Musings on sustainable food systems, agriculture vs. agroecology, and more!
“I’ve often wondered how the media would respond when eco-apocalypse struck. I pictured the news programmes producing brief, sensational reports, while failing to explain why it was happening or how it might be stopped. Then they would ask their financial correspondents how the disaster affected share prices, before turning to the sport. As you can probably … Continue reading Indonesia’s Forest Fires: Is Ag To Blame?
It happens that once you specialize in a topic, you get a little jaded about ‘broad overview’ talks. Whenever I go to one of those now, I notice myself mentally playing the ‘food security bingo’ game – what doesn’t the presenter mention? What is emphasized? The point scale in my head looks somewhat like this: Mentions … Continue reading The @WorldResources Institute On How To "Create A Sustainable Food Future"
Ah! I just found this new lecture series and suddenly new and exciting information is all around me! (Those of you in Uppsala, check out CEMUS and the Centre for Sustainable Development in general, there are great events happening all the time!) Remember when we talked about phosphorus and nitrogen? One of the things that … Continue reading Wait, What's the Deal with Wetlands?
2014 is shaping up to be an exciting year in the food policy world – wherever you look, new policies are about to be decided upon and/or implemented. So let’s have a look across the globe and see what’s on the agenda, shall we? USA: After Congress spectacularly failed to finalize the Farm Bill during … Continue reading 2014 – What's on the Food Policy Agenda?
A couple of years ago, the world thought it had found a solution toward more sustainable transportation patterns – instead of pumping fuel out of the ground, why not grow it? The subsequent ethanol craze is one of the best examples of how policy decisions can have very real – one could even say, dramatic … Continue reading The Ethanol Saga – A Tale of Politics, Interest Groups, and Scientific Head-Butting
I love information that is being visualized, and this is a particularly interesting assembly of stats on corn production in the US, including its use in ethanol. Also the “ethanol supply” curve shows the huge impact that policies (such as mandatory renewable fuel use) can have on food systems. All the more important to get … Continue reading Fields of Gold: Changes in the US Corn Industry
“The appetite for grain to fuel cars is seemingly insatiable. The grain required to fill a 25-gallon fuel tank of a sport utility vehicle with ethanol just once would feed one person for a whole year. The grain turned into ethanol in the United States in 2011 could have fed, at average world consumption levels, … Continue reading Full Planet, Empty Plates: Free Chapter on Food Vs. Fuel Online!
