Growing a Just Food System

From Stephanie Feldstein, Population and Sustainability Program Director

At Food Day Festival during L.A. Climate Week, the Center for Biological Diversity and World Animal Protection unveiled the U.S. Just Food Transition Roadmap. Developed with more than 20 other environmental, labor, public health, and food advocacy organizations, the roadmap brings the vision of the global Just Food Transition Network to the United States. It lays out an ambitious plan for how we can move away from the destructive, exploitative factory farm model toward a food system that empowers workers and independent farmers, increases access to nutritious food, and supports humane treatment of animals and a healthy environment.

It may be difficult to envision a just food transition under a federal government that guts environmental protections, nutrition programs, and funding for farmers, and the challenges are real — but they won’t stop the transition. As we fight bad policy at the top, models for community-led, equitable, green food systems at the state and local level are already seeding a better food future.

If you represent an organization, you can endorse the roadmap.

You can also help the just transition by opposing a new plan for pig and poultry slaughterhouses that puts workers, animals, and the environment at risk.

Then read on to learn more about our work to protect Illinois chorus frogs, the truth about insect protein, how vasectomies can help people prepare for climate disasters, and more.

Crowded Planet — While the annual count of migratory monarchs who overwinter in Mexico has slightly increased, the butterflies’ population has declined by 80% since the 1990s because of habitat destruction and pesticides. Monarchs were proposed for Endangered Species Act protection in December 2024, but Trump officials delayed moving forward. So in February the Center and partners sued to secure a date for final protection.

Using Creativity to Fight Extinction

Storytelling, art, and media are powerful tools to educate people and inspire change. Our creative work to break taboos around population and food topics is just one way the Center uses these tools to activate people to save the wild. We also create videos, animations, interactive maps, art projects, groundbreaking journalism, and even a podcast to help people understand what’s at stake when species on the brink of extinction aren’t protected. Check out our creative media page to see it all.

One of our favorite projects? This animation showing incredible journey of one endangered leatherback sea turtle covering thousands of miles.

Here’s one thing you can do: Follow the Center’s Instagram page to see our creative projects as they’re released.

Only Half of Cropland-Grown Calories Are for People

A new study found that only half of the calories produced on croplands around the world are directly available for people to eat. The other half are “lost” to livestock feed, biofuels, or other nonfood uses. These inefficiencies vary by country. In India 84% of calories produced on croplands are consumed by humans. But in the United States, that number is only 23%.

The study shines a light on the fact that animal agriculture isn’t just a major threat to biodiversity and a leading cause of climate change, habitat loss, water pollution, and pesticide use — it’s also gobbling up farmland that could be used to feed people instead.

“We don’t have a food scarcity problem — we have a cropland use problem,” said the study’s author, Paul West.

Here’s one thing you can do: Massive swaths of corn, soy, fruit, and vegetable croplands are treated with toxic PFAS, or “forever chemicals.” Tell the EPA to stop approving forever pesticides that hurt us all.

Prep for Climate Disaster With Shared Responsibility

The climate crisis affects every aspect of our lives, and family planning is no exception — climate change can make it harder for people to choose if and when they want children. Climate-related threats like extreme heat and wildfire smoke have been linked to health risks for pregnant people and babies. And it can be hard to access contraception when a climate disaster strikes.

But, as I explain in a blog post for World Vasectomy Day, vasectomies can play an important role in preventing unintended pregnancy during climate-related emergencies. They help address barriers to contraception and offer a low-maintenance option for couples who don’t want more children. When men exercise their reproductive freedom, it can help ease climate-related gender disparities. Family planning for everyone is a basic human right that builds more resilient communities as we face the immediate threats of climate change.

Here’s one thing you can do: Have questions about vasectomy and whether it might be right for you and your partner? Learn more about the procedure.

Can Insect Protein Replace Factory Farms?

Insect farming — marketed since the early 2010s as an exciting and sustainable alternative to traditional meat — has failed to live up to its promise. Initially embraced by investors and academics as a potential way to reduce the environmental impacts of global agriculture, the industry has fallen short of becoming a realistic, sustainable alternative to meat.

Still, an estimated 1.9 trillion insects are farmed for food and feed annually. They're used primarily as feed in the industrial factory farm and aquaculture industries and an ingredient in high-end pet food — and insect protein isn't necessarily more sustainable than what it replaces. The insect farming industry also poses significant risks to vulnerable native ecosystems. And it raises questions about ethics, since emerging research suggests that insects are sentient and can feel pain and suffer. It’s clear: Insect farming isn’t a replacement for factory farming — it is factory farming.

Here’s one thing you can do: Check out our new factsheet that makes the case against insect farming.

Combating the Extinction Crisis

Biodiversity is collapsing under the weight of population pressure, overconsumption, and animal agriculture. My coworker Tierra Curry and I recently appeared on the OVERSHOOT podcast to discuss why the Center works on these issues — even though they often go ignored by other environmental organizations — and how our love of the wild keeps us motivated.

Listen in on our conversation about the biggest threats to U.S. ecosystems, the most effective strategies to preserve habitats and wildlife, and why biodiversity is essential for the wellbeing and thriving of all species — and for human survival.

Here’s one thing you can do: If you live in the United States, tell Congress to speak out against the Extinction Committee selling out Rice’s whales and other critically imperiled species in the Gulf of Mexico.

Wildlife Spotlight: Illinois Chorus Frog

Illinois chorus frogs are chubby, burrowing frogs who survive only in scattered and isolated populations in Arkansas, Missouri, and Illinois. They need sandy soil for burrowing and temporary wetlands where their tadpoles can grow. The frogs’ spring choruses once filled the sand prairies of the Midwest, but virtually all their native habitat has now been lost to agriculture and development.

The Center petitioned to protect these frogs under the Endangered Species Act in 2012. In 2015 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that federal protection may be warranted, but it reversed course in its final decision in 2023.

Our fight for Illinois chorus frogs isn’t over — last month we sued the agency over its decision not to grant them the safeguards they so badly need.

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Photo credits: Watercolor veggies via Canva; monarch butterflies via Canva; 907 Days of Shirleen by the Center for Biological Diversity; cows eating via Canva; doctor and patient via Canva; cricket farming via Shutterstock; bee, whale, and wolf collage via Canva; Illinois chorus frog by Jacob Cackowski/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

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