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Feb 24

Agriculture, the Solution

Nourishing the Planet Nourishing the Planet

Check out Nourishing the Planet’s latest powerpoint presentation from the recent Global Citizenship Symposium at Georgia College.

(Photo credit: Julie Carney, Gardens for Health International)

Project Director Danielle Nierenberg outlines the connection between sustainable agriculture and public health. She discusses agricultural initiatives that are cutting down on food waste, while producing nutritious food, such as hermetically sealed bags, which are helping to improve global health, while protecting the environment.

Click here to view the presentation.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


Feb 24

Running the Numbers II: One Artist Brings Hunger Statistics to Life

Nourishing the Planet Agriculture, Farmers, Food, Hunger

By Kamaria Greenfield

Chris Jordan is an acclaimed digital photography artist whose previous collections have included pieces such as Toothpicks, which depicts in toothpicks the annual number of trees cut down to make junk mail. In 2009, he embarked upon a new project called “Running the Numbers II: portraits of global mass culture.” Every piece in this collection is a digital image, some replicas of very well-known paintings or graphics.

Chris Jordan's modern art includes important societal messages that are hidden until the viewer gets very close. (Photo credit: PBS) Chris Jordan's modern art includes important societal messages that are hidden until the viewer gets very close. (Photo credit: PBS)

Closer inspection of Jordan’s work reveals the powerful social message. On first glance, Maya, created in 2011, depicts a brown-and-white circular Mayan artifact. But by moving closer to the art piece in real life (or by clicking the online image to zoom in), the viewer realizes that the tiny flecks of color are plant seeds—92,500 seeds, to be exact. The caption on Jordan’s site informs the viewer that the number is “equal to one hundredth of one percent of the number of people in the world today who suffer from malnutrition. To illustrate the entire statistic with 925 million seeds would require ten thousand prints of this image, covering more than eight football fields.” The larger version of Maya measures 5×5’. Other equally riveting works include a replica of Van Gogh’s Starry Night fashioned from 50,000 cigarette lighters, and John Sibbick’s famous charging T. rex composed of 240,000 plastic bags.

Every piece in Running the Numbers II was created to illustrate issues affecting the world.  Jordan acknowledges his dual role as artist and activist, saying that when viewed at first, his images are “like something else, maybe totally boring pieces of modern art. On closer view, the visitor has an almost unpleasant experience with the artwork. It’s almost a magic trick; inviting people to a conversation that they didn’t want to have in the first place. One visitor recently compared me to a ‘sleight-of-hands-magician’ that makes people face up to a difficult truth, I quite liked that.”

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Feb 24

Occupy our Food Supply

Nourishing the Planet Farmers, Food, Food Sovereignty

On February 27th, people around the world will be coming together for a global day of action to take back the food supply from corporations like Cargill and Monsanto.

Image credit: Rainforest Action Network

Prominent food leaders, farmers, and activists—including Navdanya founder, Vandana Shiva; author of What to EatMarion Nestle; and co-founder of the Small Planet FundAnna Lappé—will be adding their voices in support of sustainable farming and food justice for all.

Please click here for more information on how you can participate in the movement.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


Feb 23

New York Times Discusses Farm Bill

Nourishing the Planet Farmers, Policy

The 2012 Farm Bill, which is currently being discussed in the U.S. Congress, is also being debated by many experts in the field.

Photo credit: TIME Magazine

Among the topics being talked about by lawmakers, farmers, and consumers are the continuation of government subsidies for commodity crops like soy and corn, and the role the government should play to tackle unhealthy diets, global hunger, and ineffective nutritional assistance programs,

Click here to follow the New York Times online debate on the Farm Bill.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


Feb 23

Changing the Way We Eat: Thinking of Soil as More Than Just “Dirt”

Nourishing the Planet Soil, Videos

On January 21st, TEDxManhattan featured a series of speakers with backgrounds in food and farming who shared their knowledge and expertise with thousands of audience members watching either in-person from seats at the event or virtually from around the world.

