Food

November 20, 2009

Food for thought in thinking about food: 2009 World Summit on Food Security

On November 13, 2009, Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General, Jacques Diouf, embarked on a 24-hour public hunger strike, in the lead up to this week’s World Summit on Food Security in Rome. more…

October 8, 2009

Debate 2.0: Meat or the climate? Pick one!

Meat free Mondays has to be the way to go. Former Beatle Paul McCartney backs it. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, advocates it. more…

August 24, 2009

Apples have feelings too

In Japan and elsewhere, people often wash their produce before eating it. Why? Is it to rinse off the dirt and insects? Or maybe we are hoping to clean off all the dreaded pesticides? more…

July 21, 2009

Growing food movements

Quite an old concept, and one ascribed to by such notable persons as Mahatma Gandhi and naturalist Henri David Thoreaux, “voluntary simplicity” is making a comeback in the Global North. more…

June 9, 2009

“Plenty of fish in the sea”

Most old sayings are still true today. This one is not. more…

April 24, 2009

A taste for organic food

Small organic food stores have long had the image of selling overpriced dried-up carrots to Birkenstock-wearing hippy customers carrying canvas shopping bags. more…

April 21, 2009

Roots that bind

As soon as we left the plane in Guatemala, the terrain stretched out like the open arms of a good friend. The country, which means “land of trees,” appeared as a canopy of forest until the foliage gave way to flat farmland. more…

January 30, 2009

Feeding the nine billion

Food prices have fallen significantly from their peak last year — but that doesn’t mean that policymakers can start to heave a sigh of relief.  more…

December 2, 2008

How much oil do Americans eat?

An article entitled Farmer in Chief, published by the New York Times last month, captured the attention of media, environmentalists and bloggers around the world. Written by journalist and professor Michael Pollan as an open letter to President-elect Barack Obama, the article urges Obama to make food security a key issue. more…

October 28, 2008

Hunger and poverty overshadowed

Governments worldwide are preoccupied by the global financial crisis as they struggle to determine how to stabilize national markets and cooperate with other countries.  more…