Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
– 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
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.
Both health and food security are fraught with expectations at social, academic, and governmental/regulatory levels. Both are states of mind as well as physical conditions. Absent either, the human organism eventually dies.
Recent media tributes to the late Jack Lalanne edited out his historical context with an alacrity reminiscent of those Stalin-era Politburo photos from which former members kept disappearing. Behind this erasure of history lies a forgotten social movement with some surprising lessons to teach today’s peak oil scene.
For public health professionals, peak oil is significant because it will affect what are commonly called the social, environmental and economic determinants of health. For example, it will significantly affect, and require some reorganization of, our economic, transportation, and food systems. It is also important to public health professionals because it will very likely affect how health services are organized (the use of products and services dependent on petroleum permeates our health care system).
– In Conversation with Joan Gussow
– Organic and Beyond
– The American Fast Food Syndrome
– Raj Patel: Food Crises Pummel the Poor, Austerity Multiplies Pain
– Can We Feed 9 Billion People?
– Storytelling as Organizing
– Words Matter: How Media Can Build Civility or Destroy It
– Healthy Village Model Improves Community Health and Builds Local Green Economy
– It’s Time to Return to a Robust Urbanism
– Why does health care in Cuba cost 96% less than in the US?
Hospitals,” says McAllister, “lend themselves to strong garden projects. They have high walls and guards to protect the plants, and hundreds of people are coming and going every day. It’s also a unique opportunity to help people learn the connection between what they eat and their own health.”
GardenAfrica, a non-profit organization in southern Africa that helps families and communities establish organic gardens in small private plots, schools, hospitals and other public areas, prefers that its work be described as solidarity rather than charity. “Charity is all too often about externally imposed solutions, solidarity is a partnership of equals,” says its website.
Interview with the Canadian physician and bestselling author Gabor Maté: “The normal basis for child development has always been the clan, the tribe, the community, the neighborhood, the extended family. Essentially, post-industrial capitalism has completely destroyed those conditions. People no longer live in communities which are still connected to one another.
As we struggle to stay healthy during the winter, it’s helpful to see how natural approaches can help. But many of the health issues require more than individual behavior change.
– Life Expectancy in China Rising Slowly, Despite Economic Surge
– Private Insurance Induced Stress Disorder (PIISD)
– Grateful People Are Happier, Healthier Long After the Leftovers Are Gobbled Up
– Cecile Andrews: Social ties are good for your health
