This weekend, David Cameron hosted the G8 “Hunger Summit” in Northern Ireland, resulting in promises, pledges, praise – and a lot of backlash from African civil society, who this summit was supposed to help. What was the problem? (the IF campaign actually had a really good promotion video.) Prior to the summit, Cameron announced his … Continue reading IF … Policymakers Would Listen to Civil Society?
Yesterday, I went to a talk by a rep of Germanwatch, a German NGO, on European Agricultural Policy and its relationship to climate change. As part of the presentation, the presenter gave a great overview of how European agricultural policy evolved and I thought I’d reproduce it here for all the non-Europeans (and Europeans!) who … Continue reading A Brief History of European Agricultural Policy
This Sunday, if you have an hour, I have a thoroughly interesting report for you to read. The NGO Food and Water Watch just published a document called “Biotech Ambassadors“, in which they analysed the 250,000 U.S. State Department cables that were publicized through Wikileaks (which represented around one tenth of all State Department cables … Continue reading Sunday Read: Biotech Diplomacy
Staying on the topic of the US Farm Bill being currently discussed, here is some uplifting news: The Local Farms, Food and Jobs Act which Congresswoman Chellie Pingress introduced (originally in 2011!) has found widespread bipartisan support in both House and Senate Agricultural Committees, and many ideas from the act have been adopted into the … Continue reading Boosting Local Food in Congress
Remember the so-called Monsanto Protection Act? Here is a little more light-hearted analysis of the legislative process that got it passed. This popping up in my newsfeed is quite timely, though, since the US Congress is set to finally debate the Farm Bill that had failed to pass last year. The Agricultural Committees of both … Continue reading You Put What in Where?! Congress and the Farm Bill
The decision that has been eagerly awaited by a great number of people might disappoint just as many. I covered the Bowman vs. Monsanto case earlier when the oral hearings were made, and commented that it didn’t seem to look too good for Mr. Bowman’s case. This impression has turned out to be true: in … Continue reading Bowman vs. Monsanto: Upheld.
“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 be … Continue reading Switzerland Hosts a Cow Marathon – and other Fun Facts about Swiss Agriculture
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 benefits … Continue reading The Benefits of Organics, According to an 8-Year-Old
As I was only able to check in a couple of minutes on Sunday, I left you with a link to an expose on farm labor in the US. I wanted to come back to that topic, though, and add a little more reflection. In particular, today a NY Times story was run which read … Continue reading Who Is (Or Should Be) Picking our Food?
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