“A Burgeoning Effort to Restore Native Foods in an Unlikely Food Desert”
Alix Wall, Civil Eats

The Klamath Basin Tribal Food Security Project perfectly illustrates the aforementioned Nature article: health equity is deeply tied to sociocultural equity. In this instance, the Karuk, Yurok, and Klamath tribes reclaimed space to practice traditional food ways, which will translate to restoration of traditional (read: healthy) diets and improved health outcomes.

Article Summary: The Karuk, Yurok, and Klamath tribes have called the Klamath river basin in Northern California and Southern Oregon home for thousands of years. Colonization and subsequent mining, logging, and other forces have degraded the environment that sustains the tribe’s primary food source. Tribes shifted from their no longer reliable traditional diets to to widely available industrialized foods and as a result, the tribes experience disproportionate rates of nutritionally related diseases – type 2 diabetes rates are twice the national average.
The Klamath Basin Tribal Food Security Project is working to combat these trends by restoring traditional food ways through a revival of tribal knowledge in foraging, cultivating, stewarding, and processing. Thus far, some 4,000 tribe members have collaborated with UC Berkeley staff in a wide variety of projects including community garden workshops surveys, focus groups, policy discussions, food production workshops, native food camps, and after-school programs to pursue their goals.

 “Grain Traders Rejecting New Monsanto Soybeans”
Dow Jones Business News

GMO concerns have transcended environmental and health concerns and breached into the realm of product viability. As CFFP seeks to identify strategic investments within the differentiated production spectrum, for instance from no-till to organic no-till, this is something to consider.

Article Summary: Monsanto recently launched a new genetically modified soybean that has not yet been approved by EU regulations. Firms representing companies as influential as Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland have rejected the product, mainly on the basis that there are not mechanisms in place to ensure the unapproved GMO will not contaminate countries with GMO laws. In the wake of China’s rejection of US corn shipments due to contamination with Syngenta GMO material, compliance with GMO laws 

"Cover Crops, A Farming Revolution with Deep Roots in the Past"
Stephanie Strom, New York Times
 
The biological and financial benefits that come with cover cropping validate CFFP’s current Market Research on the similar practice of rotational cropping, and suggest that we are looking in the right direction.
 
Article Summary
​Cover crops are taking off in the Corn Belt, symbolizing a fundamental shift away from input-heavy industrial farming. Numerous industrial family farms now plant combinations of non-cash crops between seasons including turnips, millet, barley, clover, hairy vetch, sunflower, and more. Biological benefits of cover cropping include natural soil aeration, reduced erosion, carbon sequestration, nutrient replenishment, and improved beneficial insect, fungi, and microorganism populations. Cover cropping generally improves yields, eliminates need for fertilizer, and often reduces pesticide use. Overall, farmers estimate a net economic benefit of $244,000 or just over $69/acre – and this does not take into account potential income from value-added market for the cover crops themselves, especially grains.

"Economists keep saying we should put a price on nature. Now they’ve finally done it."
Chelsea Harvey, Washington Post
 
Natural Capital presents a useful tool as CFFP looks to measure environmental returns on investment. This measurement accounts for nuances and fluctuations that allow analysts to evaluate sustainability for the long term.
 
Article Summary
​A group of faculty at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies has been working closely with economists to create a formula that describes the value of nature related assets, known as Natural Capital. Previously, economists had described the value of nature through “ecosystem services”, which better represents the flow of natural assets like income. On the other hand, natural capital represents the whole of natural assets like wealth. In this way natural capital is a more accurate representation of those assets, looking at the whole value of assets after the (sometimes unpredictable) effects of industrial endeavors and “green” interventions alike. 

Site Link: Healthy soils are the basis for healthy food production

CFFP’s commitment to the economic viability of sustainable production systems for medium-sized producers is one huge contribution to the sustenance of soils in Washington state. While CFFP is already researching market potential of no-till and organic production systems, additional systems to consider that prioritize soil health include agroforestry, agroecology, and conservation agriculture

Resource Summary
An easily-digestible infographic from the FAO that includes why, more than any other agricultural input, the cultivation of diverse and healthy soils is perhaps the most important. For more detailed explanations, browse here.