there is simply not enough information on the stock status of cuttlefish, meaning whether they were overfished or not, and consumers will see the country of origin labeling as where it was processed, not where it is actually from. 

Szeliga has a critical eye for sourcing and wants consumers to be skeptical of labels. “Octopus can be caught in Morocco or Mauritania, but since it is processed in Spain or Portugal, it gets the country-of-origin label from where it is processed.” Szeliga says that aspects of catch composition, species, harvesting methods, transport means and using salt for moisture retention should be considered when discussing seafood sustainability.   

Conditions for fishermen are not always transparent and can be overlooked in the narratives around sustainable fish. “The ocean is a dangerous place—weather can turn bad in an instant and mistakes can be life-threatening when out in the open sea,” says Hauman. She encourages consumers to remember “wild-caught fish” means the fishing crew has risked their lives.  

The tinned-fish industry in Europe has been around for nearly two centuries, with market share continuing to grow. In 2021, it was worth an estimated $4.95 billion. European canneries often support smaller tinned-fish companies and brands that don’t produce at a high volume. In the United States, more canneries are on the West Coast, making it difficult for some purveyors to source fish locally with a low carbon footprint.

FANGST, a tinned-fish company based in Denmark, also uses bycatch, fishes in regional waters and maintains Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certifications. For MSC certification, the company must fish only healthy stocks, which can be fished for the long term, and must minimize impact on other species and the wider ecosystem. 

“The certifications need to be as transparent as they expect the seafood supply chain to be,” says Szeliga, who is concerned that certifications allow seafood companies to stay certified even when certain conditions lapse. He adds that while certifications have some value, finding compliance standards and company audits are often difficult for consumers. 

“It’s not good enough to say we are sustainable. We are open to work with even stricter certifications if they existed in our region,” says Martin Bregnballe, the founder of FANGST. Bregnballe says he hopes he will one day be able to label his tinned fish with the fisherman’s name, time of catch and the specific area where the fish was caught.

Bregnballe says he hopes that FANGST tinned fish such as baltic sprat and Norwegian sea herring will encourage people to eat more small fish that feed on plankton instead of eating predatory fish, which is better for the environment and provides more Omega-3 fatty acids (than eating predatory fish) instead of turning them into fishmeal and animal feed. “The huge local catch of ‘Brisling’ [sprat] is used for fishmeal. However, calculations show that if we eat the fish ourselves instead of feeding them to the pigs, we could cover one-third of Denmark’s protein needs by this catch alone.” 

As the tinned-fish industry grows, purveyors hope that transparency will help them stand out in a crowded marketplace. “As a chef, I would never write ‘house-made pasta’ on a menu and use dried pasta,” says Hauman. “Maybe I’m not the best business person, but it means more to be honest to consumers.”

The post Tinned Fish is Trending. But Can You Trust the Label? appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Some of these fungi pose threats—to humans, animals or  plants. Mostly traveling via spores, fungi can move from place to place easily, carried on an animal’s wing or the sole of a shoe. Then, once in the right conditions, fungi spread. They can infect a variety of species, recently causing problems for bananas, coffee and chocolate.  

And we could be next. 

“Over the past century,” Monosson writes, “fungal infections have caused catastrophic losses in other species, but so far [humans] have been lucky. Our luck may be running out.” 

For many species of fungi, climate change is propelling their spread and aiding their ability to infect potential hosts. We spoke with Monosson about the dangers that fungi pose to humans and our food supply and what we can do about it. 

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Modern Farmer: It feels like mushrooms and fungi are having a bit of a moment in pop culture, with Netflix documentaries and The Last of Us. 

Emily Monosson: Talk about timing! Because of both the pandemic and The Last of Us, that’s brought a lot of attention to the dark side of fungi. There’s been a lot of good stuff about fungus and for good reason. I mean, the fungal kingdom is really important to everything—how we live, how we grow food…

MF: Right, you talk in the book about how fungus can be helpful or harmful, and one interesting example in agriculture is bananas. Can you expand on what happened with bananas and fungal infection? 

EM: Well, in the 1950s or 1960s, we started eating the Cavendish banana, which is what we all think of as the banana. And yes, there are lots of different kinds of edible bananas, but we rely on the Cavendish. And before the Cavendish, there was the Gros Michel banana. That banana was impacted by a fungus that’s now called TR1, which pretty much threatened to wipe out the banana industry. And so, [the industry] turned to the Cavendish banana and started growing that.

