Hungry for Democracy
Why you can trust us
Donald Trump has made history – the federal government shutdown has now lasted over 40 days. Through this perverse achievement, his administration has jeopardized food access for 42 million people who receive benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). This comes months after Congress passed a federal budget with $187 billion in cuts to SNAP over the next decade and after the Trump administration eliminated a crucial U.S. Department of Agriculture survey on food insecurity.
While the current administration has certainly made it harder for millions of people to eat, the problem of food insecurity in the U.S. long predates Trump. Previous administrations failed to address inflation, corporate greed, poverty wages, health care costs, housing affordability, and the myriad of other key contributors that force millions to go hungry. Our so-called democracy, whether dominated by Democrats or Republicans, is not delivering the goods.
What if we approached solutions to the worsening food crisis as not just a matter of maintaining existing policies like SNAP (however necessary), but as a struggle for democracy?
Writing for YES! in 2008, Raj Patel advised us to push for more than evidence-based scientific changes to our food systems to address the global hunger crisis. In order “to feed the world, we’re [also] going to have to develop a taste for more democracy”:
Improved farming science alone won’t fix things, though. As much as they need nitrogen in the soil, tomorrow’s food systems need democracy on the ground. The problem of starvation is one not of production — we produce more than enough food to feed everyone — so much as poverty and distribution.
—Raj Patel
Read the full article: Food From the Grassroots
A Note to New Subscribers
You are currently reading the third edition of a monthly newsletter produced by Truthout featuring content from the YES! digital archives and new solutions journalism from independent media. Though YES! Magazine ceased regular publication earlier this year, Truthout will continue to uplift its rich reporting and commentary through these newsletters.
From the Archives: After the Big March, Build Power Locally
The second day of No Kings marches on October 18, 2025, saw historic participation in national nonviolent protests, with an estimated 7 million people demonstrating against the Trump administration’s agenda. The next steps we take locally will be crucial for consolidating these numbers into real movements of change.
“National demonstrations are important, but to make real change, we’ll need to build power where we live,” Sarah van Gelder wrote after the Women’s March in 2017. “It’s in our communities that we can resist hate and stand up for each other.”
Read the article: Big Protests Are Fine, But Here’s a To-Do List for Lasting Change
From the Archives: Abolition Through Free Public Transit
Public transit was among the key issues which Zohran Mamdani addressed with much success during his successful campaign for New York City mayor. While Mamdani has backtracked on his criticisms of the New York Police Department, his proposals for free public transit may provide an opening for abolition. Organizers could take up the demand for free fares as a way to strike down a key justification for police presence in public transit: fare enforcement.
“By removing a key incentive to police subways and buses, transit agencies could meet the demand surging through New York’s subways and realize the abolitionist call to ‘Live free, ride free,’” suggests Justin A. Davis, in a January 2025 YES! piece.
Read the article: Can Free Public Transit Eliminate the Need for Police?
New Content From YES! Contributors
- Sonali Kolhatkar, former racial justice and civil liberties editor at YES! Magazine and the host of Rising Up With Sonali, has a new article highlighting the heroic resistance of everyday people against ICE and rising fascism in the US.
- David Korten, co-founder of YES!, has published a two-part series exploring how China’s pursuit of innovative ecological policies alongside fossil fuel-powered economic expansion will have serious consequences for the world’s poor majority.
- Sarah van Gelder, founding editor of YES!, recently appeared on Nonviolence Radio to discuss the necessity of building local power amid a collapsing U.S. empire.
New Solutions Journalism From Independent Media
? In These Times, We Need Consciousness Raising — and Radical Unlearning – Truthout
? Lessons From the Movement to Stop the ‘War on Terror’ – Waging Nonviolence
? NYC-DSA Strategy in Zohran’s Race Shows the Path to Mass Municipal Governance – Convergence
✊ ‘Solidarity Is the Way Forward’: An Interview With Kelly Hayes on Navigating Crisis – Prism
Rising Up With Sonali
YES!’s broadcast arm, Rising Up With Sonali, is continuing the YES! legacy on many platforms. For only $4 a month you can get all of host Sonali Kolhatkar’s interviews in audio, video, and print formats, with exclusive access to extended cuts of interviews.
In recent weeks, Sonali has covered the food-stamp crisis and how to address the roots of hunger, how bodily autonomy is linked to economic justice, and how Montana voters are pioneering an innovative overturning of the Citizens United dark money ruling.
Food for Thought, Food for Everyone
We hope that this edition of solutions journalism from the YES! digital archives has indeed whetted your appetite for democracy.
Please share this newsletter with others and encourage them to subscribe. Our next edition from the YES! digital archives will be sent in December.
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Best,
t r u t h o u t
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Truthout
hosts a monthly newsletter with relevant content from the YES! digital archives and new solutions journalism from a variety of publications. These curated resources can help us imagine – and build – movements for transformation.
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