We Can Now See How Humans Have Altered Earth’s Water Resources, Grist, May 16

Data from groundwater-detecting satellites reveals a clear human fingerprint on the global water cycle, painting a unified picture of current hot spots of water scarcity and excess. Nearly every activity that involves people requires water so the lives of people living where reserves are being rapidly depleted are under grave threat.

UN Health Agency Aims to Save Millions of Lives by ‘Elimination’ of Trans-Fatty Acids from Global Food Chain, United Nations, May 14

Industrially-produced trans-fats may give food a longer shelf life, but each year they also lead to the death of more than 500,000 people from cardiovascular and heart disease, according to the WHO. The agency called on all governments to adopt the REPLACE guidelines, which is a step-by-step guide to eliminate industrially-produced trans-fatty acids from the food supply.

A New Farming Technique Using Drastically Less Water Is Catching On, Huffington Post, May 15

Reports from China, India, Southeast Asia, and Africa suggest that average rice yield increases of 20 to 50 percent are regularly being achieved by farmers adopting an unconventional method of cultivation, which aims to stimulate the root system of plants. In 2017, the method was endorsed by the science journal Nature and the United Nations, and the World Bank has begun to promote it in India and Egypt.

Education and Roads Key to Withstanding Food Crises, Reuters, May 15

Improving road access and ensuring people stayed in education for one more year could save over $1 billion, according to a report by the World Food Programme. That is a fifth of the $5.3 billion the WFP spent on food assistance in 2016, when 108 million people in 48 countries suffered acute hunger. Even low-income countries can reduce the risk of large-scale food crises by focusing their investment on roads and schools.

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Europe and Central Asia's Quest to Achieve Zero Hunger Is Threatened by Poverty and Climate Change, FAO, May 16

Achieving Zero Hunger in Europe and Central Asia requires supporting smallholders and family farmers to reduce poverty and, in the face of climate change, managing natural resources in a sustainable way. Hunger increased globally in 2016, after more than 10 years of decline.

UN World Food Chief Hopes ‘New Spirit’ Will Benefit Children in North Korea, Washington Post, May 15

The head of the World Food Programme says he encountered a remarkable sense of optimism on a trip to North Korea and said he hoped donors would respond by providing more funding to help feed the country’s children. WFP estimates that more than 10 million of North Korea’s 24.8 million people are undernourished. It feeds about 500,000 women and children every month, but its food aid program is “severely underfunded.”

SEE ALSO: Mothers, Children, Lacking Basic Nutrition in North Korea: UN Food Aid Chief, United Nations, May 11

SEE ALSO: White House Rebuffs UN Appeal to Expand North Korea Food Aid, Foreign Policy, May 15

Hundreds of Thousands of Children Close to Dying of Hunger in Congo, UN Warns, Guardian, May 11

Hundreds of thousands of children in the Kasai province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo face imminent death from hunger, UNICEF warned. According to UNICEF, 770,000 children are malnourished, with 400,000 at risk of death. The agency has appealed for $88 million to support children in Kasai, with half the funds to be spent on child nutrition.

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Pompeo Lifts Hiring Freeze at State Department, Foreign Policy, May 15

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has lifted a hiring freeze at the US State Department imposed by his predecessor, Rex Tillerson. The hiring freeze prevented bureaus and embassies from filling empty positions. Pompeo announced the decision in an email to staff Tuesday and said he would move quickly to fill positions he viewed as essential to promoting US foreign-policy goals.

USDA Ethics App Recognized for Technological Innovation, USDA, May 14

The USDA Ethics App was named a Top 8 Finalist by the American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council’s Innovation awards. The Ethics App was unveiled by Secretary Sonny Perdue in August of 2017. The app provides short, easy-to-read summaries of federal ethics rules and Hatch Act limitations on political activity.

Trump Is Reassessing Aid to South Sudan. Its Government Says Cuts Would Be a Disaster., Washington Post, May 11

While South Sudan's government has been accused of blocking critical humanitarian aid and prolonging endemic violence in the country, many observers warn that pulling American aid would only plunge the county into further disaster. Some humanitarians fear that cutting food aid to South Sudan would only result in an even more serious hunger crisis and will punish civilians instead of the government.

