M e r e d i t h L e i g h

“Denying People the Right to Food”: Millions Could Go Hungry as Trump Admin Holds Up SNAP Benefits As the U.S. federal government shutdown enters its second month, over 40 million people are now struggling to feed themselves and their families after SNAP food assistance was cut off over the weekend. “We are headed for a major public health and econom...

“We are headed for a major public health and economic crisis.”

Today marks 30 days of the Republicans’ shutdown.

Now, 42 million Americans, including 3.5 million Texans, are at risk of losing access to SNAP.

Enough with the games. It’s time for them to show up and do their damn jobs.

"Start with the basic condition for life, water, and you see: Israel forces the Palestinians to make only one choice: leave your country, or die."

📣The people
📣United
📣Will never be defeated
www.instagram.com/p/DPb6po9iCX...

💥Conflict remains one of the leading drivers of hunger worldwide.
The HLPE-FSN Issues Paper “Conflict-induced acute food crises: potential policy responses in light of current emergencies” sheds light on how violence disrupts food systems and livelihoods.⤵️

A great social justice leader of our time speaks on the exhausting efforts taken to protect those he serves in the face of undignified treatment by people who are seated in power towards himself.

bsky.app/profile/jazz...

"Before the 7 October atrocity...about 40% of its land was farmed. Despite its extreme population density, Gaza was mostly self-sufficient in vegetables and poultry... But last month the UN reported that just 1.5% of its agricultural land now remains both accessible and undamaged."

Go off, Al Gore! Down to the last words... Political will is a renewable resource. ✊👏👏👏 youtube.com/watch?v=Ztx0...

My appreciation goes to Dr. Özlem Terzi for coordinating this unique module and for supporting student researchers. I learned so much from the course and gained a lot from the interdisciplinary approach.

As a final product of the course, we could select our own topic to write a policy outlook paper. From my food system perspective, I looked into the issue of food security and wrote about the importance of food sovereignty in achieving it.

At @vuamsterdam.bsky.social, I joined an extracurricular, REPAIR (Re-focusing the European Green Deal on the protection of the environment, security and Indigenous Peoples’ rights in the Arctic’), that offers political science, legal, and environmental resource management perspectives on the Arctic.

📣Publication alert!
Exploring the path to food security via food sovereignty. This is my contribution to a set of student policy outlook papers focused on the Arctic.

For more, please read here:
jmmodulerepair.org/wp-content/u...

Sambasivan & Parikh Sambasivan & Parikh is a women-led small press that centers the diasporic perspectives in children’s literature. Our imprints are Yali Books and Modern Marigold Books.

Please consider supporting “Diaspora-ish” by pre-ordering at www.SambasivanAndParikh.com and wherever books are sold. Order directly from the small press for 25% off.

”Diaspora-ish” presents an anti-imperial, anti-racist, collective learning resource that centers historically marginalized and excluded global realities.

I'm excited to support Gayatri Sethi & partner w/ 1stPersonPress & Sambasivan and Parikh for this cover reveal. An extension of her genre-bending nonfiction debut ”Unbelonging”, Sethi juxtaposes personal observations w/ academic notes & inquiries to guide readers through paradigm shifts in learning.

📢 Cover Reveal & Pre-order Launch

Releasing Feb 3, 2026, “Diaspora-ish: Notes on Identities, Unbelonging, & Solidarities” is a collective learning resource that offers inquiries about diasporic identity and belonging aimed at practicing global solidarity.

The five narratives of sustainable food systems were
(1) securing food sovereignty,
(2) contributing to climate justice,
(3) doing no harm,
(4) empowering consumers, and
(5) connecting people to their food.

Our research investigated how sustainable food systems are perceived, and the analysis revealed five distinct narratives. Two priorities were agreed upon by all: A sustainable food system should (1) provide food security and (2) operate under transparent, democratic governance.

Frontiers | Disentangling food transformation narratives: a Q-method analysis on pathways to sustainable food systems and their implications IntroductionWhile the urgency to transform global food systems is widely recognized in scientific and policy circles, differing interpretations of what const...

New publication🚨alert🚨 “Disentangling food transformation narratives: A Q-method analysis on pathways to sustainable food systems and their implications” in @frontiersin.bsky.social.

