Site Link: Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare 

BBFAW presents an example of how evaluation alone has the potential to influence policy at the corporate level. Because animal welfare standards have been called out as a lens for measuring good business, food corporations across the value chain are challenged to improve practices in this area.
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Resource Summary
The Business Benchmark on Farm Animal Welfare (BBFAW) is the first global measure of animal welfare standards for food businesses. The 2015 evaluation covers issues including confinement, genetic engineering, growth hormones, antibiotics, mutilations, slaughter practices, long distance live transportation, internal policy, accountability, and more. BBFAW proposes to evaluate a range of corporations from production to retail, including Sysco, Dean Foods Co, ConAgra Food Inc, Target, Albertsons, and Chipotle Mexican Grill.

Site link: USDA New Farmers

A declining agricultural workforce is evidence of lack of profitability in the sector, resulting in social inequity and a lack of family wage jobs among farmers. The resilience of rural communities can be greatly impacted by investments and policy change that support new farmers.
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Resource Summary
The majority of farmers in the United States are near or past age of retirement, and there are no new farmers to fill their shoes. The number of beginning farmers decreased by 20% from 2007 to 2012 (USDA Census of Agriculture).  Local programs in the PNW have provided training, technical assistance, and incubator programs to beginning farmers for years. The USDA has launched an site for new farmers – with particular focus on youth and women – that walks through expectations, stories from other new farmers, planning, resources, and making connections.

"The big money of changing food and agriculture tech"
Amina Elahi, Chicago Tribune

As impact investors in the food system, CFFP has potential to provide leadership and lay groundwork that brings food and ag investment into the spotlight.
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Article Summary
An exploration of Chicago and Seattle-based venture capital efforts to invest in “companies that could transform the way the world eats”. While public interest, research, and grant funding towards differentiated food and agriculture is rising, the investment front remains in a “pre-competitive, collaborative stage”.

"Bread is Broken"
Ferris Jabr, New York Times

Jones’s work reveals the complex relationships between community, human, economic, and environmental health through food. Human manipulation of traditional grains to increase profit has, in the end, caused damage of biological diversity and individual nutrition on a massive scale.
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Article Summary
​A historical and personal take on the genetic modification of wheat to meet standards for industrially commodified bread. The legacy of industrialized American grain production has resulted in breads that are devoid of origin, story, taste, or nutrients. Simply put, “for the sake of profit and expediency, we forfeited pleasure and health”. Industrialized wheat varieties have attributed to increased rates of gluten intolerance, IBS, and other chronic health conditions. Stephen Jones of The Bread Lab in Mt. Vernon, Washington passionately seeks to revive the pleasure and health of bread by combining studies of advanced genetics and traditional grains.