Musings on sustainable food systems, agriculture vs. agroecology, and more!
Have you ever looked at mud stuck in your shoes or splashed on the back of your car and cursed it for making your belongings dirty? Watch this movie and I assure you it will change your mindset about this most valuable resource that sustains all life on Earth.
Last night, this quote popped up on my Facebook feed and got me thinking – first of all, is it valid? There was a vivid discussion in the comments about whether lone action can actually make a difference if the system in which those actions are embedded remains the same. Currently, I am doing research … Continue reading The Most Radical Protest
If you enter a grocery store and see an item claiming to be “100% natural”, what associations do you make? Would you assume it’s less processed? Healthier? Possibly even organic? At least if you live in the United States, as Marion Nestle explains on her blog, none of those assumptions actually need to be the … Continue reading What Is "Natural"?
I’m back! Sorry for the unexpectedly long hiatus – I needed some real unplugged time off after exams, moving, class, exams, and moving again. But now I am here in Sweden for my second year of the Master’s program and so excited to have continuous access to internet again (and of course to study here … Continue reading A Certain Feeling in Your Guts…
Yesterday, we visited a pig farm which also had a ‘genetic bank’ with pigs of particularly desirable characteristics. While those pigs looked fairly healthy, it still brought the issue of breeding livestock animals to the forefront of my mind. In our agricultural economics classes, we often talk about ‘technological progress’ and ‘efficiency increases’, which in … Continue reading How Far Should Breeding Go?
Hi again from Budapest! Sorry for the lack in posts but we are pretty busy here and internet is few and far in between. Nevertheless, I found another interesting article for your viewing pleasure here: “Experiments reveal that crabs and lobsters feel pain“, a new article in the Nature News Blog. Generally, it is considered … Continue reading Do Crustaceans Feel Pain? New Evidence
Hi from Budapest! I am here in summer school and have only sporadic internet access, but didn’t want to leave you without any news of what is going on in the food policy and food tech world – guess what? The taste-testing of the first in-vitro burger finally took place in London! The verdict? “The … Continue reading The First Lab-Burger Was Eaten!
Noah’s latest post from Global Food Politics (a fantastic blog, by the way, go check it out!) resonated so strongly with me that I wanted to share the story of Mexican fishermen in the Sea of Cortez here as well. The Sea of Cortez (or Gulf of California) has been, as many once-upon-a-time rich fishing grounds, overfished … Continue reading What Happens After The Fish Are Gone?
What a dramatic title, right? I read a lot of healthy living blogs along side the food policy ones and the craze for Greek yoghurt has been noticeable in the last couple of years. Who can blame consumers that discovered a protein-rich, (often) low-fat, creamy source of deliciousness? Well, I just read an article that … Continue reading The Dark Side of Greek Yoghurt
Mark Bittman wrote a really interesting column in the New York Times yesterday about labor protests in the fast food industry. Apparently, recently workers have started organizing themselves in earnest to protest the pitiful wages and social benefits paid to them.