Biodiversity – Food (Policy) For Thought

May 23, 2016June 6, 2016

Dispatches from the Field: Honduras

In the last weeks, I’ve been wandering between two worlds, trying to bring sense and structure into what I’ve seen and what I am reading. We are currently working on collecting field data from coffee farmers in Honduras, and I was lucky enough to visit several regions of the country while adapting our questionnaire and data … Continue reading Dispatches from the Field: Honduras

April 24, 2015

Photo Story: The Chocolate Tale

Hi hi! So sorry to be out of commission for so long! It’s been a busy couple of weeks with applications and paper edits and work, but I’m back and all backed up with stories to write about! Here is one that needs little words and just a lot of imagination, since I will take … Continue reading Photo Story: The Chocolate Tale

May 23, 2014

The Pre-Columbian Amazon – A Pristine Rainforest Or Intensive Settlement?

For our last agricultural history lecture, we were fortunate to receive a guest speaker from the department who is involved in a mammoth project of mapping the world’s food systems across time. What an interesting pastime, but what a challenge! This is what I referred to in my last post – one of the off-hand … Continue reading The Pre-Columbian Amazon – A Pristine Rainforest Or Intensive Settlement?

May 22, 2014

Review: Kate Raworth's 'Doughnut Economics'

Man, sometimes you just have to catch yourself in moments of pure luck. Like today, after a morning spent in glorious summer weather hammering out the last formatting issues of my thesis, when I was able to attend a lunch seminar (who said there was no free lunch in economics?) with the inspiring Kate Raworth … Continue reading Review: Kate Raworth's 'Doughnut Economics'

March 24, 2014

The #Bettertarian Campaign – Awareness Raising or Marketing Plot?

I love having friends from around the world – it’s the best way to broaden your horizons about what is happening in different countries! My friend Brooke (hi!) pointed me towards the Bettertarian campaign that was recently launched by Meat and Livestock Australia. It’s a pretty comprehensive website that argues for abolishing inflexible diet labels (such … Continue reading The #Bettertarian Campaign – Awareness Raising or Marketing Plot?

March 19, 2014

New Evidence on Erosion of Crop Variety in Food Supply – What Consequences?

A new study conducted by the CGIAR in collaboration with a whole number of universities (its title is “Increasing homogeneity in global food supplies and the implications for food security” and was published in the PNAS journal) sheds some light on the realities of whether our diets are converging as much as we think they … Continue reading New Evidence on Erosion of Crop Variety in Food Supply – What Consequences?

March 13, 2014

EU Parliament Rejects Draft Seed Regulation

Writing this blog is a great way to experience the truism that policy-making is a marathon, not a sprint. Or, as we say in German, you have to be ready to drill holes into thick slates of wood (weird expression much?) What I want to say is – the next episode of the story of … Continue reading EU Parliament Rejects Draft Seed Regulation

March 7, 2014

"Land That Is In Human Use Requires Human Care" – An Interview with Wendell Berry

It’s no secret that Wendell Berry is another one of my inspirations when thinking about sustainable food systems – my post about his work “The Pleasures of Eating” has been one of the most-viewed posts on this blog, and his name repeatedly comes up in things I read and am influenced by. A friend of … Continue reading "Land That Is In Human Use Requires Human Care" – An Interview with Wendell Berry

February 26, 2014

Agroecology: The Alternative of the Future?

Have you heard of agroecology? This is a holistic agricultural production system that is similar to organic methods, but yet not exactly the same. The Christensen Fund has made a great infographic that compares and contrasts the agroecological with the conventional system from sky to soil: As this handy policy brief explains, “based on a … Continue reading Agroecology: The Alternative of the Future?