MF: The problem is when we lost the Gros Michel, we had fields and fields and hectares and hectares of this banana that got wiped out. And now, we’ve replicated that process with the Cavendish, which is a little mind blowing.

EM: It is. So, the Cavendish was resistant to that TR1 one fungus, which is great. But, pathogenic fungi, if they are spore-producing fungi, some of those spores are really resilient, and they can live in the soil for maybe decades. So, once a plantation becomes infected, you can’t grow those kinds of bananas there anymore. The crop needs to be grown somewhere else. There’s no treatment for it except for maybe flooding the plantation. 

Now, a newer fungi, TR4, is spreading to many of the banana-growing regions, and it is killing the Cavendish banana plants. I went to a place in Costa Rica that was growing bananas; Costa Rica does not have this TR4 yet, and they’re just terrified of that fungus making it into Costa Rica. And so, there’s very strict regulations about taking banana plant parts into places. When you go to the airport, there are big signs that [warn against bringing in bananas].

But scientists who study these fungi think that the reason this has spread is that bananas are cloned [meaning there’s no genetic variation or immunity to TR4 that can pop up]. It’s hard to understand how this can happen to that degree again, that it’s threatening most of the Cavendish banana industry, because of how much was known about how the fungus travels.

So, one of the solutions is to just broaden our palate, maybe think about eating other kinds of bananas, and be a little bit more open to buying a small banana or red banana or blue banana. 

MF: Let’s talk about those spores that can live in the soil. As you say in the book, once a fungus shows up, there’s virtually no getting away from it. How long does that period last? Is it possible to wait out a fungus?

EM: It’s complicated. A single fungus can produce many different types of spores. Some of them are short-lived, and they have to land on their host. And if they don’t land on their host, they’ll just die. But some of them, like some of the spores from TR4, can apparently live for decades. That’s a big problem. Those will not go away, and when their favorite host returns, then they will germinate and grow. 

I also wrote about bats, which are susceptible to fungal infections, too. Scientists believe that the spores that infect bats drop off onto the cave floor when the bats fly out. And then, as the bats fly around, they clear the fungus from their bodies. But when the bats return, the spores are still on the cave floor, and they get reinfected each time they return to their hibernacula.

MF: Throughout the book, you talk about different fungal pandemics, including the banana and bat examples we just talked about. You mention fruit and nut trees, row crops, frogs and salamanders. You mention that it’s a bit of luck we haven’t seen a widespread fungal pandemic in humans yet, but our luck could be running out. Why is that?

EM: That partly comes from Candida auris, a yeast that sort of emerged around 2016. It tends to infect people who are already compromised in some way; it runs through hospitals, long-term care facilities, and [it] impacts people who are immunocompromised. It also seemed to emerge around the world and many different places. There were five different strains of this fungus that seem to all emerge at once. And so, the question is, how would that happen? Why would that happen? It wasn’t like COVID, where you could trace to see how one strain evolved into others.

One of the hypotheses about how it emerged is that it was a fungus that was probably living in the environment, as most of them do, and making its living there. And then, as the environment has warmed a bit, it evolved to tolerate warmer temperatures. For humans, our body temperature tends to protect us from fungal pathogens, because they can’t tolerate it. So, what the thinking with Candida auris is, maybe it evolved to eventually be able to make the jump into humans and live in our body temperature and infect us. So, that’s one example of what could happen with the changing climate—more fungi that are living out in the environment might be able to grow in our bodies. 

One thing that I would say, though, is that something like The Last of Us, a real pervasive fungal pandemic that’s everywhere and can infect humans, most scientists would say that’s probably pretty unlikely. We’re not going to suffer what bats or frogs or, you know, chestnut trees have experienced.

MF: Obviously, a show or video game like The Last of Us is fiction. But what does separate us from bats and trees and salamanders?

EM: That’s a really good question. One thing is that it’s rare for a fungus to spread from person to person; they’re not as transmissible. In The Last of Us, the fungal spores got into the food, and that’s how people were exposed. But to have a spore-producing fungus able to infect humans and be everywhere all at once, it’s harder to do. 

MF: What about fungicide? How big a role could or should they play?

EM: Well, fungicide wouldn’t help soil-borne fungi, because it comes up through the roots, where you can’t apply fungicide. If it’s on the surface, then spraying a fungicide could be helpful. 

MF: What about gene editing or other forms of fighting against the fungi?

