Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Much has changed since the first Earth Day in 1970. Not only have our ecological crises come into sharper focus, it has also become obvious that we need to rescue not just the Earth, but also its people from the clutches of an economy gone mad.
• From farm to table
• Namu Gagi: San Francisco’s Natural Farm Restaurant
• UK faces food security catastrophe as honeybee numbers fall, scientists warn
• Five ways SRI practices and ideas can help "feed the world"
Meet Ben Greene. He’s a student turned entrepreneur from Raleigh, NC. His brain child, The Farmery, promises to bring a whole new way of life to urban locavores.
An increasing number of U.S. school districts are participating in Farm to School programs, reflecting the growing popularity of local foods.
A new California law just signed by Governor Jerry Brown might take some of the risk out of the equation for urban farmers by making longer-term leases an appealing proposition for landowners.
Restaurants like Knife and Fork didn’t use to exist in places like Spruce Pine, a town of just 2,200 people nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina.
Beginning today, childcare centers throughout Minnesota are set to serve healthy, locally grown foods as part of a Farm to Childcare initiative—an innovative program designed in partnership between the Minnesota-based Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) and childcare provider New Horizon Academy (NHA).
On March 15, 2003—10 years ago today—the newly renovated San Francisco Ferry Building reopened its doors. The historic landmark and international culinary destination is such a Bay Area institution that it’s hard to imagine a time when it did not hold that beloved place in the hearts of food lovers, but the transformation was many years in the making.
Practitioners of urban agriculture have a lot to be proud of, including forming part of a “food movement,” which is increasing in size and influence. People are questioning food systems conventions and the dominant forms of food production (industrial farming) and distribution (globalized trade) are being opposed more and more by communities around the globe. Urban agriculturists—with their claim for a viable alternative to the broken food system—seem to have at this moment a certain cultural cachet.
Across the nation, a robust and inspiring local food movement is gaining momentum but faces critical challenges of overwhelming demand, limited production capacity, lack of infrastructure, and limited access to capital. Meanwhile, as the unsustainability of the industrialized corporate food system becomes increasingly evident, a global food crisis threatens to land on our own shores. Our communities are food insecure.
Changes in public sector food procurement in Brazil have improved not just the quality of school meals; they have led to a reduced ecological footprint and a more engaged civil society driving the green economy. In this article, Kei Otsuki explores the processes of decentralization and localization that have taken place in Brazil since 1997 through the lens of food procurement. The case demonstrates how an active civil society can lead to change for better, more sustainable, and locally supportive practices.
•Fracking Our Food Supply
•Biofuels and the right to food: Time for the US to get its head out of the sand
•Farming the city
•The Non-Controversy Surrounding Local Food
•Restrict developing quality farmland: Farmers Union