Today, Nourishing the Planet highlights a TEDxManhattan talk by Fred Kirschenmann, who discusses the importance of soil in our food production system.

In his talk, “Soil: From Dirt to Lifeline,” Kirschenmann notes that while we tend to think of soil simply as “dirt,” it is in fact a “vibrant living community” that we should instead learn to value as a precious resource. Our large-scale food production system currently uses many techniques that diminish soil quality and quantity, but Kirschenmann discusses several alternatives that are both more productive and better for the soil and the environment.

Click here to watch Kirschenmann and other TEDxManhattan 2012 speakers.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


Feb 22

Food Fasting for a Cause: Ash Wednesday

Nourishing the Planet Food, Waste

By Ronica Lu

According to a study by the United Nations World Food Program, over one third of the food produced for human consumption is wasted, mostly in developed countries. The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance (EAA) is leading an Ash Wednesday food fast campaign to end the cycle of food waste. They are inviting all to participate in its “Fast for Life” campaign to reflect on consumption patterns and global food waste.

The 1.3 billion tons of food thrown away each year by wealthy nations would be enough to feed the 1 billion who go hungry. (Photo credit: Couponshoebox.com)

The Lenten season this year starts with Ash Wednesday on February 22nd. On Ash Wednesday and during Lent, the EAA is encouraging consumers to find ways to increase their awareness and take action in changing the ways they buy and consume food.

One way to avoid wasted food is to be aware of the different food labels and what they mean: Sell By,” for example, is more of a guide for the store or seller than consumers, letting stores know how long they can display products for sale; “Best Before” or “Best if Used By,” refers to how the quality or flavor of the food is affected the longer it sits on store shelves; and “Use By” or “Expiration Date”  indicates that eating or consuming the food after the date is not recommended

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Feb 21

Looking for Borlaug Field Award Nominations

Nourishing the Planet Research

The World Food Prize is currently looking for nominations for its first annual Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application.

The World Food Prize is currently looking for nominations for its first annual Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application. (Photo credit: World Food Prize)

This award aims to recognize exceptional, science-based achievement in international agriculture and food production by an individual under 40 who has devoted time, effort and stamina towards the fight to eliminate global hunger and poverty.

Nominations for the award will be accepted online through June 30. The chosen recipient will be honored during a ceremony as part of the World Food Prize international symposium, the “Borlaug Dialogue,” and related events taking place October 17-19, 2012, in Des Moines, Iowa.

If you know someone who should be nominated for this award, please click here for more details.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


Feb 21

Five Agricultural Innovations to Improve Biodiversity

Nourishing the Planet Biodiversity, Breeding, Food Security, Indigenous, Permaculture, Seeds

By Graham Salinger

According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a quarter of the world’s known plant species—some 60,000 to 100,000 species—are threatened with extinction. And even though plants may not receive as much attention as endangered animals, they are essential. Among their many attributes, plants are a vital source of food, they can help stabilize the climate, and they also provide shelter, medicines, and fuel.

Seeds of diversity; seed banks are one innovation that helps increase biodiversity. (Photo credit: GREEN Foundation)

Today, Nourishing the Planet introduces five agricultural innovations to improve biodiversity and protect these important providers.  

1. Seed banks:  Seed banks help preserve seed varieties, while protecting against famine and disease. Storing seed varieties in seed banks helps protect farmers from seed loss while reducing their overreliance on monoculture crops that makes agricultural economies vulnerable to price shocks.

Seed Banks in action: In Norway, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault protects thousands of seeds that farmers in developing countries can rely on to help re-harvest crops that have been affected by disease, climate, or conflict. And in Karnataka, India, community seeds banks are open to any member of the community as long as they don’t use pesticides or chemical fertilizers when farming.

