Category: Agro-Ecology

A is for Apple

Walk into any supermarket and what do you find? Bins of shiny red, yellow, and green apples. What seems like an abundance of apples is an illusion. Just 11 varieties of apples make up 90% of those grown, sold, and eaten in the US. What’s more, 40-plus percent of apples sold are only one variety: Red Delicious. The apple industry has succumbed to the same consolidation and specialization affecting the rest of the food industry. As a result, the number of apple varieties has plummeted.

Terroir-ist’s Manifesto

Living in what he affectionately calls “the stinkin’ hot desert,” in Patagonia Arizona, along the Mexican border, Gary Paul Nabhan is exploring ways to grow food using traditional sustainable methods, careful water collection, and seed saving.

Organic Farming for Health and Prosperity

This comprehensive report extols the multiple societal benefits of organic farming in North America. To partner with stakeholders who share in these benefits, OFRF produced this document for policy makers, educators, researchers, healthcare professionals, business leaders and families, like yours and mine.

Can Western Washington Feed Itself?

Studies providing real information about food production and consumption, especially incorporating local and regional data from the private sector, are increasingly important yet difficult to obtain. Those people involved in food policy and urban planning are hard pressed for both the funding and access to accurate data to prepare adequate studies. Nonetheless, an accurate view of the amount of perishable food that is produced or comes into a region and is being consumed or disposed is critical to the improvement of the food system. The Western Washington Foodshed Study is one of those reports.

Vandana Shiva – Seeds of Humanity

Scientist and philosopher Vandana Shiva explains how “everything begins with seed,” and addresses the perils of patenting them. Shiva, who founded a movement in India to promote native seeds, links genetic tinkering to problems in our ecology, economy, and humanity, and sees this as the latest battleground in the war on Planet Earth.

Destruction of our soil destroys our food

Those of us who are not on the growing end of the food system tend to lose track of the soil which supports production of our food. Even the fish we eat are affected by soil destruction. A new report from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) tells us that we need to see dramatic improvement in the way we – that is, the world – manages our soils.

Holistic Management and the Triple Bottom Line – A Decision-Making Tool

Truly representative of the Triple Bottom Line approach to business, Holistic Management considers humans, their economies and the environment inseparable. At the heart of the approach lies a simple testing process that enables people to make decisions that simultaneously consider economic, social, and environmental realities, both short- and long-term.