Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
With all the talk about “food security,” and distorted media statements like “South Korea leases half of Madagascar’s land,” it may not be evident to a lot of people that the lead actors in today’s global land grab for overseas food production are not countries or governments but corporations.
-Program could match Colo.’s next generation of farmers with land, expertise
-Feeding the city
-The Nitrogen Fix: Breaking a Costly Addiction
-Aid Groups, Farmers Collaborate to Re-Green Sahel
The truth is that we have at least two central problems (the economic one is tied to both in the long term), and only people who can get their mind around the combined difficulty will have anything useful to offer. Yes, we need to know how what fossil fuels are in the ground – and we also can’t burn them rapidly. Yes, we need to address climate change – and we need to stop lying and claiming that we can have it all – a happy growth economy based on renewable energy, yada yada.
As I watched the recently released film about Amelia Earhart, I couldn’t help thinking about parallels between her journey and ours as an industrial culture.
-Building With Whole Trees
-From TED: Edward Burtynsky photographs the landscape of oil
-Straight Talk for the Planetary Era: A Trio of Book Reviews
-Eric Sanderson pictures New York — before the City
-Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth sequel stresses spiritual argument on climate
You can tell that the photo above is not a lawn because of the glob of sheep manure in the center. Unfortunately most people do not graze farm animals on their lawns. What you are looking at is mostly bluegrass and white clover, two plants that grow wild all over the United States… No plant “invasion” could be any more beneficial.
The global food crisis has prompted various rich countries to start buying up land in the poorer world to secure their food supplies. As well as affecting domestic food supplies in the countries affected, Sue Branford says it could be a time bomb for the world’s ability to cope with climate change.
-Clive James isn’t a climate change sceptic, he’s a sucker – but this may be the reason
-The Stories We Tell…
-Building a Better Citizen
-Sacred Activism: An Unprecedented Marriage
The International Energy Agency (IEA) released World Energy Outlook 2009 today. Even before the sham was shipped, it was exposed as a big ‘ol bucket of lies. Seems the current administration thinks Americans can’t handle the truth, so we need to apply some pressure to keep the lid on the facts. If this country’s paragon of transparency (i.e., world’s leading liar) and master of hope (i.e., wishful thinking) actually trusted the American people, perhaps we could avert chaos.
Crop To Cuisine takes a look at “Smart Choices”, Sacks for Sacks, Animal Welfare in Ohio, and more. We also hear from Leslie Landis about The Art of Overeating, and the importance of doing so this holiday season.
I think the question of land access may end up being the central political issue of the coming century. In both the rich world and the poor world, we’ve systematically deprived people of easy access to land. We have driven up the price of land in the rich world by encouraging sprawl, and thus forced out agrarian populations that previous fed cities. We have pushed people into cities in the name of globalization and industrialization, and claimed their land for speculation.
-Coping With Climate Change: Which Societies Will Do Best?
-GM’s Money Trees
-The Carnivore’s Dilemma
-USDA Research: Does No-Till Really Capture More Carbon?
-Why growing virgin vegetable oil to burn is crazy
-Pachauri Still Sees a Chance for Success in Copenhagen Talks
-The Inferno
