Musings on sustainable food systems, agriculture vs. agroecology, and more!
I found this great infographic at the Massive Health blog and thought I’d share it. When I did diabetes-prevention research last summer, I read a ton of articles on how portion size increases have affected the obesity crisis, and I remember noting a noticeable change in portion sizes when crossing the Canadian-American border. At the … Continue reading Finish Your Plate – Or Should You?
With the controversy around the Food Prize, and Food Security Conference after Food Security Conference being sponsored by large seed and food corporations, it is interesting to consider how the market power of some large enterprises can influence the academic debate and shape public policy discourse. Dr Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the World Health … Continue reading Of Market Power, Models and Policy Analysis
This is a great argument against the technology-driven, big-ag “food security” approach which focuses on the “need to feed the world” through more and flashier technological inventions. It addresses what I have been thinking about a lot lately: “Technology, we’re promised, is fast and easy. Which is good because, as it happens, we also don’t … Continue reading When it comes to food, technology won’t save us
I first stumbled over Ensia when it was literally just being established, bookmarked it, and inevitably forgot about it for a couple of months. As I was doing some housekeeping in my overflowing “Blog”-related bookmark category, I decided to check it out again and was delighted by the set-up and the high-quality content. The site is … Continue reading Ensia – A New E-Magazine for Pleasurable Perusing
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6gUnXpBMfyI] We live in a world with a wealth of information at our fingertips, and more and more frequently even extraordinary ways in which this information can be presented. Case in point is this video: it showcases data gathered by satellites on the “greenness” of our planet from 2012 to 2013. Check it out and … Continue reading Our Green Planet
Remember the controversy surrounding the World Food Prize recipients this year? In his column, Mark Bittman of the New York Times provides a great list of alternative people that would deserve the prize because of their involvement in agroecology and sustainable production methods. Amongst his nominees: Vandana Shiva, Olivier de Schutter and Miguel Altieri – all … Continue reading The True Deservers of A Food Prize – Reblog
You may have heard by now that the US Farm Bill has spectacularly failed in the House of Representatives, making it the first time in at least 40 years that a Farm Bill was voted down in the House. The $500 billion bill was voted down with 234 to 195 votes, leaving lawmakers baffled and farmers … Continue reading What Future for the Farm Bill?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yocja_N5s1I&list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9] We are so consumed with our current system and possible improvements that we tend to forget that humans were not always agriculturalists. Why did they turn away from foraging and herding and start to grow crops? This hilarious video might not give all the answers, but definitely asks the right questions and is extremely … Continue reading Why Did Agriculture Even Start?
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/59404290] I was fortunate enough to attend a talk by Vandana Shiva the other day. If you haven’t heard about her, make sure to check out her initiative Navdanya, a network of seed banks, farm schools and across India – she has become somewhat of an icon of the anti-GMO movement in the wake … Continue reading Vandana Shiva – A Figure As Inspirational as Controversial
Have you ever heard of the World Food Prize? It is supposed to be an alternative ‘Nobel Prize for Agriculture’ that honors “outstanding individuals who have made vital contributions to improving the quality, quantity or availability of food throughout the world“. The 2013 laureates have just been announced, and have caused a splash – since … Continue reading The World Food Prize Winners 2013 – Anybody Surprised?