Editor’s picks: January 2011
Articles from last month that we thought were significant.
Food & Water
Oil ‘demand has met supply’ – Saudi Arabia (via Wikileaks)
Wikileaks may have told us what we already knew – that Saudi oil reserves are greatly inflated – but the reports also portray leaders of the highly secretive petro-state feeling “under the gun” as they strive to move their economy away from dependence on oil.
Rising food prices and the Egyptian tinderbox: How banks and investors are starving the third world
An increase of a dollar or so in the cost of a gallon of milk or a loaf of bread for Americans can mean starvation for people in Egypt and other poor countries.
Low-Input seed starting
Which is all just a reminder of how seed starting, as most of us do it, is a heavily energy intensive process. It can involve lights, heating mats, plastic containers, lots of purchased seed starting mixes and various liquid substances that make your house smell vaguely of rotting fish for a week after you use them. All of these substances have to be transported to you. How do you get along without all those things, either if you have to or if you want to? How do you use less of them, at least?
Innovation of the week: Securing land rights one acre at a time
In India and around the world, secure land rights provide a source of food and income, empowering families and communities with stability, dignity, and hope.
Crop to Cuisine: Food in Egypt, feeding the birds, and food advertising
Crop To Cuisine discusses food in Egypt, as the standoff between protesters and government continues. The World Food Programme’s Abeer Etefa joins us over the phone from Cairo. We hear from Carol O’Meara on feeding the birds this season. And we turn food advertising on its head. All of that, headlines in food and farming from around the world, and more.
Ecological Food Conference sold out again
The fact that record numbers of people are coming to the meetings of insurgent garden-farm groups all over is sweet music to those of us who have been part of this revolution from the beginning.
The Power of the Permablitz
The permablitz is a short but intense transfer of beneficial energy where members of the community come together to implement a project or landscape installation designed to provide more resources or energy than it consumes, commonly a permaculture design. Operating on a give-help-and-then-be-helped basis, these fun-filled and informative events overcome many of the pronounced barriers facing individuals for implementing regenerative designs and structures.
‘Peak oil’ revolutions?
-Mexico Will Follow Egypt Into Collapse
-FAO, IMF anticipate more civil unrest and protests because of soaring food prices
-Dignity, bread and liberty; the start of peak food revolutions
Review: Localisation and Resilience by Rob Hopkins
The dissertation is a case study of the first official Transition Town, the English market town of Totnes, long a popular tourist destination known for its alternative culture. Using interviews, focus groups, questionnaire surveys and other social science research methods, the study examines the degree to which the Transition ideals of localization and resilience have become a reality in Totnes. (Transitioners endorse a number of upbeat definitions of a resilient community, a popular one being “[a] culture based on its ability to function indefinitely and to live within its own limits, and able to thrive for having done so.”*)
Food & agriculture – Feb 7
– Mark Bittman in NYT: A Food Manifesto for the Future
– ‘The Soil Solution’ Film Preview
– Global Food Prices Hit New Record High
– Obesity Has Nearly Doubled Worldwide Since 1980: Report
– Oysters disappearing worldwide: study
– Peak cocoa
Small is beautiful. Big is necessary.
To Fazle Hasan Abed, founder of BRAC—formerly Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee—“Small is beautiful, but big is necessary.” It is a reference to the book Small is Beautiful by economist E.F. Schumacher, which criticizes western economics and hails small, local economies that empower people and their communities.
