Musings on sustainable food systems, agriculture vs. agroecology, and more!
I just discovered a new website called, short and simple, Resilience.org, which has really great and well-researched stories as well as resources and groups that help build community resilience. Over the weekend, I read a story called “The Impact of Transnational ‘Big Food’ Companies on The South: A View From Brazil“. Following up on the … Continue reading Can "Big Food" Replace Tradition? A Brazilian Testimonial
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6qVKsf0ETdA] The Generation Food Project sounds like a really awesome documentary idea that will highlight grassroots initiatives that are fixing the food system where it matters. They describe their mission as follows: Together, we want to show how ordinary women and men the world over are setting the table for themselves, their communities, and generations to … Continue reading Explore, Follow, Support: The Generation Food Project
With the controversy around the Food Prize, and Food Security Conference after Food Security Conference being sponsored by large seed and food corporations, it is interesting to consider how the market power of some large enterprises can influence the academic debate and shape public policy discourse. Dr Margaret Chan, the Director-General of the World Health … Continue reading Of Market Power, Models and Policy Analysis
Remember the controversy surrounding the World Food Prize recipients this year? In his column, Mark Bittman of the New York Times provides a great list of alternative people that would deserve the prize because of their involvement in agroecology and sustainable production methods. Amongst his nominees: Vandana Shiva, Olivier de Schutter and Miguel Altieri – all … Continue reading The True Deservers of A Food Prize – Reblog
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/59404290] I was fortunate enough to attend a talk by Vandana Shiva the other day. If you haven’t heard about her, make sure to check out her initiative Navdanya, a network of seed banks, farm schools and across India – she has become somewhat of an icon of the anti-GMO movement in the wake … Continue reading Vandana Shiva – A Figure As Inspirational as Controversial
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? [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-E3iPJZ6_g] (the IF campaign actually had a really good promotion video.) Prior to the summit, Cameron announced … Continue reading IF … Policymakers Would Listen to Civil Society?
… Aka, two of my favorite food writers. Find it here, as well as highlights from their interview if you don’t have time to listen to all of it! And with that, I am off to visit my family this weekend – see you Monday!
Recently, I discovered (via my friend Tereza’s blogpost) an awesome Czech invention that supports self-sufficiency, community and bread-baking in the form of a sourdough map! In order to make sourdough bread, you need to make a pre-ferment (also called starter or lévain), basically a mix of flour and water, which you then expose to the air … Continue reading Sourdough mapping