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Feb 20

Soursop: Many Names, Many Flavors

Nourishing the Planet Indigenous, Indigenous Vegetables

By Joseph Zaleski

In the English-speaking world, Annona muricata is called soursop. If that name is a turnoff, Spanish-speakers call it guanábana, French-speakers call it corossol or cachiman épineux, and the Thai know it as thu-rian-khack. These are just a few of the many ways to identify this distinctive-looking tropical fruit.

Soursop can be eaten fresh with a spoon or squeezed into a refreshing juice. (Photo credit: Biodiversity International)

Native to Central America, northern South America, and the Antilles, soursop now grows wild and is cultivated in warm, tropical climates around the world at altitudes from zero to 1,000 feet above sea level. It has a nearly continuous season. The soursop tree grows between eight to 20 feet tall and is very sensitive to frost. Harvesters pick the oblong soursop fruit when it reaches a yellow-green color and full weight, between 10 to 15 pounds.

Mature fruits display a green or even brownish skin and are covered with small spiky protrusions. Soursop’s milky-white pulp is fibrous and punctuated with black, mildly toxic seeds. But if you make it through the spikes, fibers, and seeds to the heart of the fruit, your palate is in for a treat. Notes of sweet pineapple and strawberry, tart citrus, and smooth banana can all be detected in a taste that is singularly soursop. It’s a complex flavor to match its complex nomenclature.

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Feb 19

In Case You Missed it: This Week in Review

Nourishing the Planet Uncategorized

This week, we highlighted a recently released joint report by the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Water Management Institute that examined the importance of improving food security without severely depleting water resources. In this post we discussed Food & Water Watch’s campaign to stop Walmart from selling Monsanto’s new breed of genetically engineered sweet corn. And in this post, we highlighted the recent fair food agreement between Trader Joe’s and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers that supports fair pay and better working conditions for tomato growers in Florida.

Photo credit: Bernard Pollack

Our research received some exciting news coverage this past week. Our 12 recommendations to go green in 2012 were featured in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and New Jersey’s The Record.

Highlights from this past week:

Our innovation of the week is the SolarNexus, a solar power generation system that can be installed relatively easily and quickly. Typically, when these systems are installed in developing countries, high-grade wires are usually not used because they are too expensive or not available, and as a result less electricity is available for use. In order to overcome this problem, Solar Nexus International custom-designs a system for each client, and then ships out a container that includes all the wires and materials needed for a U.S. code-compliant system. Once the shipment is received, the provided instructions allow local electricians to install the system.

When most consumers think about making better food choices, they often reserve those changes for the home: smart choices at the grocery store, an occasional trip to the local farmers’ market, cutting back on meat, and substituting applesauce for butter in homemade recipes. But when diners walk through the doors of their favorite restaurants, these smart-eating policies tend to melt away into the indulgent abyss. But consumers can continue to use their purchasing power to support eco-friendly restaurants to support small-scale, organic, local farmers. In this post, Nourishing the Planet presents five innovative restaurants in the United States that are providing delicious meals in a sustainable manner.

And our indigenous vegetable of the week is the Pomme du Sahel, or Apple of the Sahel, a tree that is native to the western Sahel desert, throughout Niger and Burkina Faso. On the windswept and heavily degraded soils of the Sahel, it is one of the few hardy trees that can survive and produce fruit. That makes it a crucial part of initiatives underway across the region to use trees to help restore the health of soil damaged by overgrazing and the clearing of perennial vegetation.

Now it’s your turn: What were your favorite posts from the week? What do you hope we’ll write about next week? Let us know in the comments!

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


Feb 18

Mobile Phone Technology Improves Farmers’ Fortunes in Uganda

Nourishing the Planet Africa, Agriculture, Education, Extension, Farmers, Technology

By Laura Reynolds

Remote, mountainous, and hard-to-reach areas like Uganda’s Kabale district suffer from inadequate access to information of all kinds. Because the region, located in the southwestern corner of Uganda, is predominantly agricultural, timely and relevant information for farmers in Kabale would significantly help improve their livelihoods.

