Food Security versus Sustainability in Europe during the war in Ukraine
The debates on food security versus sustainability in the context of the war in Ukraine have revitalised a longstanding debate on “who will feed the world”.
sustainable food systems
Farming Bounded By Our Biological Boundaries – Part 2
A sustainable food system is one that will be able to generate nutrients from natural sources, and without using fossil-fuel supplied energy.
Farming Bounded By Our Biological Boundaries – Part 1
We must adopt an ecosystem approach to identify sustainable food systems that can exist within our planet’s boundaries, argues Stuart Meikle in the first of a four-part series.
Does size matter? Measuring the impact of scale in US agriculture
We lack simple tools to compare systematically and scientifically the relative impact of farming at different scales.
The Energetic Basis of Wealth
Last year I did an analysis to try to understand whether it’s possible to feed the world sustainably. Today I’d like to try to understand what happens to countries as they must rely upon the sun for energy (and, indirectly, wealth).
Time to take ownership of the Anthropocene
Maybe you, too, know that feeling of despair that comes when learning of some catastrophic impact of climate change…
The Seed Underground
A delightful and thoroughly enjoyable read: in my many years of reading environmental books there aren’t many I could say that about. I found The Seed Undergound on a table at the home of a member of Transition Mar Vista/Venice, at an open house (open garden) as part of last month’s 100+ home Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase.
The sanctity of food: Conscious eating as a spiritual practice
Throughout human history, particularly in indigenous cultures, food has been perceived as sacred. The word sacred is not a religious term but rather one that simply means “set apart” or not of the ordinary. It is also related to sacrifice which may mean that something is sacred because it derived from something sacrificed. For example, we speak of battlefields and military cemeteries as sacred. In ancient times, some temples, mountains, or forests were sacred because animals were sacrificed to a god in those places. All food is sacred in the sense that the life of a plant or animal has been sacrificed to feed another being.
Peak Moment 227: Farm Camp — Connecting Kids to Their Food
Join the kids at Farm Camp! You’ll watch them care for turkeys and rabbits, listen to a harvest season story, and cook up applesauce. Campers have fun growing and preparing food and, best of all, eating the results. They raise veggies from seed to harvest and take field trips, like the Camp Pizza kids who visit a cheese maker. It all started because founder Laura Plaut wanted her son to have joyful food experiences. “We do [this] because it feels good. It makes us happy, takes care of the planet, [and] takes care of communities.”
Bill and Lou: A parable for saving our broken food system
Our society has become increasingly divorced from agriculture, and our assumptions about food and farming are too often based more on emotion or business interests than those of real, on-farm experiences and community decision-making about the food we raise and eat.