World Bank: “Investors in farmland are targeting countries with weak laws, buying arable land on the cheap and failing to deliver on promises of jobs and investments.”
Leaked World Bank Report Highlights Extent of Land Grab Problem By: Danielle Nierenberg, Worldwatch Insitute, 8/3/10 Land rights advocates have been eagerly awaiting the World Bank’s report on large scale land acquisitions since December 2009. Delayed three times already, the report is supposed to be the most comprehensive analysis of land acquisitions to date, largely […]
4 reasons why buying local foods saves fuel…
Stop Eating Fossil Fuels, Start Eating Food Treehugger, by Lloyd Alter, 8/3/10 Whenever one discusses the idea that buying local food saves fuel, the naysayers show up. After all, there is the study from New Zealand’s Lincoln University that proved New Zealand lamb transported to the UK to have a carbon footprint of only 688 […]
Improving the lives of Farm Workers: Worldwatch Interviews Eric Nickolson
Eric Nickolson has dedicated his career to working with United Farm Workers to improve the lives of food workers. Click on the link below to read a fascinating interview with him by Worldwatch Institute: http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6485
Now your Cell Phone can help you garden???
A New Customizable Application for Farmers and Gardeners 7/28/2010 11:46:28 AM By Shelley Stonebrook, Mother Earth News Managing your crops isn’t always easy, but now there is a new application on Weather.com to help. Weather.com now features customizable local weather applications, including an Agriculture Application where farmers can get their daily forecast with precipitation, and […]
Conservation for the sake of conservation doesn’t work!
This story is just another example of why we cannot expect to reforest and conserve our rainforests and other natural resources without tying an self-sustaining economic generator into our projects… conservation means nothing to someone who does not have any food on their table and can’t afford to educate their children! – Jeremy Can Sustainability Grow in a […]
Farmers Who Plant Biotech Crops Grow Pesticide-Resistant Weeds
WASHINGTON, DC, April 13, 2010 (ENS) – Weeds are developing resistance to the herbicide that genetically engineered crops are designed to tolerate, finds the first major assessment of how biotech crops are affecting all U.S. farmers, released today by the National Research Council. Since genetically engineered crops were introduced in 1996, at least nine species […]
Helping Farmers Conserve Wildlife and Make Money
Conservation Agriculture: Keeping People and Wildlife Safe by Danielle Nierenberg on April 12, 2010 One of the first things you notice about grocery stores in Zambia is the plethora of processed foods from around the world, from crackers made in Argentina and soy milk from China to popular U.S. breakfast cereals. Complementing these foreign foods, […]
Ecological Design Tranforms Mexican Community
Mexican Farmers Turn Milpas into Forest Gardens by Fred Bahnson on March 9, 2010 When government extension agents first came to Juan Bautista’s Yucatan village of Chun-Yah, a tiny pueblo in the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, they told him he should start growing pitaya, also known as dragonfruit. Originating in Meso-America, this cactus is […]
Farm-to-School Programs Improve Nutrition
Farm to School Efforts Double in Minnesota Demand from students, farmers and schools grows for farm to school programs MINNEAPOLIS, Minn – March 9 – The number of Minnesota school districts purchasing fresh food from local farms has more than doubled in the last 15 months, according to a survey released today by the […]
Sometimes ‘appropriate technologies’ aren’t appropriate!
What Is an Appropriate Technology? By Sara Delaney At the launch of the new book Science and Innovation for Development on 19 January, co-author Sir Gordon Conway said: “It doesn’t matter where the technology comes from, it matters that it is appropriate.” Too often international development researchers, policymakers, and practitioners get caught up in the […]