Food prices are soaring and philanthropy heavy hitters including Bill Gates, the Walton Family and the Ford and Kellogg foundations are combining efforts to find ways to bring down prices.
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Today, eight of the world's leading foundations announced the joint long-term initiative, called AGree, that will fund research that looks at the best way to feed an exploding population and assess the needs of rural farmers to meet the demand.
The research will be what the foundations call "agnostic" and will provide a blueprint for food policy makers. The AGree initiative will also try to bridge to communications gap between Big Ag industrial farmers and organic farmers and environmentalists.
“Agriculture issues need to be at the top of the United States’ and world’s agenda, alongside energy, healthcare and national security,” Dan Glickman, former Secretary of Agriculture under President Clinton, said. “AGree will elevate the agriculture and food policy conversation. We will make it clear to leaders and policymakers that, while difficult, solving food and agriculture issues is of utmost importance and can help solve other pressing problems including public health and the need for economic growth,” he said.
Photo by: Secret Tenerife
