Howdy! I’m very sorry for the disappearance, I’m in a fascinating but time-consuming seminar these 3 weeks and can barely find a free minute to read the news, much less report on them. Still, there are a couple of articles that have tickled my fancy, including these:
- Buen vivir: the social philosophy inspiring movements in South America. This is a fascinating interview with a leading scholar on the issue on how to insert the mission of ‘Buen vivir’ – living well while respecting the rights of nature and other living beings just as much as our own – into policies. I’m hoping to work on one project attempting to implement this during the coming year, cross your fingers for me!
- Deciphering the menu. This NY Times article follows a linguist around who is trying to explain why we describe our food the way we do, and what advertizing mechanisms different restaurants and retailers use. As interesting as the linguist’s blog, The Language of Food.
- The FAO just published its latest numbers on hunger. According to them, there is a positive trend in the reduction of malnutrition, but there are still 805 million chronically undernourished. Check out the hunger map below for a more differentiated picture:
- And finally, the CGIAR challenges you:”Could the gamification of agriculture development help the public to understand the interconnected nature of water, energy, food and the environment?
Given $3 billion, how would you develop a river basin over 50 years? With the “SimCity of the environment and development world”, you can do just that.
Want to play the game? Go to: www.thebasinchallenge.com“
Let me know how you liked the game!
I’ll be back with a couple of updates over the next days, but with more in-depth analyses as of the beginning of October. Happy reading!