Timothy A. Wise

Timothy Wise

Timothy A. Wise is a senior advisor at IATP, where his work focuses on agribusiness, family farmers and the future of food, based on his recent book, Eating Tomorrow: Agribusiness, Family Farmers, and the Battle for the Future of Food (The New Press). He was a senior advisor with the Small Planet Institute, where he directed the Land and Food Rights Program from 2016-2020. He is also a senior research fellow at Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute, where he founded and directed its Globalization and Sustainable Development Program.

Articles by this author

Aerial view of farmers working in a corn field in San Pedro Nexapa, Mexico state, on April 3, 2020. (Photo by PEDRO PARDO/AFP via Getty Images) Views
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
Mexico's Decision to Ban Glyphosate Has Rocked the Agribusiness World
Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador quietly rocked the agribusiness world with his New Year’s Eve decree to phase out use of the herbicide glyphosate and the cultivation of genetically modified corn. His administration sent an even stronger aftershock two weeks later, clarifying that the...
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Poverty remains high, and severe food insecurity has increased 31% across AGRA’s 13 countries, as measured by the United Nations. (Photo by ASHRAF SHAZLY/AFP via Getty Images) Views
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Africa at the Crossroads: Time to Abandon Failing Green Revolution
As COVID-19 threatens farming communities across Africa already struggling with climate change, the continent is at a crossroads. Will its people and their governments continue trying to replicate industrial farming models promoted by developed countries? Or will they move boldly into the uncertain...
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Farmers in Zimbabwe prepare fields to grow corn. "A hotter world is a more unequal world, with the north benefiting and tropical economies declining," the Nature study authors say. "A cooler world leads to more equitable global growth, offering regions like Africa the chance to 'catch up'." (Photo: David White, Oxfam) Views
Thursday, August 20, 2020
Replacing Hunger with Malnutrition
It’s been nearly fifty years since Frances Moore Lappé reminded us in her seminal work, “Diet for a Small Planet,” that hunger is not caused by a scarcity of food, it is caused by a scarcity of power. Economist Amartya Sen won a Nobel Prize more than twenty years ago for showing that famine was...
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Ten years into AGRA, Global Hunger Index scores remained in the "serious" or "alarming" categories for 12 of the 13 AGRA countries. (Photo: Global Justice Now/cc/flickr) Views
Friday, November 01, 2019
The Battle for the Future of Food in Africa
Last month in Ghana, Agnes Kalibata, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, congratulated an illustrious group of corporate and government leaders for “leapfrogging into the future” in their efforts to “modernize” African agriculture with high-yield commercial seeds,...
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"Agroecology is the only solution we have to address the multiple crises we are facing." (Photo: Public domain) Views
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Rome Summit Takes Bold Step Toward Agroecology
The Climate Action Summit at the UN last month was widely considered a disappointment, failing to garner the kinds of government actions needed to address the climate crisis. Sadly, the same can be said for actions on agriculture and climate change, despite a well-publicized commitment of $790...
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Cotton Field Views
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Big Ag Is a Major Obstacle to Combating the Climate Crisis
Climate experts have sounded yet another dire alarm, this time aimed straight at our stomachs. The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's latest report, on "Climate Change and Land," warns that meeting the challenges of our climate crisis requires urgent changes in our food systems.
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Migrants certainly are not criminals for fleeing conditions the U.S. government helped create. They are victims. (Photo: Ryan/flickr/cc) Views
Tuesday, July 30, 2019
Dear Democrats: We Owe Migrants More Than "Decriminalization"
Like many citizens of the United States, I was pleased to hear the consensus condemnation of President Trump’s punitive migration policies from Democratic presidential candidates during the last debate. Granted, It does not take much courage to condemn “holding children in cages.” Still, it was...
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It’s not a system that’s working well, and if we’re worried about the overall availability of food, we in the rich world should stop doubling down on industrial agriculture. (Photo: Kuarmungadd for Getty Images) Views
Tuesday, July 23, 2019
World Hunger Is on the Rise
For the third straight year, U.N. agencies have documented rising levels of severe hunger in the world, affecting 820 million people. More than 2 billion suffer “moderate or severe” food insecurity. During the same period, the world is experiencing what Reuters called a “global grains glut,” with...
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"Food systems are at a crossroads. Profound transformation is needed." (Photo: Markus Winkler on Unsplash) Views
Wednesday, July 10, 2019
Agroecology as Innovation
Recently, the High Level Panel of Experts of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) released its much-anticipated report on agroecology. The report signals the continuing shift in emphasis in the UN agency’s approach to agricultural development. As outgoing FAO Director General Jose...
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Farm leader Rocío Miranda speaks at the September 11 farmers’ movement press conference in Mexico City against the new NAFTA agreement. (Timothy Wise) Views
Thursday, September 13, 2018
'This Is Life or Death for Us': Mexico's Farm Movement Rejects New NAFTA Agreement
The smooth ride to a new North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) may have just hit the bumpy roads of rural Mexico. On Tuesday, leaders of Mexico’s farm movement strongly condemned the new agreement announced between the United States and Mexico, calling on the new president they supported in...
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