Musings on sustainable food systems, agriculture vs. agroecology, and more!
Yesterday, as I was closing my computer for the end of the workday, I was convinced (CONVINCED) it was already Friday. Maybe it has something to do with the tradition of Thursday night happy hour in Brussels. Or all the pretty lights that guide you into the weekend… Nevertheless, the weekend is around the corner and … Continue reading Fun Links Friday V!
I’ve always wanted this blog to be a sort of translation tool, explaining scientific or technical terminology and ideas to show that food policy, and agricultural economics for that matter, isn’t something “smart people should deal with”. Rather, everybody can (and should, in my opinion!) get involved. There is nothing that drives me more mad … Continue reading Ask An Ag Economist: What Exactly Is Food Sovereignty?
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"
We often hear about the fact that ‘just producing food is not enough’ if we want to confront the problems of global malnutrition – it also depends on what kind of food we grow and eat. That is the mission of the Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition. They’re a panel of experts … Continue reading How Does Nutrition Fit Into Food Policy? @Glo_PAN
… as you may have guessed if you clicked through here, I´m celebrating Food Day on Friday, Oct 24, with you despite sitting in Brussels at the moment. Why? Well, first of all, because I love any reason to celebrate with Belgian chocolate (check out this post to learn more about how it’s made and … Continue reading Happy US Food Day (Week) from the Land of Chocolate and Fries!
The cool thing about being in Brussels? Showing up at a lunch meeting across the street from your office and have the chief statistician of the FAO and the director of the WFP Brussels office explain how they arrived at estimating the state of food insecurity in the world. I will talk more about the … Continue reading World Food Day: The Numbers #WFD2014
Español Sometimes, it´s easy to get caught up in the news of the day – Ukraine, Gaza, ISIS – that other news items go unnoticed. So, for example, that Central American agricultural producers are being hit extremely hard this year after a disease called coffee leaf rust destroyed many export crops. Now, on top of … Continue reading Drought in Central America – Sequía en Centroamérica
When Dan O’Neill came to the required reforms of the banking system in his ISEE key note (which I resumed here), and used this image on his slide, I had never heard of the term ‘fractional reserve banking’. But if there is a cat meme on the topic, it is clearly a topic worth looking … Continue reading Fractional Reserve Banking – The Problems [ISEE recap 2]
Ok. Before you do anything else or read on – watch this video: How does it make you feel? Like baby carrots are the next cool thing to eat? Like an intense snack that will make you just as hip as the people in the commercial? I was reading an NPR article on grocery stores like Giant Eagle and … Continue reading Extreme Baby Carrots – Will It Work?
I wrote my bachelor’s thesis about Russia’s obsession with attaining food independence; i.e. that Russian demand should be able to be satisfied by Russian food production, and the non-rationality of such a policy goal in a world food market characterized by specialization and globalization. Turns out, Russia has good reason to pursue this goal after … Continue reading Russia's New Food Diplomacy