EM: I did interview one scientist who has been working on modifying bananas so that they can resist the TR4 disease. He’s gone about it in two different ways: One is to insert a gene from other bananas into the Cavendish banana that can resist the fungus. That would be a cisgenic process, taking from one banana and putting it into another banana. The other thing that he’s doing is to see if those resistance genes are in the banana but they’re silent or not turned on. So, that’s where gene editing might come in, to see if you can basically flip the switch on those genes and have them activated. 

MF: What about legislation or governmental policy? 

EM: When plants are imported in for us to buy, there are rules, they are inspected. Some would like to see increased certifications or inspections made mandatory. But unless there’s really good rapid diagnostics, some of the diseases are hard to identify. 

The ideal test would be able to take a swab of something and identify lots of different pathogens on it, and do it rapidly, because then a plant could either be certified that it’s clean and disease free. I wrote about a program in the US where nurseries are working with different state departments to ensure that the plants that they’re selling are certified as disease free as possible. So, you know, that’s something that if consumers look for that certification and encourage that kind of thing, then plant growers will be more aware of trying to do that. 

I think the bigger problem is really in the animal world, because we don’t have as many regulations and certifications and even inspectors for animals in trade as we do for plants.

MF: There was a section where you were talking about just the sheer number of animals that pass in and out of the United States. With all of those animals traveling through the country, some escape is inevitable. 

EM: Yeah, and the thinking is that’s how some of the fungal pathogens affecting wildlife have happened. So, there’s a movement to better control the animal trade.

For certain kinds of animals, there’s really no regulation that they need to be disease free. What some of the scientists that I talked to are trying to do is to just keep those animals from entering the country, to reduce the animal trade, but not being able to do that. They’ve been working with the Fish and Wildlife Service to figure out how best to reduce the potential for that to happen.

MF: What about the immediate big picture? You end the book by saying that looking critically at things like monocropping is our moral obligation. What do you make of that both on a community level and an individual level? How do we act within that system? Most people don’t grow bananas or have any control over the banana industry. So, how do we live within that moral obligation?

EM: It’s hard. You want to have solutions at the end of a book like this. And it’s often very hard for individuals to do something. If enough consumers demand something or are open to something, then there’s the potential that maybe the industry will respond. 

Look at all the different kinds of grains we eat now. I mean, that was probably unheard of how many years ago? That is a hopeful thing. Making many types of grains available is mainstream now. That could happen in something like bananas. We could demand and be open to lots of different kinds of bananas, which might move them away from the big monocrop Cavendish that we have now.

The other thing we as individuals can do is while we travel, when you see that sign that says ‘Don’t bring banana anything into this country,’ don’t do it. Don’t shove it in your pocketbook and think that you’re getting away with something, because what you could be doing is carrying the next pandemic.

The post Fungi Are Coming For Us appeared first on Modern Farmer.

We hope you can revisit some of our favorite features of the year, and catch up on the stories you missed.

What’s In a (Food) Name?

From oat milk to vegan burgers, plant-based dairy and meat products are gaining traction—and sparking debate over their names. But are consumers actually confused about what they’re buying?

The Legacy of Campbell Soup’s Tomato Breeding Program

How the canned food company helped the Garden State become synonymous with luscious red tomatoes.

A Meditation on Slaughter

What raising and harvesting chickens taught me about killing in the service of living.

Yes, the Government Really Does Stash Billions of Pounds of Cheese in Missouri Caves

The USDA has kept cheese and other dairy products in cold-storage caves for decades. But their purpose has shifted over the years.

In U.S. Prisons, Seeds Are Prized Contraband for Prisoners Looking to Grow Their Own Food

With food inside prisons often dreary and repetitive, some incarcerated people are taking their diets into their own hands.

Could Edible Cactus Be the Next Big Specialty Crop?

Often treated as a weed, prickly pear cactus has a ton of potential. But first, producers need to create a market for the versatile crop in the US.\

Turn Your Backyard Into a Snack Yard With Edible Landscapes

Landscapers are making private and public spaces more useful and planting edible alternatives to traditional plants.

Keeping Chickens Taught Me How to Give a Cluck

Our family’s backyard chickens, acquired in the early days of the pandemic, have shown me how to slow down and rethink my moral principles.

Can Dryland Farming Help Growers Endure Increasing Heatwaves and Drought?

Indigenous practitioners around the world have farmed with only rainwater for millennia. But it’s unclear whether conventional agriculture, which relies heavily on irrigation, will learn any of their lessons.

In Awe of the Pawpaw

Meet the bartender-botanist committed to reviving this humble native fruit.

The post Ten Features to Revisit This Holiday Season appeared first on Modern Farmer.