Life Long Learning for Farmers in Uganda sends agricultural information to farmers through text and voice messages. (Photo credit: L3F Uganda)

A mobile phone application developed by the project Life Long Learning for Farmers in Uganda (L3F Uganda)  is helping Kabale farmers get the information they need. The project sends text messages with agricultural updates and information to about 1,000 farmers. This information, disseminated twice weekly by L3F Uganda, has helped farmers get valuable guidance on market access, fertilizer application, plant spacing, timely planting, local diseases, and other topics. The project is a partnership of Commonwealth of Learning, Makerere University’s Agricultural Research Institute Kabanyolo, and local community organizations, and was instituted as a pilot project in Bufundi, a sub-county of Kabale, in 2009 with the hope of extending it to all of Uganda.

The main aim of L3F Uganda is to help solve the many challenges farmers confront in the region. These include inadequate road networks, preventing farmers from getting to markets; a lack of credit and financial services; volatile market prices; and a lack of up-to-date information about seeds, weather patterns, appropriate fertilizers, pests, and other agricultural issues. Traditionally, the government’s agricultural extension service was the main source of information for farmers in Uganda, but the current ratio of extension workers to farmers in the country is 1:24,000, rendering the service largely ineffective. In Bufundi, the ratio is 1:46,000.

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Feb 17

UNEP and IWMI Advocate Agroecosystems to Improve Food, Water Security

Nourishing the Planet Agriculture, agroforestry, Environment, Food, Food Security, Water

By Dana Drugmand 

With the world population already at 7 billion, producing food in environmentally sustainable ways will be one of the key challenges we face this century. Investing in the connections between ecosystems, water management and food production will be an important part of the solution to reducing hunger, poverty, and ecological degradation, according to a report produced jointly by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI).

Maintaining ecosystem services will be critical to ensuring long-term food security, according to the report from UNEP and IWMI. (Photo credit: Bernard Pollack)

An Ecosystems Services Approach to Water and Food Security, which was launched during World Water Week in Stockholm back in August, addresses the question of how it is possible to boost food security without severely depleting water resources and while keeping healthy ecosystems intact. The report notes that water scarcity is one of the key factors limiting food production. At the same time, current agricultural practices are putting huge strains on water resources. Groundwater levels, for example, are declining rapidly in major food producing regions such as the North China Plains, the Indian Punjab, and the western United States.

As UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner writes in the report’s preface, “ensuring food security, managing water resources and protecting ecosystems must be considered as a single policy rather than as separate, and sometimes competing, choices.” The report recommends managing agricultural areas as agroecosystems, which provide ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling, soil formation, water purification and flood control that are critical to ensuring a sustainable and stable food supply. Measures such as diversifying crop production, implementing agroforestry, and improving rainwater collection should boost crop yields and build resilience to make agriculture less vulnerable to climate change. The report also offers specific recommendations for a more holistic approach to managing drylands, wetlands, crop systems, fisheries, and livestock systems. And maintaining ecosystem services in agroecosystems will require collaboration among multiple sectors, including agriculture, water, forestry, fisheries, livestock and wildlife management.

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Feb 16

Innovation of the Week: Connecting Components of Renewable Energy

Nourishing the Planet Africa, Energy, Markets

By Philip Newell

In rural Africa, over 90 percent of people do not have access to electricity. To address this problem, Solar Nexus International (SNI) has designed a contained system of solar power generation that can be installed relatively quickly and easily.

Solar Nexus connects all the distinct components of an off-the-grid electricity system. (Image credit: Solar Nexus International)

The heart of this operation is the SolarNexus, a small device that links wires, transformers, converters, inverters, and batteries required in an off-grid electricity system. Through this device, Solar Nexus hopes to fulfill its mission for “solar empowerment through market-based development of local solar energy resources worldwide.”

