Climate Solutions, Economic Growth, Global Stability? Rural Girls Hold the Key, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, May 31

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs is thrilled to announce a new blog series, Stakeholder Girls, which highlights the central role that rural girls must play in consideration of the 2018 G7 priority theme areas. If leaders do not consider the unique strengthens and concerns of rural girls, progress on each of these themes will be curtailed.

All the Books Bill Gates Has Recommended Over the Last Eight Years¸ Quartz, May 26

Gates reads little fiction, as he readily admits, but will dabble in YA, comedic memoir, and graphic novels on occasion. As the co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, he is wont to recommend books on development, poverty, disease, and education on his blog, such as The Last Hunger Season: A Year in an African Farm Community on the Brink of Change, by Roger Thurow.

Drought Adds to Woes of Afghanistan, in Grips of a Raging War, New York Times, May 27

Afghanistan, already torn by decades of intensifying violence, is grappling with a drought in two-thirds of the country that could lead to severe food shortages for up to two million more people. Many farmers have seen their seeds dry out or have delayed planting crops, and there is little or no feed for livestock on pasturelands.

SEE REPORT: OCHA: Humanitarian Bulletin Afghanistan, UN OCHA, May 25

An Indian State Banned Pesticides. Tourism and Wildlife Flourished. Will Others Follow?, Washington Post, May 31

Fifteen years ago, the tiny state of Sikkim decided to phase out pesticides on every farm in the state, a move without precedent in India. The transition, which took more than a decade, has not been easy. Some farmers say their income has decreased or have quit farming all together. But the move has been a boon to the tourism industry, which has risen from 5 to nearly 8 percent of the state GDP by 2017.

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Meet the Nigerian Entrepreneur Depriving Boko Haram of New Recruits, Forbes, May 30

Young people are more vulnerable to extremist recruitment when they feel they have no other options: no jobs, no wages, and no ability to put food on the table. Kola Masha believes that there's a business solution to halting the spread of insecurity by unlocking the power of agriculture as a job creation engine.

Africa: Hunger and Food Insecurity Plague the Lives of Millions, All Africa, May 28

Africa is the continent with the largest number of people living in extreme poverty: 390 million. Global surveys have shown that the agriculture sector provides the best opportunities to create employment and lift people out of poverty. The place to start is with the youth, with the goal of getting young people into agriculture-related jobs.

Q&A: Why We’re Still Talking About Funding Models, Devex, May 25

The development impact bond, the social impact bond, the climate bond, and blended finance are all relatively new financial instruments in the global development space. With some funding models still in the early days, questions remain about when to use them, how to harness them, and how to structure them.

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Uncertainty Over Land Rights Perceived as Top Investment Risk in New USAID Survey, Landscape News, May 31

Would you sink hundreds of millions of dollars into an investment on contested land? This is a key question investors and companies engaged in land-based sectors must ask whenever they consider a new project. Ultimately, land tenure security is a foundation of sound business outcomes, as much as social and environmental ones.

SEE ALSO: Six Lessons from the First Investor Survey on Land Rights, Landscape News, May 26

Chinese Buyers Find Tight US Sorghum Supply After Trade Spat, Reuters, May 29

Chinese grain merchants seeking to resume purchases of US sorghum after an anti-dumping probe by Beijing that had halted trade between the world's biggest buyer and seller of the grain are now finding supplies tight. US sorghum supplies are set to remain tight until this autumn.

SEE ALSO: China Vows to Protect Its Interests from ‘Reckless’ US Trade Threat, New York Times, May 30

SEE ALSO: Exclusive-Poultry Push: US Seeks End to China Import Ban, Reuters, May 29

USAID Doubles Health Center in Amhara State, All Africa, May 26

USAID has handed over the newly constructed Kuni Health Center to the Amhara Regional Health Bureau. The health center is expected to serve 25,000 people in Kuni, Ethiopia and the surrounding areas. It will provide services such as immunizations for children, safe childbirth delivery, and HIV care. The United States is the largest bilateral donor to Ethiopia's health sector.

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Report Reveals Groundbreaking Results for Rice Farming, Food Tank, May 30

Rice is an important crop in West and Central Africa—most of the 430 million people living in the region depend on it as a staple—but West Africa currently consumes more than it produces and has been importing rice from other parts of the world. But a new farming technique, the System of Rice Intensification, is promising higher yields while reducing the need for inputs.

