Island Press Field Notes

We are not alone in our struggle to achieve food security in the face of climate change. We are all in this together, growing food in partnership with diverse seeds, breeds, soil microbes, pollinators and other beneficial insects. But we need to acknowledge our interdependence with these other lives, because our fates are intertwined. In a sense, we are married to them, cohabitate with them and cannot physically or spiritually live separate from them.

Lester Brown of The Observer and Preside of the Earth Policy Institute explores the future of agriculture as our dependence on water hits its peak.  Peak oil has generated headlines in recent years, but the real threat to our future is peak water. There are substitutes for oil, but not for water. We can produce food without oil, but not without water.

Fresh off the successful launch of The Global Farms Race at The Wilson Center, Michael Kugelman and his new book take center stage in this piece by Foreign Policy's Cara Parks.

On May 11, the UN approved new international rules to govern how land is acquired abroad.