Author

Anthony Pahnke

Anthony Pahnke

Anthony Pahnke received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities in 2014. Before joining the faculty at San Francisco State University, he taught at St Olaf College in Minnesota. His research on development and trade policy, social movements, and agrarian politics, with a focus on North and South America, has appeared in a variety of academic journals, newspaper editorials, and online publications. His book, Brazil’s Long Revolution: Radical Achievements of the Landless Workers Movement, is out with the University of Arizona Press. His current projects include analyzing the dynamics of transnational mobilization in the Americas and the development of sovereignty in the United States.

COMMENTARY
Wisconsin Capitol with flag, tractors farmers protest Square

We should all aspire to be peasants

By: and - August 4, 2022

Rising food prices — as the USDA has forecast for 2022 — may seem like a good thing for farmers. After all, who wouldn’t like to see some more cash? Farmers, like everyone else, have been through a lot lately. Years of stagnant or falling farm income in many ways paralleled the stagnant wages of […]

COMMENTARY
Cows graze on the Tranel Family Farm, Organic Valley farmer-member (photo courtesy of Organic Valley)

Make a resilient, localized food system part of the next stimulus

By: and - May 26, 2020

From wasted food, to the exploitation of farmworkers, the COVID-19 pandemic has made it painfully clear that this country’s food system must be changed. Politicians must pass further stimulus legislation that includes policy to reform our inflexible, consolidated system and to prepare for future crises.   Consider the many problems in the meat industry. Workers ill […]

COMMENTARY
President Trump signs the USMCA trade agreement with Mexico and Canada

USMCA is a failure, and the Democrats know it

By: and - December 23, 2019

The 1994 version of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was impressively terrible. President Donald Trump said it was the worst trade deal ever. Of course, that was because NAFTA was not negotiated by his administration. His 2018 version, the USMCA, was even worse.   The original NAFTA did nothing to benefit workers or farmers […]