Using Blockchain for Supply Chain Transparency: Fad or Future?
When talking about technological innovations that could revolutionize agricultural value chains, one term comes up time and again: the blockchain. However, the term also creates a lot of confusion and questions in people’s minds: What is it? How is it different from Bitcoin? What can it be used for? And how far we are in … Continue reading Using Blockchain for Supply Chain Transparency: Fad or Future?
The Lowest Coffee Price in a Decade
Note: I’m back! A year-long PhD-thesis-writing, 4-classes-teaching, sleep-deprived hiatus later, I’m back to comment on pressing issues in food policy and governance as they come my way. First up: a topic dear to my heart – the recurrence of abysmally low coffee prices. This week, coffee Twitter was all up in arms. Futures prices for … Continue reading The Lowest Coffee Price in a Decade
What Food Can Tell Us – Three Inquiries
Thesis update: 13,000 words and counting! It’ll be a long slog… BUT nevertheless I recently read a couple of non-coffee related articles and videos that were fun as well as thought-provoking and that I thought I would share. The Secret Life of the City Banana [New York Times] Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash This piece is so … Continue reading What Food Can Tell Us – Three Inquiries
Happy Earth Overshoot Day – Earlier Again…
Happy Earth Overshoot Day! Well, actually, it’s not a holiday. Today, August 2nd 2017, we have used up this year’s biocapacity on Earth – that is, the ecological resources the planet is able to regenerate within a year. All the resources we use from now onward are, in theory, putting us in debt to the … Continue reading Happy Earth Overshoot Day – Earlier Again…
Film review: Okja
Hey readers – It’s been a while! While I cannot promise to be back to a regular blogging schedule, I think I might revive this little corner of the internet, also as a regular writing practice now that my main focus will be thesis research/writing. I am hoping to bring some of the academic thoughts … Continue reading Film review: Okja
(Food) Politics after Trump
If my readership is anything like myself, you probably spent the last week in alternate states of disbelief and real panic over the election of Donald J. Trump as next US President. Enough analyses have been written about how we got here and what some of the more momentous impacts on a global scale might … Continue reading (Food) Politics after Trump
When Is Hug A Farmer Day? Of Farmers’ Mental Health and Suicide
The other day, I was researching health externalities of our current food system and came across a shocking statistic: In many countries in the world, farmers are more than twice as likely as the general population to commit suicide. They are frequently cited as the occupational group most likely to have suicidal thoughts and follow through … Continue reading When Is Hug A Farmer Day? Of Farmers’ Mental Health and Suicide
Too Big to be Challenged? Consolidation in the Global Agrochemical World
I’ve been thinking a lot about power lately. Market power, to be precise. The coffee industry has always been relatively concentrated, but currently it is undergoing a period of consolidation that is reverberating across the sector. And it’s not alone: one of the most surprising news stories in recent weeks has been the announced $66 billion … Continue reading Too Big to be Challenged? Consolidation in the Global Agrochemical World
North and South American Food Links (Link Roundup)
This week there has been some seriously great writing about under-the-radar topics that concern food and agriculture, but provide more general insights on the links between countries, sectors and people. I always enjoy link roundups from the blogs and newsletters I follow to get a peek into their reading lists; I hope you will, too! Drought … Continue reading North and South American Food Links (Link Roundup)