Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
-Smart cities are (un)paving the way for urban farmers and locavores
-Dwindling Fossil Fuels and Our Food System
-Students imagine new possibilities in intensive summer agroecology program
-Egg Co-ops Take Community Gardens to a Whole New Level
-UK Bee Industry Abuzz With Mite Resistant Breed
-UN to hold crisis talks on food prices as riots hit Mozambique
-U.N. Raises Concerns as Global Food Prices Jump
-Sowing Seeds of Fear
This week on Crop To Cuisine. We speak with Curt Ellis of the award winning documentary, King Corn, about his new projects, Food Corps and Truck Farm. Carol O’Meara joins us to help with the harvest. And Aubrey White is with us for another installment of From The Ground Up, our exploration of the adventures facing the New American Farmer. All that, headlines in food and farming, and more.
According to a recent article in the Royal Society’s journal Philosophical Transactions B, agricultural areas that typically experience extreme weather events every “one in 20” years will see an average rise in temperature of 3 degrees Celsius (4.8 ˚F) by 2050. And most places “will be hotter by 1 to 3˚ C.” This could increase the intensity of drought or floods and their effects on agricultural production. But the several articles that discuss climate change provide no firm conclusion on the effects of changing temperatures on crop yields and resource availability in different countries.
The World Banks long-awaited report on land grabs is out. I’ve not had time to study it — I only found out an hour ago — but here are some first impressions.
-Toxic dispersants in Gulf oil spill creating hidden marine crisis
-Gulf Doctors Advised to Learn to Treat Oil-Related Illnesses
-Oxygen drops near BP spill but no “dead zone”-US
-I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat – but farm it properly
-A benign extravagance
-The water footprint: the hidden cost of our meat consumption
Most people who think of animals at all in the context of producing food at home think of livestock and not much else. To make an garden yield in the absence of abundant fossil fuels, though, many wild creatures need to be recruited to fill roles in the garden ecosystem. The Archdruid explains…
I am not a foodie, but I am very good at eating. Put a hamburger and plate of fries in front of me and I am an eating machine. I eat mostly for the satisfaction of not having to eat again for another four hours. This, as one of my writing teachers suggested, is how a dog views food, bypassing all the delights of the human senses for the sake of a satisfied stomach.
-How to Stem a Global Food Crisis? Store More Water
-Six Steps For Avoiding a Global Water Crisis
-Life and Death on the Colorado River
-Pakistan Flooding Because of Farms?
In April 2010, more than 120 farmers’ groups and non-governmental organizations all across the world signed a statement declaring their opposition to the guiding principles endorsed by the World Bank, the FAO, IFAD and UNCTAD on “responsible” land investments.
This year’s favorite hideout is a pile of hay I put in the machine shed “temporarily” when rain was threatening and I didn’t have time to add it to the outside stack. The photo shows one of these hay pile nests (yes, those are old crosscut saws hanging on the wall behind the nest along with my broadcast seeder, called by some modern garden farmers a “hand-cranked thingie”).
