Musings on sustainable food systems, agriculture vs. agroecology, and more!
Hej hej, I hope you had a relaxing weekend. I’m busy busy with interview preparations, but just wanted to check in to share these 10 awesome short films that were selected as finalists for the Real Food Media Contest. They promise to be really inspiring and to spread the word about sustainable farming and eating. … Continue reading Real Food Video Contest – Finalists Announced!
… or, alternative title: “Can anybody explain how the EU works?” Have you heard the news? The European Commission is set to approve a new variety of genetically modified corn (a variety called Pioneer 1507 which was developed jointly by Dow Chemical and DuPont) despite the fact that 19 out of 28 countries oppose its … Continue reading The EU GM Battle Goes in the Next Round…
This video is a nice summary of the issues related to “cheap food”, external costs and the idea of competing on the true production costs and not those that are stated on the label. Show it to your friends and family the next time they ask why they should buy the more expensive meat, the … Continue reading What Is True Cost Accounting?
I was pretty perplexed when I realized that exactly one year ago I wrote my first post on this blog – has it already been so long? It doesn’t feel like it at all, which just comes to show that I like doing it, I guess. And it’s so exciting that one year later, people … Continue reading Happy Blogiversary! And Thanks for Reading!
This is pretty shocking news – when testing what kinds of fish are sold under which labels, in some states as many as 52% were mislabeled, mostly in order to sell less expensive fish en lieu of the more high-end ones and still capture the price premium. Not only that, but sometimes fish was even … Continue reading "What Fish Would You Like?" "… Do I Have A Real Choice?"
Once the US Geological Survey realized the importance of bees to the pollination of our crops, and specifically the dire need to preserve native species, they set out to catalogue them and used advanced macro-photography tools provided by the military to piece together extreme close-up shots like the ones above. There is nothing left to … Continue reading Bee Portraits – The Best Piece of the Internet This Weekend
I was looking through the photojournalist site VII (a great time suck if you ever feel like being unproductive in the most enjoyable of ways; and a superb array of photos of course) and stumbled upon this series on Farming in Gaza. I would highly encourage you to head on over to check out the … Continue reading Farming in Gaza – a Series of Challenges
On Wednesday, as anticipated, the House of Representatives passed the Farm Bill after a 2 year impasse with 251 to 166 votes. The Democratic leadership of the Senate has already endorsed it, making it likely that it will pass the Senate floor as well in the coming week and be on President Obama’s desk soon. … Continue reading The USA Have A Farm Bill! Halle … Well … Yeah.
Ah! I just found this new lecture series and suddenly new and exciting information is all around me! (Those of you in Uppsala, check out CEMUS and the Centre for Sustainable Development in general, there are great events happening all the time!) Remember when we talked about phosphorus and nitrogen? One of the things that … Continue reading Wait, What's the Deal with Wetlands?
Just now I was working on an application for a teaching job on Sustainable Development and reflecting on how often we conflate “sustainability” with “environmentalism”. Yes, of course protecting the environment is important, especially in an activity so dependent on ecosystems as agriculture, but just as important is the second pillar of sustainability – the … Continue reading Beyond Environmental Sustainability – Pursuing Social Justice in the Food System