World Bank Urges Africa to Embrace Technology to Transform Agriculture, Xinhua Net, May 30

The World Bank says that the continent stands a better chance of advancing food security through accurate climate data received from cutting edge innovations. While agricultural productivity in the continent has picked up in recent years, it still lags behind other regions. Throughout Africa, start-ups and other institutions are leveraging digital technology in transformative ways.

A Spud is Born: UMaine Unveils Gourmet ‘Pinto Gold’ Potato, AP, May 28

The new spud, released by the University of Maine, is called the "Pinto Gold" and the university's potato breeding program leader describes it as a high-yielding, yellow-fleshed specialty variety. The new variety is adapted to cool, northern growing areas. The Pinto Gold is the fourth potato variety released by University of Maine since 2014.

Climate-Proofing Indian Agriculture, Opinion, Arabinda Padhee, Times of India, May 28

Climate change is posed to be the most extreme challenge to agriculture in India. Farmers must gain access to the rich scientific knowledge developed by research institutions through efficient dissemination of climate-smart technologies. Additionally, simple and affordable insurance products should be properly implemented to create safety net for the farmers.

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ButNew Zealand to Kill 150,000 Cows to End Bacterial Disease, Washington Post, May 28

New Zealand plans to slaughter about 150,000 cows as it tries to eradicate a strain of disease-causing bacteria from the national herd. Mycoplasma bovis was found in the country for the first time. Found in Europe and the United States, the bacteria can cause cows to develop mastitis, pneumonia, arthritis, and other diseases. They are not considered a threat to food safety but do cause production losses.

Last Gasp for Hog Farm Suit: ‘We Don’t Want to Be Hostages,’ AP, May 28

When the wind blows a certain way, residents know to head inside. Quickly. They claim the stench from an industrial hog farm on the edge of town is unbearable. Industrial farms known as concentrated animal feeding operations allow for more efficient production of beef, pork, poultry, dairy, and eggs. They've also stoked concerns about animal welfare as well as air and water pollution.

SEE ALSO: Cases Against Pork Giant Continue after Big Penalty Slashed, Washington Post, May 27

Are Avocados Toast?, Wired, May 25

Avocado trees start to die when the temperature falls below 28 degrees or rises above 100 degrees. The trees also die if water runs dry, or if too many salts accumulate in the soil, or if a new pest starts chewing on its leaves. All of which is quite possible in the next few decades, as the climate shifts. But for anyone trying to make money off long-lived crops, climate change is already here.

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Guest Commentary – World Milk Day Celebrates Small Farmers, Chicago Council on Global Affairs, May 31

Since 2001, World Milk Day has been observed by the United Nations on June 1 to mark the importance of dairy. In developing countries, small herds support family nutrition and are sources of year-round income through milk sales. Access to a year-round source of earnings is especially important in countries that experience dry, or “hunger,” seasons between periods of harvest.

High-Protein Diets Are Linked to Heightened Risk for Heart Disease, Even for Vegetarians, Quartz, May 29

Eating a lot of protein—derived from both plants and animals—is linked to an elevated risk of cardiovascular failure. Study participants who ate (and drank) the most dairy and animal protein sources had the highest risk for heart failure, and there was no correlation found between heart failure and consumption of fish and egg protein.

SEE REPORT: Intake of Different Dietary Proteins and Risk of Heart Failure in Men, Circulation: Heart Failure, May 29

Antibiotics in Meat could Be Damaging Our Guts, Opinion, William D. Cohan, New York Times, May 25

Are pig, cattle, and poultry farmers misusing antibiotics and allowing too much of the drug to get into our food? It has long been common knowledge in farming that antibiotics can help cause animals to grow fatter, faster. However, the growing resistance of bacteria to antibiotics causes some 23,000 American deaths a year and $34 billion in financial losses annually.

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How We Can Make Beef Less Terrible for the Environment, Opinion, Eric Toensmeier, Washington Post, May 30

Livestock production is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Could silvopasture make beef climate-friendly? Silvopasture systems combine trees, livestock (ruminants like cattle, sheep and goats), and grazing. Long-term storage of carbon in silvopasture soil is up to five times higher than managed grazing alone.

