Musings on sustainable food systems, agriculture vs. agroecology, and more!
It seems in December there is always a surge of announcements that the next year will be dedicated to one cause or another. For 2014, it’s now supposedly the Year of the Brain, the Year of Crystallography, the EU-Russia Year of Science, but also… The International Year of Family Farming! The FAO launched a big … Continue reading 2014 Declared the International Year of Family Farming
In anticipation of this past weekend’s festivities, the animal welfare organization PETA, known for its rather radical actions and stances, decided to convince a different clientele than usual of the benefits of turning to Tofurkey instead of the real deal: children. Every year, the organization takes advantage of the holiday to launch a wide-spread campaign, … Continue reading Did Your Child Like This Weekend's Turkey?
Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends! I hope you are enjoying your holidays and spending time with friends, family and loved ones. Now, one question – how do you feel about Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday coming up? Artists like Chris Piascik regularly criticize the “I’m SO thankful for everything I have. I am truly … Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving! Going Shopping Tomorrow?
Today and tomorrow, the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition is holding their International Forum on Food and Nutrition, an event that according to their website “proposes to promote debate on global topics linked to food, encourage awareness and generate sound proposals for the future of our planet.” Today is dedicated to showcasing youth projects on food and sustainability, … Continue reading Barilla International Forum on Food And Nutrition – Happening Now! (Live Stream!)
Well, the Warsaw summit on climate change has turned out to be a major disappointment, with many prominent NGOs walking out prematurely to signal their protest at governmental inaction and last-ditch agreements remaining vague and postponing real commitments to future meetings. Commentators especially deplored the lack of urgency that seemed to reign among the negotiators, … Continue reading What Does Warsaw Mean for Agriculture?
The other day, I was contacted by USC Canada to explore their new knowledge tool called Seedmap.org (developed in collaboration with the ETC Group), and I have to say – I am really impressed. If you want to know more about biodiversity, the importance of seeds, and sustainable agriculture in general, look no further – you … Continue reading Seed Map – An Unfathomable Collection of Knowledge
Happy Sunday! The sun is actually shining in Sweden right now (novelty!), so I will get ready for a run and leave you with two awesome links to look at over coffee or brunch. The first one is this Upworthy article that highlights the work of Marji Guyler-Alaniz, a photographer that decided to change the … Continue reading Sunday Sights: Of Farm(H)ers and Smart Sesame Street Characters
A lot? A little? Nothing at all? The World Food Programme (WFP) challenges you to test your hunger IQ and help feed a child in the process! For every submitted quiz, a child will receive a warm meal thanks to an anonymous donor. The WFP website also has a ton of additional resources, such as … Continue reading How Much Do You Really Know About Hunger? (+ Help The WFP Provide Relief in the Philippines!)
Well, after another couple of hours of editing (why does the final version always take so long to get consistent? And why did we nearly forget to include our most important source in the bibliography? Questions…) I finally sent off our Cost Benefit Analysis project to our teacher and thought that since my friend and … Continue reading Drilling in the Rainforest – Is it Worth It? Our Yasuni CBA
(click through for a larger pdf version) The FAO has just released a new infographic showcasing some of the facts and numbers its statistics unit, FAOSTAT, regularly collects. Some of the numbers that stand out to me: More than 840 million people worldwide are undernourished. Compare that with the fact that the average annual food … Continue reading The Current State of Agriculture (According to the FAO)