Typically, it takes a fair amount of knowledge and training to set up an electricity generating system. Whether solar, hydropower, or wind, transforming captured energy into useful electricity requires a variety of different hardware, not always available in developing countries. If any of this hardware is improperly installed, or if wires are not the proper size, the efficiency of the system suffers severely. When these systems are installed in developing countries, high-grade wires are usually not used because they are too expensive or not available, and as a result less electricity is available for use. In order to overcome this problem, Solar Nexus International custom-designs a system for each client, and then ships out a container that includes all the wires and materials needed for a U.S. code-compliant system. Once the shipment is received, the provided instructions allow local electricians to install the system. As a result of high quality and correctly sized wiring and components, communities will be able to get as much energy as possible from the unit, sacrificing nothing to poor wiring.

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Feb 15

Citywatch: Seniors and Others

Nourishing the Planet Policy

By Wayne Roberts

Citywatch: Whether it’s action or traction in the food world, cities are stepping up to the plate. The world is fast going urban, as are challenges of social, economic and environmental well-being. Citywatch is crucial to Worldwatch. Wayne Roberts, retired manager of the world-renowned Toronto Food Policy Council, has his eye out for the future of food in the city. Click here to read more from Wayne.

Usually respected for its calm, cool and collected approach, the Canadian Urban Institute has been ringing the alarm for some time about the “giant demographic tsunami” about to roll over Canadian cities.

Universal design in cities can not only help seniors, but also the general public. (Photo credit: Canadian Urban Institute)

The scare tactic hasn’t worked yet in Toronto, where the mayor and his critics are locked in battle over yesterday’s programs and budgets, not tomorrow’s.

Mayor Ford, widely viewed as too stupid to know what’s going on, will win in the end if he diverts political attention from pro-active programs that prepare for the future, no matter how many skirmishes he loses in his bids to cut from the past.

Old hat as the issue may seem to some, the Canadian Urban Institute is trying to force that tiresome group, the baby boomers, into full frontal view once again—this time as the age group that has no place to go in a suburban metropolis made for people half their age and twice their physical resources and retirement income.

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Feb 15

Food & Water Watch Campaigns to Remove GE Corn from Walmart

Nourishing the Planet Agriculture, Food, Food safety, GE, GMO

By Jameson Spivack

Food & Water Watch recently launched a campaign to stop Walmart from selling Monsanto’s new breed of genetically engineered (GE) sweet corn. Monsanto has developed sweet corn that produces its own pesticides and resists herbicides.

Monsanto’s genetically engineered corn, which may be sold at Walmart, has never been tested for human safety, and would not require labels distinguishing it as GE. (Image credit: Food & Water Watch)

This is the first time Monsanto has marketed a genetically engineered crop for direct human consumption. There have been no studies about the potential health risks of the genetically engineered traits used in the corn. It also does not require labeling, so there is no way for shoppers to know if the corn they are buying is genetically engineered.

Food & Water Watch hopes to convince Walmart to prevent this harmful crop from appearing on its shelves through extensive campaigning. It has already collected over 70,000 petition signatures, made over 3,300 calls to Walmart customer service, and mobilized community support for the initiative. It has even created a social media project titled “Walsanto Watch” that chronicles the fictional romance between Walmart and Monsanto.

The group’s efforts will culminate in a national day of action in March, just before the April 1st deadline it has given Walmart to commit to not selling Monsanto’s corn. Walmart is the largest food retailer in the U.S., making its selling practices influential to farmers, sellers, and consumers alike.

To sign and share the petition, click here.

Jameson Spivack is a research intern with the Nourishing the Planet Project.

To read more about genetically engineered food see: Why GMOs Won’t Feed the World, Labels Matter, The GMO Debate Continues, The Debate Continues: The Economist Hosts Debate on the Compatibility of Biotechnology and Organic Agriculture, Understanding Consumers’ Responses to Genetic Engineering, and Food & Water Watch Wants You to Know Your Fish.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


Feb 14

Five Sustainably-Sourced Restaurants in the U.S.