SEE ALSO: Meat and Fish Multinationals ‘Jeopardizing Paris Climate Goals,’ Guardian, May 30

In a Warming West, the Rio Grande Is Drying Up, New York Times, May 26

Running for nearly 1,900 miles, mostly through arid lands, the Rio Grande is one of the longest rivers in the United States. But much of the riverbed itself is as dry as a bone. The state of the Rio Grande reflects a broader trend in the West, where warming temperatures are reducing snowpack and river flows.

Without Seagrass We’d Lose One-Fifth of Our Biggest Fisheries, Anthropocene Magazine, May 25

Seagrass–the aquatic plant that forms lush, flowering, undersea meadows–underpins the survival of the 25 most-fished species on our planet. Also, small scale fishers depend on these easily-accessible ecosystems for food (seagrass meadows typically occur in shallow coastal waters).

SEE REPORT: Seagrass Meadows Support Global Fisheries Production¸ Conservation Letters, April 27

Cape Town’s Water Crisis Proves We Need to Think About Water in a New Way, Quartz, May 25

Cape Town caught the world’s attention earlier this year with dramatic headlines that it could become the world’s first major city to run out of water. A tough water-saving regime helped push back Day Zero for dry taps in Cape Town to 2019. But deeper patterns of complex causality, and more systemic approaches to responding to the crisis, do not appear to be well explored.

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More than Half the World’s Children Are at Risk of Poverty, Conflict, and Gender Bias, Report Says, TIME, May 31

More than half the world’s children start their lives held back because they are a girl, because they are poor or because they are growing up in a war-zone. While most of the world improved from last year, conditions for children worsened in 40 countries. All ten of the countries where children were deemed most at risk were on the African continent.

SEE REPORT: The Many Faces of Exclusion, Save the Children, May 30

Q&A: Canadian Development Minister Bibeau on Women, Development, and the G7 Ministerial, Devex, May 30

Representatives from the world’s seven largest economies are gathering to discuss increasing global economic stability and enhancing women’s empowerment. It will be the first time G7 development and finance ministers sit down together for conversations on innovative financing and women’s economic empowerment.

Owning Land Isn’t Enough to Empower Africa’s Women Farmers, Sierra Leone Telegraph, May 25

In the agricultural sector—the major employer for poor people in Africa—assets like land and livestock are owned and controlled mainly by men. The argument is that increasing women’s ownership of land will lead to stronger bargaining power and higher incomes. But even when women own land, their husbands are still perceived as household heads and have better access to public resources.

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Cotton Makes a Comeback in US Plains as Farmers Sour on Wheat, Reuters, May 29

Farmers in Kansas and Oklahoma are planting more land with cotton than they have for decades as they ditch wheat, attracted by relatively high cotton prices and the crop’s ability to withstand drought. The switch to cotton could be long term as farmers move away from a global wheat market that is increasingly dominated by fast-growing supply from top exporter Russia.

Bayer Wins US Nod for Monsanto Deal to Create Agriculture Giant, Reuters, May 29

Bayer won US approval for its planned takeover of Monsanto, a $62.5 billion deal that will create by far the largest seeds and pesticides maker. After months of delays in a drawn-out review process, the ruling brings Bayer close to creating an agricultural supplies giant with annual sales of about $24 billion.

Brazil Strike Threatens to Bring Poultry Industry to Knees, Financial Times, May 29

Brazil’s poultry export industry, the world’s largest, was at risk of collapse as a prolonged truckers’ strike deprived birds of feed and risked interrupting the breeding cycle. Unless the government could get convoys of feed trucks through to poultry farms, the system could enter into mass culling.

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EAT Stockholm Food Forum 20118

Date: June 11-12

Location: Stockholm, Sweden

International Agricultural and Food Exhibition Farmer Expo

Date: August 17-20

Location: Debrecen, Hungary

The International Civil Society Conference on the Sustainable Development Goals

Date: September 11-13

Location: Yaoundé, Cameroon

2018 SCRA Nuts and Bolts Workshop

Date: October 3-5

Location: Riverdale, Maryland

International Phytobiomes Conference 2018

Date: December 4-6

Location: Montpellier, France

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