Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 04/09/2026In this compelling piece, Thalita argues that while Brazil’s exit last year from the Hunger Map is worth celebrating, it masks harder questions about power, policies, and democratic values. And the gains could easily be undone by a change in government. 000
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 28/08/20264. The “nanny state” charge is similarly disingenuous. 5. We live in a terrible investment system that rewards increases in shareholder values instead of a healthier, fairer, or more sustainable society, so what do we do when the incentive structure is broken? 010
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 31/07/2026We are boxed in by rising costs of nutritious foods on the one hand & powerful companies making it hard for us to determine if what we can afford is healthy. Full issue: news.thin-ink.net/p/whats-in-a... Also, I'm taking a break & will be back the week of August 24. Stay cool and safe. 020
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 31/07/2026There are a dozen different systems around the world (warning labels, grades, star ratings, endorsement logos), as this image from the Global Food Research Program at UNC-Chapel Hill shows. www.globalfoodresearchprogram.org/resource/fro... I did a video about it: www.instagram.com/reel/DbS3H1j... 110
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 03/07/2026Did you know that experts say 70% of your health status is determined by these factors. Only 10% by individual behaviour? Yet the "personal responsibility" framing is still winning the political argument. Because industry spends billions making sure it does. 011
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 19/06/2026What does this all mean? Many of the systems underpinning modern agriculture are extraordinarily wasteful, increasingly vulnerable, and remarkably good at reinventing themselves without changing very much at all. The good news? Alternatives already exist — and are already working. 000
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 19/06/2026DYK that... - Products in U.S. with regenerative food labels may not necessarily mean they're free of synthetic pesticides & fertilisers, or care about soil health? - Big Food is reshaping the meaning of regenerative agriculture in ways that could allow business as usual to continue? 210
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 05/06/2026While we debate food transitions in Europe, or analyse competing agendas of MAHA vs. MAGA in the U.S., China is executing hyper-scale transformations before our eyes. In this week's Thin Ink, I unpack the staggering scale of China's food system evolution with insights from Matthew & the podcast. 010
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 29/05/2026But if the right-wing opposition wins, these hard-won public health victories face the chopping block. This isn't just a local political race - it has global implications. Will corporate cash capture a nation's health policy, or can public interest hold the line? news.thin-ink.net/p/sugar-powe... 000
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 19/05/2026I'll be speaking at @oslofreedomforum.com about return of dictatorship in Myanmar, critical role of independent local journalists, why we need to keep supporting them & what we at @kitetalesmm.bsky.social have been doing. If you find yourself in Oslo, please come say hello. oslofreedomforum.com 031
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 08/05/2026I first heard "political economy" in 2022. Since then, I've met so many smart, well-meaning people who kept saying: yes, the food system is skewed, yes power shapes who wins and loses, but it's too complicated, too sensitive, and too hard to tackle. news.thin-ink.net/p/the-politi... 032
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 01/05/2026We produce enough staples & calories to feed everyone. So why is 1 in 5 people in 47 countries going hungry? Latest Thin Ink is on 4 new reports that paint a picture of systemic failures in how we grow, distribute, finance, & protect food. 🔗 news.thin-ink.net/p/on-hunger-heat-and-markets-making 052
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 24/04/2026I also learnt a few lessons from moderating a panel on women farmers (the reason I was at the event), and why “organise first” might still be the most radical idea in the room. 011
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 12/04/2026As someone who has been able to vote only once in her life (so far), and whose country just had a sham of an election a few months ago, I do love to see when elections work. 042
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 10/04/2026🍛 I spoke to Mike for this week's Thin Ink about the urgent need to protect our food cultures, not as something to preserve unchanged, but as something that carries history, identity, and meaning. 010
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 10/04/2026🌏 It moves across places and histories: from the Czech Republic to Rohingya communities to the Uyghurs to New Mexico, showing how food cultures are reshaped or lost under pressure. 110
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 10/04/2026♨ That's the argument Michael Shaikh, friend & former human rights investigator, made in his beautiful, inspiring, & enraging book The Last Sweet Bite. 💥💣🚀 It tackles the erasure of culinary traditions through state violence with a lightness of touch that keeps you reading. 110
