Food & fertilizer – Nov 25
– New Yorker features fermentation writer Sandor Katz: “Nature’s Spoils”
– A Hidden Cost of Farming (cow manure and phosphorus)
– Finally, A Practical Guide to Dealing With… Manure (Book Review)
Health
Strengthening our health
America’s health care system is more expensive by 40–60 percent than health care systems in any other industrialized country (it makes up nearly half the health care budget of the entire world), but the results it produces are arguably the worst of the group.
Is the local food movement elitist?
Local food is elitist! This trumpets from one paper or another, revealing that despite the growing preoccupation with good food, ultimately, it is just another white soccer Mom phenomenon.
Loneliness and the fate of America
Americans have difficulty even recognizing loneliness, let alone accepting it as a problem. It’s just not in our world view. We think we’re depressed and that consuming a pill will cure us, but in fact, we may just need more time with people.
Culture change – Oct 30
– Janaia Donaldson of Peak Moment TV (what she’s learned)
– Embrace the Cooperative Movement – video interview
– Climate Change, Like Slavery, Needs a True Cultural Shift to Stop It
– A climate, oil and economic crisis looms: Will we avoid or adjust? (Kathy McMahon)
An open letter to medicine, nursing, and public health upon reaching the limits to growth
Mainstream health policy analysis is in an intellectual cul-de-sac due to its paradigmatic premise that the economy will continue to expand and thereby allow the government to provide more and more funding for health
Deep thought – Oct 24
– Bacteria ‘R’ Us
– Cultural Impersonations and Appropriations: A Fashion Report (Veblen brought up-to-date)
– Existential Comfort in the Age of Hopkins and Greer, Part V
– John Bellamy Foster: The ecology of consumption (chapter from book)
– In Chile, the lessons of isolation: humans are not wolves
Lunch lessons learned for the longterm: D.C. farm to school program brings local foods to local schools
The phrase “school lunch” may be more likely to bring to mind visions of artificial nacho cheese and processed foods than fresh vegetables. But in Washington D.C., D.C. Farm to School Network is trying to change that by connecting school cafeterias with local farms and educating students about gardening and cooking with fresh produce.
The politics of hunger
About a billion people or 1/6th of humanity goes to sleep hungry each day. Most assume it is because not enough food is there to go around. Though this may become true in future unless we have an urgent course correction, at the moment this abomination is the result of lack of access to food, not its absence.
Food & agriculture take two – Oct 20
-£669 ($1068 Canadian) worth of food grown on this patio, balcony and windowsill
-Sorry, New York Times: The Bee Die-Off Case is Not Closed
-Striking a blow for a softer, greener world
-NtP in Italy
-Wal-Mart To Boost Buying From Small And Local Farms
United States – Oct 20
– A Wary Eye on ‘Big Oil’ Funding Energy Research
– NYT: Republicans In Climate Denial, Again
– Crumbling America has a $2.2 trillion repair bill
– Health Disparities Across Incomes Are Wide-Ranging
Food, agriculture and health – Oct 20
– Wal-Mart’s Plan for Small Farmers Expands Private-Sector Climate Agenda
– UN Says Global Farm Methods ‘Recipe for Disaster’
– Big Food’s Blame Game
– Eating Less Meat Could Save 45,000 Lives a Year
