Musings on sustainable food systems, agriculture vs. agroecology, and more!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci0HsPELE2o] Yesterday, I went to a talk about food waste by the author of the book “Die Essensvernichter” (the food destroyers) and co-producer of the movie “Taste the Waste” (of which the above excerpt stems from), Stefan Kreutzberger. While he as a journalist, maybe naturally, speaks about the topic in a pretty simplified and black-and-white … Continue reading Taste The Waste
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
‘As Common As Dirt‘ just received the 2013 James Beard Award in the Politics/Policy/Environment category, one of the most prestigious awards for food journalism. Click the link above to get an eye-opening reminder of the realities of American farm labor. Particularly, it exposes the ‘farm labor contractor’ system, a system in which an intermediary between … Continue reading 'As Common As Dirt', an Expose on Farm Labor in California
In a way it’s almost funny – all this time a lot of the food policy community’s attention is drawn to seed laws in the US, dissecting Supreme Court cases and hidden Congressional amendments, while at the same time the European Commission is drafting what seems to be at least equally harsh legislation with a … Continue reading What's Happening to EU Seed Diversity?!
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
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?
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?
One of the first writers that got me (as so many others, I presume) interested in food politics was Michael Pollan. His book “In Defense of Food” , along with “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” and “A Botany of Desire”, really flipped the switch in my mind on what kind of politics I wanted to specialize in. Well, today … Continue reading The Biography of a Cow
If you live in the US, you may have heard about the recent proliferation of regulations in around a dozen states that opponents call “ag-gag laws”. These laws make it illegal to covertly videotape livestock farms or to apply for jobs without disclosing ties to animal welfare organizations. Such undercover taping however is often crucial … Continue reading "Ag-Gag" Laws – What Stands Behind Them?