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 27/03/2026If meat is defended as culture & tradition, why does that concern so rarely extend to protecting the animals themselves, especially when they're most vulnerable? Kudos to the journos who worked on this important piece: Leoni Bender, Louisa Bouri-Saouter, Maria Dybcio, Martin Vrba, & Raluca Besliu. 021
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 20/03/2026This week’s guest post tackles that disconnect head-on. Drawing on research from community kitchens across Spain, it explores what hunger actually looks like in wealthy European societies and what it might take to guarantee access to good food with dignity. 100
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 13/03/2026But they also come with enormous environmental & economic costs. We're also overusing them: <50% of nitrogen fertiliser actually ends up in crops. Yet fertiliser companies have seen profits surge while farmers struggle with rising input costs. Can we get out of this snare we've set for ourselves? 120
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 06/03/2026But there are people far better qualified than me to dissect the immediate fallout (see Thin’s Pickings). So I decided to stick to what I had planned, which also speaks to a community disproportionately affected by both conflict and climate change: women. 010
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 06/03/2026For years, we’ve known climate change hits women farmers harder. The question is no longer whether we have the evidence, it’s whether we act on it. We discussed: - why what gets measured gets funded - how structural barriers hold women farmers back - what changes when women are included 110
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 20/02/2026Also, thank you to everyone who responded so thoughtfully to last week’s issue. It was great to see the article resonating with lots of people. Again, I republished a few excerpts from comments that pushed the argument further and opened up important adjacent questions. 000
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 13/02/2026That’s why we need to shift the frame from producing more to ensuring rights, wages, social protection, and equitable markets. Food isn’t just a commodity, it’s a human right that depends on fair markets, decent incomes and political will. news.thin-ink.net/p/we-dont-ha... 010
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 13/02/2026We also need to be asking where those grains are going. According to the brief, the growth in the utilisation of cereals will primarily come from non-food uses (for animal feed, ethanol production, and others). 100
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 13/02/2026As Sophia Murphy says, “global hunger is only modestly connected to global grain supplies” — hunger is about access, price, and distribution. Jose Luis Chicoma also points out that production concentration increases vulnerability — abundance at the global level can coexist with local fragility. 100
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 30/01/2026We plan to continue this work this year. But this is a drop in the ocean. Also, my post isn't about supporting one organisation. It's about an entire information ecosystem. Myanmar's journalists need sustained support, not just praise for how "resilient" they are. 120
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 23/01/2026Thin Ink is 5 years old this week 🎂 I marked it with a light-ish anniversary newsletter looking back (and a bit forward). I reflect on how food systems thinking has gone mainstream (kind of) and what I’ve learned from publishing 242 issues 😅 news.thin-ink.net/p/thin-ink-i... 141
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 16/01/2026The latest tracker finds 1/3 of competition matters in agriculture have cross-border impacts but many countries never review them. That gap means higher prices and fewer opportunities for small producers and consumers. If you care about improving our food systems, have a read: 👇 000
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 09/01/2026For those living in food deserts or food swamps, “just make better choices” is a misunderstanding of reality. What we need is the real Big Tent: Room for anyone trying to do better, without flattening power or pretending we all start from the same place. That’s the energy I’m bringing into 2026. 183
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 19/12/2025Here, I reflect on what it means to carry. almost all my entire life, a passport that invites scrutiny; that requires advanced visas for most destinations; and that turns routine immigration appointments into nerve-wrecking ordeals. And what it means to suddenly find myself on the other side. 094
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 12/12/2025Overarching theme from these reports: the lack of a coherent policy at EU level to tackle the challenges ahead of us. Despite proclamations about food security and farmers' livelihoods, EU's actions are benefitting neither. www.monopolkommission.de/en/reports/s... news.thin-ink.net/p/are-you-th... 042
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 05/12/2025This week’s issue grows out of a presentation I gave at GIJC two weeks ago, where I tried to puncture persistent myths about hunger and malnutrition. Also in this week's issue: fellowship positions opening at Lighthouse Reports. Come work with us for six months! 032
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 28/11/2025...despite the critical role food plays in our daily existence - we all have to eat - we take it for granted to the point where investigating the forces that shape our food systems is considered ‘niche’. 🇧🇷 That + outcomes from Belém where food systems barely featured, led me to this week's issue. 0103