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The First Humans Sent to Mars Will Need to 3D Print Their Meals, Quartz, May 16

Constrained by microgravity and no refrigeration, the current food system in space consists of fully processed, individually packaged foods. A possible solution to these shortcomings is 3D printing, and could even help develop a viable food system on Mars.

A Strategic Mindset Shift Is Needed by NGOs to Fully Embrace Technology, Devex, May 15

Tech innovations such as biometrics, facial recognition, and drones could be used to improve a range of services provided by the development and humanitarian sector, but adoption remains slow. A recent survey conducted by NetHope found that 70 percent of its nonprofit members lack a digital strategy. A change in mindset and strategy is needed to ensure that the sector does not fall behind.

Top Six Digital Transformation Trends in Agriculture, Forbes, May 14

In recent years, technology in agriculture has rapidly changed the industry. In 2015, the industry’s investment in technology reached a whopping $4.6 billion. Innovations with the potential to make agriculture both sustainable and scalable include IoT and sensors in the field, IoT and sensors in equipment, drones and crop monitoring, farming and robotics, RFID sensors and tracking, and machine learning and analytics.

California Is Turning Farms into Carbon-Sucking Factories, Grist, May 11

For the first time, California is using cap-and-trade program funding to pay farmers to sequester carbon on a large scale. In theory, this technique will pull 1,088 tons of carbon out of the atmosphere every year. If it works, and these farms manage to capture enough carbon, the program could be scaled up and serve as a model for other states.

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FAO and ICA Sign New Partnership in Lead up to the UN Decade of Family Farming, FAO, May 14

The International Co-operative Alliance and FAO renewed their partnership, paving the way for more joint efforts to enable smallholder and small-scale family farmers in the developing world to benefit from a unique and successful business model that combines economic and social goals for inclusive development.

Ethiopia: A Way Forward for Food, Land Use in Ethiopia, Opinion, Gemedo Dalle, Paul Polmangemedo Dalle, and Paul Polman, All Africa, May 12

To unlock the potential of better food and land use, business leaders and policy-makers working in the food and land sectors need long-term science-based targets and pathways to make better-informed decisions. Efforts to grow collective knowledge, develop long-term strategies, and invest in innovations are key to the future success.

The 82 Words That Could Shape the Future of Clean Meat, Quartz, May 11

A new bill would give the USDA authority to regulate how cell-cultured meat products are labeled and inspected for safety. The inclusion of this new provision indicates there’s enough political will by meat-industry lobbying groups to try and shape the future regulation of cell-cultured meat through an act of Congress.

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How India’s Welfare Revolution Is Starving Citizens, New Yorker, May 16

Aadhaar, a biometric identification database, uses an individual’s photograph, fingerprints, and iris scans to generate a unique ID, which is then linked to a range of services, including welfare benefits, traffic tickets, and pensions. Recipients say the system has turned accessing their monthly supply of food into a game of chance with some recipients being accidentally deleted from the government’s ledger altogether.

In Rohingya Camps, Monsoon Threatens Hard-Won WASH Progress, Devex, May 15

Water, sanitation, and hygiene experts in Bangladesh’s Rohingya refugee camps are worried about accessing latrines to continue to safely clean them, and the ensuing risk of contamination should waters rise and latrines overflow during the upcoming monsoon season. Risk analysis estimates that floods and landslides could damage one-quarter of washrooms and latrines in the main camp and nearly half of the current sources of tube well water.

SEE ALSO: The Rohingya Have Fled One Crisis for Another, Foreign Policy, May 15

Gut Feeling, Grist, May 15

As many as 70 million Americans suffer from gastrointestinal issues. Until recently, these maladies had been largely confined to the developed world. But as our junk food-y diets have been unveiled in the developing world, so have our illnesses. At the same time, there’s been an explosion of interest in the gut microbiome—the collection of bacteria that helps us digest food and regulate our immune systems.

