Musings on sustainable food systems, agriculture vs. agroecology, and more!
If you enter a grocery store and see an item claiming to be “100% natural”, what associations do you make? Would you assume it’s less processed? Healthier? Possibly even organic? At least if you live in the United States, as Marion Nestle explains on her blog, none of those assumptions actually need to be the … Continue reading What Is "Natural"?
Yesterday, we visited a pig farm which also had a ‘genetic bank’ with pigs of particularly desirable characteristics. While those pigs looked fairly healthy, it still brought the issue of breeding livestock animals to the forefront of my mind. In our agricultural economics classes, we often talk about ‘technological progress’ and ‘efficiency increases’, which in … Continue reading How Far Should Breeding Go?
Hi again from Budapest! Sorry for the lack in posts but we are pretty busy here and internet is few and far in between. Nevertheless, I found another interesting article for your viewing pleasure here: “Experiments reveal that crabs and lobsters feel pain“, a new article in the Nature News Blog. Generally, it is considered … Continue reading Do Crustaceans Feel Pain? New Evidence
Hi from Budapest! I am here in summer school and have only sporadic internet access, but didn’t want to leave you without any news of what is going on in the food policy and food tech world – guess what? The taste-testing of the first in-vitro burger finally took place in London! The verdict? “The … Continue reading The First Lab-Burger Was Eaten!
Noah’s latest post from Global Food Politics (a fantastic blog, by the way, go check it out!) resonated so strongly with me that I wanted to share the story of Mexican fishermen in the Sea of Cortez here as well. The Sea of Cortez (or Gulf of California) has been, as many once-upon-a-time rich fishing grounds, overfished … Continue reading What Happens After The Fish Are Gone?
What a dramatic title, right? I read a lot of healthy living blogs along side the food policy ones and the craze for Greek yoghurt has been noticeable in the last couple of years. Who can blame consumers that discovered a protein-rich, (often) low-fat, creamy source of deliciousness? Well, I just read an article that … Continue reading The Dark Side of Greek Yoghurt
Mark Bittman wrote a really interesting column in the New York Times yesterday about labor protests in the fast food industry. Apparently, recently workers have started organizing themselves in earnest to protest the pitiful wages and social benefits paid to them.
It seems that my educational experience this summer will never end. Three more exams to go before I move to summer school and get to do more work – yeeha! Thank goodness I am studying a topic that interests me; otherwise, this would be even more of a grueling experience. But for those of you … Continue reading More Edible Education
“The land is there,” he said. “All you need is your hands.” This is how one Greek citizen explained the importance of agriculture in times of crisis. After a year of unemployment, he decided to stop waiting for the government to fix the situation, get his own hands dirty and start following an agronomy course … Continue reading Back to the Roots for Greece?
[ted id=1538] Incredible Edible is an amazing idea that transformed an entire British town. In Todmorden, upon the initiative of two energetic women, the community is coming together and connecting with each other, their food and their environment. In the process, they are teaching each other and the next generation about growing vegetables and herbs, … Continue reading Incredible Edible – An Incredible Story