Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Before we casually shipped warehouses of vegetables across oceans and refrigerated them, spring was traditionally a lean time in Western temperate climates, a time when our ancestors had been living on things like salted meat or grains for months.
Urban farming has gained momentum in recent years as a result of increased awareness of environmental issues and the desire to feed people living in cities sustainably.
Large food processors have long claimed that state laws forcing them to label foods containing genetically engineered ingredients would lead to 1) higher prices for consumers who would end up paying the cost of special labeling for one or just a few states and/or 2) fewer food choices as processors simply withdrew some or all of their products from states requiring labeling.
The Native American tribes that live in the region adjacent to the Klamath River, which flows from Southern Oregon into the northern part of California, once subsisted sustainably off the land.
Mike Lott is not your run of the mill farmer. Not long ago, before making the decision to embark on a career in farming and launch his aquaponic and urban agriculture venture, Urban Food Works in Murietta, CA, Lott was a professional golfer.
The increasing interest in artisanal foods is opening up all kinds of opportunities in farming that could hardly have been predicted even a few years ago. Who would ever have thought a good market for small, backyard hen coops would open up.
The global pattern of nation states’ persistent neglect of the world’s most pressing issues is the unstated background to today’s precedent-breaking discussions about cities and food.
There are many community-based programmes as well that make it possible for a variety of low-income populations to benefit by buying from farmers’ markets in the US, giving farmers a boost too.
If relations with U.S. agribusiness companies are not managed carefully, Cuba could revert to an industrial approach that relies on mechanization, transgenic crops and agrochemicals, rolling back the revolutionary gains that its campesinos have achieved.
I am not against genetic modification but only against the way that herbicide manufacturers are using it to justify patenting any plant in nature that interests them and then, in my opinion, trying to use the patents to gain unfair monopolies in the food and farm economy.
Emma Ben-Haouala Bernegger has established her own brand of organic products in Tunisia, reviving traditional methods.
An attempted Niagara Bottling Company water grab in iconic Woodstock New York was a defining moment for Rachel Marco Havens.
