Thin from Thin Ink

But 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.

When it feels like the world is on fire & headlines are consumed by a single, all-encompassing event, I find myself asking: follow the zeitgeist, or stay the course? This was one of those weeks.

I've no doubt fragile food systems will be a casualty of so many cruel decisions made this past week.

For 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

Not Victims, But Architects FAO’s Piedad Martin on why what gets measured gets funded, and what happens when women farmers hold real authority

This week I spoke with Piedad Martín, Deputy Dir at FAO, about what happens when women are no longer treated as climate victims but as architects of solutions, in time for International Women’s Day (Sunday) & celebrate the “International Year of the Woman Farmer”.

news.thin-ink.net/p/not-victim...

A Food Fight Worth Having A Conversation with Stuart Gillespie

A food fight worth having isn’t about preferences — it’s about power. Dive into this week’s Tiny Ink convo with @stuartgillespie.bsky.social on why food systems change feels so hard (and what might break the logjam).

👉 news.thin-ink.net/p/a-food-fig...

The Long February

Here's a short but poignant graphic novel from our storytelling fellow and illustrator JC about the past five years of #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar.

kite-tales.org/en/article/l...

Also, 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.

Five forces reshaping food systems in 2026 Rather than a shared global vision, food systems are being reorganised around national insurance against external shocks, security and geopolitical alignment. How is this shift reshaping who eats, who...

It actually began as a LinkedIn exchange. After I published last week’s issue, Maryam sent me hers. I read it, sat with it, & realised it deserved more than a passing mention in “Thin’s Pickings.” So with her & ODI’s permission, I’m republishing it in full. Original link: odi.org/en/insights/...

Five forces reshaping food systems in 2026 Guest commentary on how food systems are being reorganised

🧵1/ This week on Thin Ink: I republish a powerful guest commentary by Maryam Rezaei on how global food systems are being reorganised around national protectionism, geopolitical strategic interests and fiscal retrenchment. 👇

news.thin-ink.net/p/five-force...

The Kite Tales Storyteller Fellowship Application Thank you for your interest in the Kite Tales Storyteller Fellowship. This form helps us collect standardised information from all applicants, and everything you share will be treated as fully confide...

Kite Tales Storyteller Fellowship အတွက် လျှောက်လွှာများစွာ လက်ခံရရှိထားပါတယ်။ ကျေးဇူးအများကြီးတင်ပါတယ် 💛

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Ethnicity နဲ့ gender ညီမျှဖို့ကြိုးစားပြီး freelance သတင်းထောက်များနှင့် ဦးစားပေးပါသည်။
နောက်ဆုံးရက်: Feb 28

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We’ve received many applications for the Kite Tales Storyteller Fellowship — thank you 💛

If you emailed us, please also fill in this short form so we have standardised info:
(forms.gle/p7YpThhbbhBj...)

We prioritise freelancers & diversity.
Deadline: Feb 28.

That’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...

We 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).

As 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.

The refrain I hear again and again? “We can’t act on food systems because we need to produce more.” This misunderstands where the real problem lies.

Yes, output matters, but it alone doesn’t ensure access or affordability. 673m people went to bed hungry in 2024; 2.6bn can’t afford healthy diets.

We Don’t Have a Food Production Problem We have an access, power and rights problem

📍 This week on Thin Ink, I once again unpack why record food production does not equal food security, because hunger is about access, power and rights.

FAO’s latest cereal brief forecasts record production & rising stocks. Good news but also got me thinking.

news.thin-ink.net/p/we-dont-ha...

This sobering look at global food systems research from @thinink.bsky.social is worth a thorough read.

The GIEI Honduras Report on the Murder of Berta Cáceres

Lastly, an explosive report on who is accountable for the murder of an indigenous female leader in Honduras nearly a decade ago.

A common theme in all this is: power, scale, accountability, and whose lives are visible enough to count.

www.law.berkeley.edu/experiential...

Global health burdens of plastics: a lifecycle assessment model from 2016 to 2040 Adverse health effects are associated with emissions throughout plastics lifecycles, particularly from production, though the non-disclosure of plastics chemical composition is severely limiting LCA c...

And plastics? A new global health assessment links plastics across their lifecycle to millions of lost years of healthy life, underscoring what we already know: recycling alone isn’t enough, we really need to reduce primary production.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Despite ‘Carbon Neutral’ Certifications, Beef Emissions Can Be Lower, but Never Low Research shows there’s no such thing as climate-friendly beef, despite labels claiming otherwise.

On climate and food choices: this piece from WRI shows that even the best mitigation tech would reduce beef’s total carbon footprint by <20% once land-use costs are included, challenging the idea of “climate friendly beef.”

www.wri.org/insights/tru...

I also look at an analysis on global food governance, needed more now than ever to provide cohesive, coordinated responses to interlinked challenges of hunger, climate, and nutrition, but are now tangled in multistakeholder networks with blurred accountability.

link.springer.com/epdf/10.1186...

Small farms contribute a third of the food consumed in high-income nations Nature Food - The contribution of farmers to domestic food production is a poor proxy for their role in national food consumption. This study reveals that the importance of small farms in meeting...

There's a new Nature Food paper that reframes the debate on smallholder farmers and instead of asking how much they produce, it asks who that food ultimately feeds. The debate is linked to land, power, and the type of farming systems we want.

www.nature.com/articles/s43...

Who Grows Our Food…? And other papers about power, plastic, protein, & who pays the price

📑 It's been a while since I did a round-up of interesting reports, so here it is!

This week, I dived into a set of reports and papers that collectively expose the fault lines in how we think about food systems, power, and accountability.

A few takeaways👇

news.thin-ink.net/publish/post...

We’re opening a small round of support for Myanmar journalists who could really use a hand.

We can support up to eight people, and we want to do this as thoughtfully and meaningfully as possible.

Please help us spread the word within your networks.

Five Years of Darkness The fight to keep Myanmar’s stories alive

Five years after the coup in Myanmar, @thinink.bsky.social reflects on how that has affected members of the country's media, who have done their best to continue the work of journalism even as support from Western governments and donors has fallen away.

Five Years of Darkness

Tomorrow - Feb 1 - marks 5 years since darkness again fell on Myanmar, when the military staged a coup and embarked on a brutal campaign of terror against its own citizens that included dismantling the infrastructure that allowed people to stay informed.

kite-tales.org/en/article/f...

Five Years of Darkness The fight to keep Myanmar’s stories alive

That's all the events we have, We are certain there are more Myanmar related events that we haven't seen yet. Will keep looking.

Got quite a few highlights. 1st @thinink.bsky.social writes on the coup, the precarious yet amazing work of Myanmar journalists & the work of @kitetalesmm.bsky.social
11/

We 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.

Over the past few years, we've tried to keep attention on Myanmar through @kitetalesmm.bsky.social, supporting local reporters & illustrators to write about their own lives and the lives of the people they report on.

kite-tales.org/en/article-c...

This week's Thin Ink reflects on how that fragile ecosystem is now on the brink. Western governments that once championed a free press as essential to democracy have largely looked away at precisely the moment support is most needed.