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 21/11/2025There, efforts are underway to regulate UPF production, marketing, & consumption despite strong industry resistance. These “offer crucial lessons for scaling action globally”. The papers are worth devouring (pun intended) in full. But if you don't have time, I've done the leg work for you. 071
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 14/11/2025So here's Who Owns The Farmland - Redux, where he explained the differences between land ownership and land use, why Europe's march towards consolidation of farmland is both inevitable and desirable, and how caring for the soil and land is more about practices and less about scale. 113
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 07/11/2025Coming from a country of small farms & now living in 2 where farms are getting larger, I find these global trends deeply personal & political. So I break down 11 fascinating findings & share my two cents: are bigger, more intensive farms the food future we want or are we heading there by default? 031
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 07/11/2025It comes with striking new data and insights: ➡️ 1.7 billion people now live in areas where crop yields are at least 10% lower because of human-induced land degradation. But what really caught my eye are the new figures on farm sizes and land distribution. 111
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 31/10/2025Thanks to Jose Luis Chicoma, who co-edited and also wrote in the report, for sharing the thought processes behind the project and what they are hoping to achieve. Here's hoping we see more open discussions and actions on this topic. news.thin-ink.net/p/how-to-eat... 000
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 24/10/2025For me, covering food systems is a constant struggle to balance bad with good: to walk that fine line between exposing injustices without becoming defeatist; between showing what we’re up against while reminding ourselves that change is possible. This issue is my attempt to show the possibilities. 010
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 24/10/2025Next, I look at a global analysis on what it will take to help our smallholder farmers - the people who produce at least a third of our food - adapt to the changing climate, and why we should do it. Huge thanks to @bhavanishankar.bsky.social & Esther Penunia for their insights & time. 100
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 24/10/2025First, I go to Bihar where a project is harnessing the advantages of local markets as community hubs and purveyors of fresh food while improving their infrastructure, food safety and management, climate readiness and sensitivity to the needs of women. 110
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 15/10/2025I'll be in Vienna next week to co-facilitate "Climate journalism in shrinking democratic spaces" workshop on Oct 24. It's an invite-only event, so if you're interested, please contact IPI. Otherwise, drop me a line if you're in Vienna & want to chat about all things food systems (or Myanmar). 031
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 10/10/2025... and a blatant lack of oversight to ensure good labour practices among its beneficiaries Full credit to @eoghangilmartin.bsky.social, @simonguichard.bsky.social, @silvialazzaris.bsky.social, @meriemm.bsky.social, Pascale Mueller, @frnzskschwrz.bsky.social, Hélène Servel & @joseuf.bsky.social. 082
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 03/10/2025- The recommended diet, however, remains largely consistent with the 2019 version. I've framed the key findings into 3 buckets that I now use when I talk about food systems challenges: how to make them healthier, greener, & fairer. It's all in the newsletter. news.thin-ink.net/p/the-planet... 020
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 26/09/2025And about whether, and how, they might be revived. Our conversation reminded me of a phrase that has become a rallying cry in Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, which is waging its own uneven struggle against a brutal military: “They tried to bury us, they didn’t know we were seeds.” 020
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 12/09/2025So I sat down with Jennifer to discuss how corporate power structures in agriculture were entrenched far earlier than most of us realise, why past critiques went unheeded, & what that means for breaking free of the “lock-ins” shaping our food systems today. 020
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 05/09/2025And yes, I do have some quibbles, especially on the invisibility of political economy issues. I wrote about them in the newsletter. Besides, any report that cites both Charles Dickens and Silent Spring gets a bit of a pass in my book. news.thin-ink.net/p/path-to-a-... 000
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 29/08/2025I was born & raised in a country where impunity was rampant & saw how that screw up societies & erode our humanity for each other. I see the same impunity in many places - Gaza, Sudan, U.S., etc. In all of them, indifference has fuelled it. Let’s not feed the impunity monster by looking away. 031
Thin from Thin Ink @thinink.bsky.social · 22/08/2025But it isn't all doom and gloom. Examples: Brazil lifting >40 mln people out of hunger, winners of Equator Prize 2025, federal court ruling against USDA cutting funding to farmer & community orgs, show we *can* & *should* put out the fires & bring the arsonists in our homes to account. 000