Musings on sustainable food systems, agriculture vs. agroecology, and more!
Think of “food” and “North Korea” and chances are you will be reminded of the near-yearly news items speaking of hunger, starvation, and malnutrition in the country. However, times might be changing, at least if you believe Andrei Lankov, professor of Korean Studies at Seoul University. In this Al Jazeera piece, he argues that the … Continue reading 10 Facts About Food (Shortages) in North Korea
Every year, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) presents a report on what happened in the previous 12 months in the global food policy arena. Of course, it is nearly impossible to shed light on every development, but the full report, spanning more than 120 pages, does a great job at attempting it! You … Continue reading IFPRI 2013 Global Food Policy Report – What You Need to Know
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!
A lot? A little? Nothing at all? The World Food Programme (WFP) challenges you to test your hunger IQ and help feed a child in the process! For every submitted quiz, a child will receive a warm meal thanks to an anonymous donor. The WFP website also has a ton of additional resources, such as … Continue reading How Much Do You Really Know About Hunger? (+ Help The WFP Provide Relief in the Philippines!)
Happy Saturday! While environmental management had never been the forte of the Soviet Union, its collapse had even more dire environmental consequences, with the abandonment of mineral and chemical factories and the shirking of responsibilities for clean-ups, and the subsequent development of the oil and gas sector by oligarchs that now constitute one of the … Continue reading Weekend Reads – Post-Soviet Contributions to Fight Climate Change
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odI7pQFyjso] I think we have all heard of the problem of palm oil production and its impact on rain forests in South East Asia. Campaigns such as this one by Greenpeace have brought the effect of the increasing use of palm oil in industrial (food) products, namely the widespread deforestation of Indonesian rain forests, to … Continue reading Palm Oil, Orangutans and the Complications of Conservation in Indonesia
Here is a mind-boggling Sunday statistic for you: India is estimated to have more undernourished people than all of Sub-Saharan Africa combined. I had to re-read that sentence three times before really grasping its consequences. I think especially in academia, we are now so used to think of India as an “emerging economy”, a “model … Continue reading India On the Verge to Legally Implement Right to Food
Recently, whenever you hear about land grabbing, it’s almost automatically linked to foreign direct investment of either big companies or foreign government enterprises that want to secure their own food security. Over the condemnation of the “neo-colonial” foreigners, it’s easy to forget that land grabbing can happen just as easily within countries, setting up urban … Continue reading Vietnam: Where Land-Grabbing goes Local
In a country where 60% of the population is involved in agriculture, and 70 – 80% of agricultural work is done by women, within the legal system women farmers are still almost invisible. Though 18% of family farms in India are headed by women, only 2% of land is owned by them. According to a study carried out by Oxfam India … Continue reading India's Women Farmers Claim Equal Rights
Bhutan just doesn’t stop being inspirational. After championing a Gross National Happiness Index instead of measuring development in Gross Domestic Product, they have now announced that they will be the first country on its way to be exclusively organic. According to Pema Gyamtsho, Bhutan’s minister of agriculture and forests, the kingdom adopted its National Organic Policy out … Continue reading Bhutan – 100% Organic!?
