Musings on sustainable food systems, agriculture vs. agroecology, and more!
How are your holidays going, everybody? I hope you spent a wonderful Christmas season and are still in the delicious between-Christmas-and-New-Year limbo that doesn’t require you to do anything whatsoever but read and sip eggnog and mulled wine and relax. Have you started thinking about your New Year’s resolutions? I often think that resolutions are … Continue reading For A (Climate-) Healthy 2014
Right now, I’m taking a class on “Economic Growth and Sustainable Development”. In it, we discuss a lot of economic notions on how to deal with non-renewable resources that might run out in the future, and how to accommodate economic growth within the confines of a finite planet. While I have found our discussions fascinating, … Continue reading Our Climate Budget – Already in the Red?
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
I have to confess that I have been wary of the term “efficiency” in agriculture, since in my mind it is inexorably linked to consolidation, economies of scale leading to factory farming and mono-cultures, and cost-cutting measures that might ignore social and environmental externalities. However, my seminar yesterday made me rethink and re-evaluate – to … Continue reading Does Efficiency Equal Sustainability?
Last night, this quote popped up on my Facebook feed and got me thinking – first of all, is it valid? There was a vivid discussion in the comments about whether lone action can actually make a difference if the system in which those actions are embedded remains the same. Currently, I am doing research … Continue reading The Most Radical Protest
I am a huge learning addict. Case in point – this blog, which gives me a good reason to go and do hours (sometimes) of research on things such as flood prevention or in vitro meat. Another favorite tool of mine to add to my knowledge and understanding of the world around me are MOOCs. … Continue reading Summer Learnin': Sustainability of Food Systems
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VObLitSe3K0&feature=player_embedded] Listen to Fred Kirschenmann explain how soil is actually a community of life that is vital for all our food. As he quotes Wes Jackson, since we are so dependent on soil for our life and eventually return to soil, we are simply stop-overs between soil and soil. I can only recommend this really … Continue reading Soil Is Not Dirt!
[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
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
This is a great example for the fact that not all livestock is created equal – and that extensification, not intensification, of livestock production could address future land, climate and food issues concurrently.