Nourishing the Planet Agriculture, Farmers, Food, Health, Local, Nutrition, organic, Sustainable

By Stephanie Buglione

When most consumers think about making better food choices, they often reserve those changes for the home: smart choices at the grocery store, an occasional trip to the local farmers’ market, cutting back on meat, and substituting applesauce for butter in homemade recipes. But when diners walk through the doors of their favorite restaurants, these smart-eating policies tend to melt away into the indulgent abyss.

A delicious organic meal gobbled up at Back Forty in New York City. (Photo credit: Jess Damuck, Food=L.O.V.E. NYC blog)

But consumers can continue to use their purchasing power to support eco-friendly restaurants to support small-scale, organic, local farmers. And this is by no means a dietary sacrifice. Sustainably-sourced restaurants boast menus just as (or more!) elaborate and full of taste as their industrial farm-sourced counterparts.

Today, Nourishing the Planet presents five innovative restaurants in the United States that are providing delicious meals in a sustainable manner.

Washington, D.C.

1. Firefly: This whimsical, urban neighborhood restaurant is run by Executive Chef and General Manager Daniel Bortnick. The cuisine is a contemporary twist on American classics, like ‘cadillac grilled cheese with gruyere, cheddar, béchamel, and garlic-herb butter’ for lunch and ‘roasted organic chicken with collard greens and scarlett runner beans’ for dinner. Bortnick is committed to supporting local farmers and allowing the harvest of the season to guide these delectable menu options.

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Feb 13

Trader Joe’s and Coalition of Immokalee Workers Sign Fair Food Agreement

Nourishing the Planet Food, Labor, workers

Last week, on February 9, 2012—after a lengthy campaign of protests and letter-writing—grocery chain Trader Joe’s and The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) signed a fair food agreement that supports the fair pay and working conditions for tomato growers in Florida.

CIW and Orange County supporters outside a Trader Joe's. (Photo credit: OC Weekly)

The CIW is a community-based organization founded in 1993 by farmeworkers who wanted to organize and fight to end their brutal working conditions. Trader Joe’s is one of many food industry giants whom they have persuaded to join the Fair Food Program. The list includes restaurant chains such as Taco Bell, McDonald’s and food service companies such as Bon Appetit Management Co. and Compass Group. Trader Joe’s joins Whole Foods as the only two groceries to sign the agreement. 

Click here to read the press release.

To read more about the CIW and workers in the food industry: Modern Slavery Museum: Coming to a Street or City Near You, A Penny for Their Hard WorkFood Justice Discussion at Georgetown University, Food With (Not So Much) Integrity, ILWU Wins Fight for Union Dock Work in Longview, Washington, and Fighting for Farmworkers’ Rights for More Than 40 Years.

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


Feb 13

Pomme du Sahel: Hardy, Yet Delicious

Nourishing the Planet Africa, Agriculture, Food, Food Security, Indigenous, Indigenous Vegetables, Nutrition, Soil

By Jeffrey Lamoureux

La Pomme du Sahel, or Apple of the Sahel, is a fairly simple solution to a complex problem. The tree is native to the western Sahel desert, throughout Niger and Burkina Faso. On the windswept and heavily degraded soils of the Sahel, it is one of the few hardy trees that can survive and produce fruit. That makes it a crucial part of initiatives underway across the region to use trees to help restore the health of soil damaged by overgrazing and the clearing of perennial vegetation.

Pomme du Sahel is providing nutrition, while replenishing the soil, in the Sahel. (Photo credit: ICRISAT)

Often called Jujube, the wild tree produces a fruit that is small and difficult to eat, and tastes similar to a pineapple. Farmers, however, have largely overlooked the trees growing on their land because they consider its fruit fit only for consumption by goats. But the Jujube has been domesticated in India and the trees there produce a fruit ten times as big and much sweeter.

Sensing a possibility to combine the wild variety’s adaptation to the soil with the domesticated variety’s preferable fruit, Dov Pasternak formerly of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) began grafting the two varieties together. Grafting is done by splicing the top of one plant onto the roots of another. The resulting plants cannot reproduce, however, so each tree must be spliced individually (video in French).

