Musings on sustainable food systems, agriculture vs. agroecology, and more!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=gAYCSRdS0Aw] When I first saw this link in my newsfeed this morning (via Butter Believer), I knew I had to share it. The video is a response to a Time Magazine article by famed TV- personality Dr. Oz, somebody many Americans would consider an expert on health issues. In that article, he advocated for the … Continue reading The Benefits of Organics, According to an 8-Year-Old
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci0HsPELE2o] Yesterday, I went to a talk about food waste by the author of the book “Die Essensvernichter” (the food destroyers) and co-producer of the movie “Taste the Waste” (of which the above excerpt stems from), Stefan Kreutzberger. While he as a journalist, maybe naturally, speaks about the topic in a pretty simplified and black-and-white … Continue reading Taste The Waste
We are all aware of inflation and have surely heard older relatives’ tales of paying 10 cents for ice cream, a nickel for a bag of sweets or 1 mark for a bar of chocolate. The good old times with ridiculously cheap prices (mind you, from today’s perspective) often cause heavy sighs of nostalgia. But … Continue reading Chocolate: the German Gold Standard
Sometimes, maybe we are just expecting too much of people. Over the past years, food nutrition labeling has become all the rage and research has put great emphasis on the question whether food labeling (especially related to caloric and fat content) makes a difference in purchasing decisions. The results are mixed, with some studies finding (small) … Continue reading Do You Understand What You Eat?
Environmental economics might be one of the most curious and demanding disciplines, since it tries to combine two fields at the opposite ends of the ideological spectrum – environmentalists on the one hand and economists on the other, the one trying to preserve every last bug for the benefits of biodiversity while the others coolly … Continue reading Is Taxing Meat a Viable Green Policy Option?
If you live in the US, you may have heard about the recent proliferation of regulations in around a dozen states that opponents call “ag-gag laws”. These laws make it illegal to covertly videotape livestock farms or to apply for jobs without disclosing ties to animal welfare organizations. Such undercover taping however is often crucial … Continue reading "Ag-Gag" Laws – What Stands Behind Them?
This TED-talk is a great follow-up to the debate on childhood obesity I wrote about a couple of days ago. It gives a compelling argument why children should be, as the presenter puts it, “none of the food marketers’ business.” [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0bop3D7-dDM#!] I was particularly struck by how ubiquitous food advertisement to children in the US is, … Continue reading "Pester Power" and Oreo Cookie Counting Books
If you find 37 minutes time in the next couple of days, I can only recommend that you listen to one of the latest episodes of the Freakonomics podcast, called “100 Ways to Fight Obesity“. It is an episode built out of the recording of a brainstorming session that features some of the most well-known … Continue reading Unorthodox Solutions to Combat Childhood Obesity – the Freakonomics Brainstorm
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rgaqwFPU7cc] This entertaining video (originally highlighted by Buzzfeed) shows what 2,000 calories looks like in a variety of foods. Why 2,000 calories? Because that is the average recommended daily caloric need of a person to maintain their weight, and what the calculations on food labels (referring to the percentage of daily value) are based on. … Continue reading How Much Are 2,000 Calories?
Continuing with our mini-series, after our first installment, let’s turn to a buzzword that has gotten a lot of attention in the last years: grass-fed and/or pasture-raised animal products. What is the label’s motto/what does it stand for? The idea of grass-fed ruminants and pasture-raised other animals is that this production method is much more … Continue reading Labels Unveiled: Grass-Fed and Pasture-Raised