Read it here: www.frontiersin.org/journals/nut...

UN says time is short to stop famine spreading as Israel bombards Gaza City Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are facing famine in the area of Gaza City, according to a global hunger monitor.

There is a "narrow window" to prevent famine from spreading further in Gaza, says the UN – calling on Israel to allow unimpeded aid delivery.

www.reuters.com/world/middle...

"The takeaway is clear: cooperative self-reliance and more localized, territorial food systems must become central to how we respond. Resilience can no longer be outsourced."

The Future of Climate Change Is on Mauritius — The Dial Freak tornadoes, “explosions” of jellyfish, flash floods and dried up pumps.

Telling the story of what climate change looks like on Mauritius. Thanks to @thedialmag.bsky.social.
www.thedial.world/articles/new...

1,800 kg less to the landfill: Chennai school’s green solution to food waste A Chennai school turns food waste into biogas, powering its kitchen and garden, while teaching students hands-on sustainability.

A model worth replicating:
citizenmatters.in/food-waste-c...

Incorporates waste management, energy production, food production into a closed loop system in a school environment with student participation. Thanks for sharing this story @citizenmatters.bsky.social!

Settler Colonialism Undermines Food Systems in Crises In the complex landscape of global food security, protracted crises present an enduring challenge that defies simplistic solutions. Traditionally, responses to food insecurity in such contexts have

How to restore food security in settler colonial contexts: Food sovereignty approaches led by indigenous people and further supported by the dismantlement of state policies that enforce colonial systems.
scienmag.com/settler-colo...

Fewer than half the calories grown on farms now reach our plates In 2020, the world produced more than enough calories to feed the global population, but only half of those calories reached people’s plates due to rising meat and biofuel production

This is the single biggest problem with our food system. It is absurdly inefficient. Less than half of what we grow ends up on our plates.

Great work by Paul West and other Project Drawdown colleagues.

www.newscientist.com/article/2493...

Three green and blue boxes are arranged horizontally, labelled “Research & Teaching,” “Endorsement & Facilitation,” and “Active Participation,” connected by arrows that move from indirect support to direct involvement. Examples of actions are listed around each box. Under Research & Teaching: “build evidence base for efficacy of activism strategies,” “teach about systemic change,” and “communicate value of social movements.” Under Endorsement & Facilitation: “share resources,” “offer expert testimony,” “mobilise colleagues,” and “push for institutional policy changes.” Under Active Participation: “provide training and scientific knowledge to activist groups,” “support protest actions,” and “participate in non-violent civil disobedience or strikes.” At the bottom, a banner reads “Source: Perrin, Abigail J., et al., 2025. Npj Climate Action” with a background image of melting ice and the Climate Ages logo.

Ignoring this might mean missing one of the most powerful tools we actually have to fight climate and biodiversity collapse.

Over the years, I’ve watched report after report confirm what we already know:
🪼 Emissions are still rising
🪼 Ecosystems are still collapsing
🧵

YouTube video by Michael Mezzatesta Why Capitalism Can’t Save Us | Jason Hickel on Climate, AI & Empire (Better Future 003)

Another good one from Michael Mezzatesta @michaelmezz.bsky.social with Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social envisioning society and the future outside of the dominant capitalist system. youtu.be/MU1QdQsjGpM?...

...To maintain that flow, the Global North prevents sovereign development. This is the reason for modern warfare... Liberation struggles destabilize capitalism; the alternative is post-capitalist (a system that no longer demands imperialism to be violently imposed to support capitalist economy)."

"Colonization was organized around supplying cheap nature & labor, and though we live now in an apparently post-colonial era those same mechanisms are at play (e.g. growth & consumption depend on massive appropriation of nature/labor from Global South)...

YouTube video by Michael Mezzatesta Why Capitalism Can’t Save Us | Jason Hickel on Climate, AI & Empire (Better Future 003)

Another good one from Michael Mezzatesta @michaelmezz.bsky.social with Jason Hickel @jasonhickel.bsky.social envisioning society and the future outside of the dominant capitalist system. youtu.be/MU1QdQsjGpM?...