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Feb 12

In Case You Missed it: This Week in Review

Nourishing the Planet Uncategorized

This week, we highlighted Thistle Farms, the social entrepreneurial arm of Magdalene, a two-year private rehab facility for women with criminal histories, where they learn to make therapeutic goods, such as bath and body oils as a means of rehabilitation. In this guest post, Director of the Makerere University Agricultural Research Institute, Moses Tenywa discussed the multiple economic and nutritional benefits that the indigenous crop amaranth provides farmers in Uganda. And in this post, we examined five private corporations, such as Kraft and PepsiCo, which are helping to reduce hunger around the world through partnerships with nonprofit and government organizations.

Photo credit: Bernard Pollack

We were at the Georgia College and State University’s Global Citizenship Symposium this past week, where project director, Danielle Nierenberg discussed the connection between sustainable agriculture and better health. Please click here to read the University’s student newspaper, The Colonnade’s article on the event.

Highlights from this past week:

Valentine’s Day has long celebrated love with caring notes, decadent chocolates, and romantic arrangements of flowers. But this Valentine’s Day, we celebrate with the gift so many of the world’s women desperately want and need: reproductive health. According to the United Nations, 1,000 women die every day due to pregnancy or childbirth—or one woman every 90 seconds. Ninety-nine percent of these deaths occur in the developing world, 90 percent in Africa and Asia. But the bulk of these deaths are preventable if women are given the care they need.

Genetic diversity, from microorganisms to large mammals, is being lost at a rapid rate—between 1,000 and 10,000 times higher than the natural rate, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature. To combat this dangerous biodiversity loss, the U. S. Department of Agriculture is updating and expanding its genetic resource database software, known as the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). In this post, Nourishing the Planet Advisory Group member, Dr. Cary Fowler, discussed how GRIN is changing the way the world views genetic diversity.

And our innovation of the week is the Pro-poor Rewards for Environmental Services in Africa (PRESA), a research project created by the World Agroforestry Centre to improve livelihoods by enhancing ecosystem services. PRESA works on eight sites in the highlands of East and West Africa and collaborates with national partners, research institutions, universities, and NGOs to generate and share information that supports payments for ecosystems. By rewarding environmental stewards, instead of punishing wrongdoers, PRESA uses market-based approaches to induce behavioral change among ecosystem stewards to reduce poverty and conserve the environment.

Now it’s your turn: What were your favorite posts from the week? What do you hope we’ll write about next week? Let us know in the comments!

To purchase State of the World 2011: Innovations that Nourish the Planet please click HERE. And to watch the one minute book trailer, click HERE.


Feb 11

Olivier De Schutter Discusses the Right to Food and the Need to Unite Food Movements

Nourishing the Planet Farmers, Food, Local, Policy, Sustainable

By Jameson Spivack

In a video addressing the importance of uniting food movements, UN Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter emphasizes the “right to food.” According to De Schutter, the idea of a “right to food” is essential in transforming our broken food system into a sustainable, ethical institution.

Olivier De Schutter, UN Special Rapporteur, advocates reforming the current global food system. (Photo credit: Die Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung)

Acknowledging the right to food will help bridge the gap between the many food movements calling for a change in our broken system. De Schutter highlights four main objectives shared by all food movements—returning to localized food production, addressing imbalances in the food chain, transitioning to more sustainable and agro-ecological practices, and creating a stronger role for citizens in shaping and controlling the food they eat.

Re-localizing food systems, includes linking local producers to local consumers, which fosters a relationship between farmer and buyer. When local food ties are strengthened, the transportation of food becomes much simpler and resource strain is minimized. In poor areas that depend heavily on expensive food imports, a return to local production and consumption means not only more employment opportunities, but also cheaper food prices and greater availability.

Currently, agricultural production is controlled mainly by large agri-business corporations that have the leverage to bully local farmers into selling at lower prices. By prioritizing local markets, says De Schutter, and empowering farmers to organize cooperatives, a higher value is placed on producers, and a more ethical food system can be established.

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