OP-ED: Organic Farming Movement Marginal but Growing Worldwide
Check out this op-ed published in the Inter Press Service news agency, about Worldwatch’s recent Vital Signs report on organic agriculture.
The article discusses the benefits and opportunities of organic farming worldwide. Irganic farmland has grown more than threefold since 1999; in this time, certified organic products have created a niche market, allowing farmers to earn premium prices over conventional products, particularly when selling to supermarkets or restaurants.
To read the full article, click here.
This week in Des Moines, the World Food Prize Foundation is celebrating Dr. Daniel Hillel’s critical work in micro-irrigation in the Middle East. As Iowa and many parts of the United States suffer from prolonged and severe drought, it is quickly becoming clear that conserving water use in agriculture can play a key role in sustainable food production.
The food industry could be a powerful player in ensuring food security – and that makes sense from both an ethical and a business perspective, according to Nierenberg.
Nourishing the Planet, the article writes, “has an overall fresh new look and feel to their site and they run several informative food and agriculture blogs.”
Unequal access to healthy foods is a serious issue in London—obesity disproportionately impacts poor families who can afford only cheap, processed foods. Thankfully, a number of organizations, like London Food Bank and Community Harvest Ontario, are helping low-income children gain access to healthy foods.
Indiana gets a bad grade for childhood obesity and malnutrition. In 2011, 15 percent of Indiana high school students were considered obese, meaning their body mass index was at or above the 95th percentile. Fortunately, schools can play a key role to reverse this trend and reinforce healthy eating behaviors. By emphasizing hands-on nutrition education, such as school garden projects and classroom cooking demonstrations, and by providing fresh, local fruits and vegetables in cafeterias, schools can encourage students to improve their diets.
It’s almost time for kids to go back to school. But for many children in Montreal, this means a return to unhealthy school lunches that jeopardize their health and well-being. Schools can play a key role in reversing this trend and reinforcing healthy eating behaviors.
For many children in Austin and around the country, heading back to school means a return to terribly unhealthy school lunches fried chicken, pizza pockets, corn dogs, and desserts loaded with high-fructose corn syrup. But by emphasizing hands-on nutrition education, such as school garden projects and classroom cooking demonstrations, and by providing fresh, local fruits and vegetables in cafeterias, schools can encourage students to improve their diets.
The article focuses on innovative school lunch and nutrition programs in Buffalo, New York. Childhood obesity rates in the county are higher than average—15-20 percent of children aged 2 to 4 are obese, compared to a statewide rate of 10-15 percent—but a growing commitment to fresh, nutritious, and local foods, as part of the national Farm to School movement, is making kids healthier. As childhood obesity and malnutrition affect more and more of our nation’s children, communities and schools play an increasingly important role in setting healthy eating habits and lifestyles.