Environment – Page 13 – Food (Policy) For Thought

May 11, 2013

Switzerland Hosts a Cow Marathon – and other Fun Facts about Swiss Agriculture

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=G0pNrX_95Ok] “We prefer to work with nature. And you can taste that.” That’s the motto of Swiss organic farmers, and the reason they are hosting a cow marathon as of May 27th. Its purpose: to show that cows from organic farms in Switzerland get to walk around in nature a ton. Thus, 10 contenders will … Continue reading Switzerland Hosts a Cow Marathon – and other Fun Facts about Swiss Agriculture

May 7, 2013

EU Seed Diversity – The Final Word

About a week ago, I wrote about the threats to EU seed diversity possibly contained in a sweeping law that required the mandatory registration of all commercially traded seeds, often at considerable financial and administrative effort involved. Today, the European Commission actually presented its proposal for the first time and, lo and behold, there were … Continue reading EU Seed Diversity – The Final Word

May 3, 2013

A Conversation Between Wendell Berry and Michael Pollan

… Aka, two of my favorite food writers. Find it here, as well as highlights from their interview if you don’t have time to listen to all of it! And with that, I am off to visit my family this weekend – see you Monday!

April 27, 2013

10 Things I Didn't Know About Nitrogen Fertilizer

I recently read this brief history of the use of nitrogen fertilizer, and it was so interesting to learn more about this crucial agricultural input! In my agricultural economics classes, we often use nitrogen as an input for our examples, so it was good to beef up my knowledge about it. Maybe you will discover … Continue reading 10 Things I Didn't Know About Nitrogen Fertilizer

April 24, 2013

Is Taxing Meat a Viable Green Policy Option?

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?

April 19, 2013

Coffee Reform in Burundi: Same Old, Same Old SAP?

Coffee is a vital crop in Burundi. It accounts for 60-80% of the country’s export revenues, and 55% of the population is dependent on coffee growing for their livelihoods. Thus, a reform of the coffee sector could make a huge difference for this country’s development – it currently ranks as the third-poorest nation in the … Continue reading Coffee Reform in Burundi: Same Old, Same Old SAP?

April 14, 2013

Can A Bamboo Revolution Increase Food Security in Ethiopia?

Whenever we think about food security, we think about grain crops, yields, and whatever ends up on your plate. However, as I already discussed in this post about efficient cooking stoves, we tend to forget that most food (specifically grains) has to be cooked before it can be consumed, so that cooking fuel becomes part … Continue reading Can A Bamboo Revolution Increase Food Security in Ethiopia?

April 7, 2013

Livestock: The Good, the Bad, and the Facts

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) recently wrote two blog posts about one of their papers called “The Roles of Livestock in Developing Countries“, in which their authors argue that the livestock sector needs to be studied and assessed in a much more disaggregated manner in order to acknowledge the roles and impacts of livestock … Continue reading Livestock: The Good, the Bad, and the Facts

April 5, 2013

The Nauru Agreement – A Cartel to Save Tuna?

Chances are, you would be hard-pressed to place nations such as Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, Palau, the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Tuvalu on a map. However, these eight tiny Pacific island-states might be decisive in protecting one of the last remaining healthy tuna fisheries in the world, as this article reports.

March 24, 2013

Cuba At The Crossroads

Cuba is such a funny case: according to this article, agroecological farming principles are the norm, more than half of its farms use organic production methods, and it is a leader in urban agriculture – but yet, most of these developments are less the result of a coordinated policy shift than a survival mechanism that … Continue reading Cuba At The Crossroads