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Warming Waters Push Fish to Cooler Climates, Out of Some Fishermen’s Reach, NPR, May 17

The oceans are getting warmer and fish are noticing, with potentially serious consequences for the fishing industry. Even a shift of a couple hundred miles can put fish or lobster out of range for small boats with limited fuel and time to get to a new fish habitat.

SEE REPORT: Projecting Shifts in Thermal Habitat for 686 Species on the North American Continental Shelf, PLOS, May 16

Forests Are Growing Again Where Human Well-Being Is Increasing, Finds New Study, Quartz, May 16

Countries with high levels of human well-being are more likely to show increasing forest growth. Countries exhibiting annual increases in the number of trees typically score highly on the United Nations’ Human Development Index, a scoring system that uses measures of life expectancy, education, and income to assess development status. Meanwhile, countries with a net annual forest loss typically score lower on the HDI.

Egypt and Ethiopia Smooth Tensions over Nile Dam, Wall Street Journal, May 16

Ethiopia is building a massive $4.2 billion dam on the Nile’s main tributary. Egypt depends on the Nile for its water supply, and fears that the dam will divert too much water and place pressure on its agriculture. Officials from Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan have moved forward with an agreement to study the filling of the dam and to meet every six months to discuss it, smoothing tensions.

Water Shortages to Be Key Environmental Challenge of the Century, NASA Warns, Guardian, May 16

According to scientists from NASA, areas in northern and eastern India, the Middle East, California, and Australia are among the hotspots where overuse of water resources has caused a serious decline in the availability of freshwater. Without strong action by governments to preserve water the situation in these areas is likely to worsen.

SEE ALSO: 'The River Is Dead': Is a Mine Polluting the Water of Brazil's Xikrin Tribe? Guardian, May 15

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Why Owning Land isn’t Enough to Empower Africa’s Women Farmers¸ Star Kenya, May 16

In the agricultural sector—the major employer for poor people in Africa—assets like land and livestock are owned and controlled mainly by men. But even when women own land, their husbands are still perceived as household heads. As such, men have better access to public resources such as subsidized fertilizers and agricultural advisory services.

On East Coast Oyster Farms, 'Women Are Rising up from the Bay in a Big Way', NPR, May 14

Oyster farmer and scientist Lisa Calvo leads a team of women that harvests oysters along the New Jersey coast. Calvo says she is inspired by what she sees in a small but notable wave of women coming up in the industry: tenacity, skill, grit.

Colombia’s Indigenous Transgender Women Find Refuge, Freedom Working on Coffee Farms, Washington Post, May 14

In this photo series, photographer Lena Mucha documents the lives of indigenous transgender women living on Colombian coffee plantations. She observes that in their communities, the transgender women who decided to live openly transgender are punished by their own people. Working on these coffee farms means they have a free space where they can express their gender identity openly.

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Japan Plans $400 Million Hit on US Goods in Response to Trump Tariffs¸ Guardian, May 16

Japan is considering slapping tariffs on US imports worth $409 million in retaliation to duties imposed by Washington. Japan was the United States’ fourth largest export market in 2016 and food products such as corn is one of America’s biggest exports to Japan.

How Do Corporations Perceive Their Role in the GMO Debate?, Devex, May 11

Smack at the center of the debate over genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and their role in developing countries are large corporations. A major aim of these corporations is to improve the profitability of farmers in developing countries. They also consider GMOs to be one of many tools needed to reduce agricultural waste and improve yield.

Computers Drive Trading in Coffee and Cocoa Markets¸ Financial Times, May 11

Specialized markets such as cocoa and coffee are becoming the next frontier for the waves of buying and selling generated by algorithmic trading. The change is also triggering dramatic shifts in prices for coffee, cocoa, and sugar, sparking concern that these commodities are being divorced from their fundamentals of supply and demand.

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World Farmers’ Organization 2018 General Assembly

Date: May 28-31

Location: Moscow, Russia

Geographical Indications for Food Symposium

Date: May 31

Location: Washington, DC

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

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