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The tsunami that hit Japan was one of the saddest stories of 2011. But that was a natural disaster. Perhaps even sadder is the ongoing destruction, due to the decision made years earlier to go with nuclear power. This L.A. Times story quotes this poor farmer: For the first time in my life I’m afraid [...]  At the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Arkansas, former World Food Prize winner Catherine Bertini spoke on how we can feed the world: by empowering girls. She reminded the audience of students, citizens and some of the staff, board and volunteers from the Heifer International Headquarters next door, that there is enough food [...] How do we feed more people? The answer in the 1960s was the so-called “green revolution” – a pretty name for industrial agriculture: more chemical fertilizers and pesticides on certain mono-crops to max out yields. It worked: developing countries went from growing 800 million tonnes to more than 2.2 billion tonnes between 1961 and 2000. It also didn’t [...] There’s a debate in British Columbia involving the Agricultural Land Reserve. Farm-friendly people say the ALR is being tromped on by speculators who will buy a farmland-designated property, then erect the permitted dwelling as a McMansion with more appeal to the rich non-farmer than a real grower producing real food. The ALR is North America’s best [...] Quinoa is not a grain after all, I learned from reading this NY Times piece. It’s a chenopod. Now you know. It’s also delicious, and packed with nutrients. No wonder it’s getting the star treatment from good food fans around the world. Trouble is, folks back home in Bolivia are now finding it too expensive to [...] Just one mile from the tourist beaches of Spain you find this: proud people forced to beg for work while living in hovels akin to slave quarters. We will never achieve food democracy this way. Twelve alarming and sad minutes of video journalism from the Guardian. Salad slaves: Who really provides our vegetables – video
Sometimes the headline writer gets it more than the journalist. The snappy term “agro-imperialism” doesn’t appear in Andrew Rice’s NYT Magazine piece on the rich buying the earth from under the feet of the poor. Although Rice does mention GRAIN, a dedicated non-profit supporting small farmers and social movements, his article leans heaviest on the side [...] |
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Copyright © 2012 David Tracey
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