March 109, 2010; Don’t overlook Malawi! In Seedling Magazine, a recent article about this tiny east African country that faces big battles ahead with how it feeds its people, and whether it can forestall the pressures of “Green Revolution” style assistance from the international community. At stake a nation, how it can reliably feed itself, and to do so, without undermining its food sovereignty, and its fragile environmental underpinnings. Are proposed high tech solutions with required dependency upon high cost farm chemical inputs, and GM hybrid seed technologies, the right agricultural approach for poorer nations? Who gets to decide?
Topic: CUpS Food News Wire
A Important Case of Preserving Food Sovereignty and Avoiding Green Revolution Calamity
Posted in CUpS Food News Wire Tagged africa, flax, food security, food sovereignty, gmo, green revolution, malawi, via campesina 1 Comment
Meet a Farmer: Joya Parsons, Chicken Farmer
March 07, 2010 Exposed to her parents interest in horticulture as a young child, Joya Parsons grew to embrace her green thumb. “By the time I reached my early twenties, I was bitten by the horticulture bug.” Her interest in growing things was played out on the land her parents went on to buy in the 90’s.
Joya Parsons and Toffee, a Ameraucana pullet; photo courtesy Joya Parsons
“The other future for chicken farming is decentralization. It is many smaller farmers raising birds in a socially and ecologically sound manner, in the sunshine and on a natural diet, and with enough room to move. It is healthy birds, healthy farms and healthy communities. But it is going to take a lot of community support to get chicken farming back there. Currently, the industrial model has the upper hand and continues to expand while small, independent chicken farmers suffer from a lack of infrastructure, like rural slaughterhouses and shipping to larger markets. The only way the second vision is going to become a reality is if the consumer demands it and supports it with their buying power.”
Remember to support your local (chicken) farmer!
Thanks to @kubileya and @angelatunner
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Waste Land: Does the Large Amount of Food Discarded in the U.S. Take a Toll on the Environment?
March 4, 2010 Now if this isn’t a waste:
“According to the Agriculture Department, each year Americans toss more than 25 percent, of all domestically produced food. A 2009 study showed that a quarter of U.S. water and 4 percent of U.S. oil consumption annually go into producing and distributing food that ultimately ends up in landfills”
The recently published article from Scientific American goes on to say
“Once this food gets to the landfill, it then generates methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times as potent as carbon dioxide in trapping heat within our atmosphere. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, landfills account for 34 percent of all methane emissions in the U.S.—meaning that the sandwich you made and then didn’t eat yesterday is increasing your personal—and our collective—carbon footprint.”
After reading something like this it gets me to thinking how I might better improve my personal food waste. Leftovers from dinner? Eat them for lunch or create something different from it for the next night. Making a meal and have bits of pieces of carrots, lettuce, onion, and the like? Hold some for a soup stock. If you know someone with backyard chickens, perhaps they could use your unused greens. Forgot about that casserole you made 2 weeks ago? Composting isn’t too hard, or maybe start a worm bin. Sometimes it’s just a matter of changing a few habits on this road to living a more sustainable lifestyle.
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Temple Grandin: The world needs all kinds of minds
February 28, 2010 It seems Temple Grandin is on her way to becoming a household name. Earlier this month she was featured in a bio-epic on HBO, which was written about on the New York Times. Her story of growing up as an autistic child and her accomplishments – one which involves humane treatment of livestock – deserve the attention she has been getting. Add to the list a recent recording of her talk at TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design). What makes her different, according to Grandin, is “I think in pictures, I don’t think in language”.
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Posted in CUpS Food News Wire Tagged humane animal treatment, livestock, livestock care, temple grandin Post a comment
And Finally, Man?
“Mankind’s closest relatives – the world’s monkeys, apes and other primates – are disappearing from the face of the Earth, with some literally being eaten into extinction.”
One of the world’s leading primate authorities, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), issued a new, and alarming report, Primates In Peril: The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates 2008-2010 (PDF), on the dire state of primates throughout the world. Of the 634 known species of primates, almost half are now facing extinction. There are a number of varying pressures that threaten these species: the slash and burning of forests for agriculture; hunting (by humans) for bushmeat; habitat loss; climate change; charcoal and firewood collection; urbanization, and other causes.
Indeed, the biggest threats to the world’s primates is habitat loss, in particular, the burning of tropical forests. Scientists estimate that (at least) 20% of the amount of greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming are a direct result of the burning of these forests.
The report provides some optimism for hope. If the forests can be protected from further destruction, with human interventions and care, these primates can survive. “If you have forests, you can save primates,” said CI scientist Anthony Rylands, the deputy chair of the IUCN Primate Specialist Group. “The work with lion tamarins shows that conserving forest fragments and reforesting to create corridors that connect them is not only vital for primates, but offers the multiple benefits of maintaining healthy ecosystems and water supplies while reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.”
There is a complex, and rich interplay between primates and their environment that provides a foundation for sustainable ecosystems that continue and evolve over time. That such a large percentage of primates, our nearest nonhuman relatives, are in such immediate peril, does not bode well for humans, unless we actively engage to reverse the tide.
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An Iowa Farmer on the Meaning of Sustainability
February 20, 2010 Denise O’Brien has begun a new series on the Blog for Iowa website about sustainable agriculture. O’Brien (co-founder of Women, Food & Agriculture Network) and her husband Larry Harris have been growing organic produce for over 30 years and sell through their Rolling Acres CSA. She will be discussing the different issues that tie in with sustainable agriculture – food security, local and regional food systems, and politics as well:
“Sustainable agriculture has come a very long way and it is becoming a big player in the agriculture scene in Washington D.C. and I must say, agribusiness is not happy. Agribusiness will not move over and give sustainable ag a seat at the table very easily. Many people have fought hard for sustainable ag to get where it is today but we have so much farther to go.”
h/t Dave Murphy of @food_democracy
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Posted in CUpS Food News Wire Tagged agriculture, csa, farming, local food, Local Food Economy, regional food, sustainable agriculture Post a comment
