Good Food is Everybody's Business
A number of US cities have already instituted planning policy that protect both agriculture and open space. However, smaller cites without these land use policies are now feeling the consequences of sprawl and the need for action. Missoula – the City and the County – is a perfect example.
When 29-year-old China Dessale approached the Wain Hotel where she used to work as a commercial sex worker, carrying a basket teeming with cabbage, carrots, lettuce and eggs, the hotel owner couldn’t believe his eyes. He remembered China when she was 15 years old. In desperation, China had joined the same hotel to make a livelihood in Ethiopia’s risky commercial sex worker industry.
Our Good Food on a Budget correspondent, Kate Hilmer, recently finished reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. “One thing is for certain, and this book made it painfully clear to me: meat matters,” says Kate. “To what extent does it matter? It’s a complex and personal question that each of us must decide for ourselves.” Anne Schwartz, a Washington farmer, responds to those like Kate who are trying to decide whether or not to eat meat.
Three women from USAID Urban Gardens Program prove that urban agriculture can improve lives of people living with HIV through economic empowerment as well as social engagement.
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.
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.
Most of us have no idea how genetically modified organisms (GMOs) actually work. What is it that makes it possible to kill the weeds growing in a corn field without affecting the corn? What is it that makes it possible for corn to “grow its own” pesticide to kill root worms? How does this modification affect the micro-organisms in the soil? How can it affect the animals – including we humans – that eat these plants?
Going “off the grid” has connotations of romance and counter-culture in the US, but to 600 communities across rural Latin America, off the grid means they will remain poor and under-developed. Imagine what can happen when each community is given solar panels and, in some cases, a back-up wind generator to produce renewable and clean energy.
