Although I don’t make a habit of reproducing press releases in their entirety, this one’s germane enough, and unlikely enough to be anywhere else, to warrant a posting here.
It comes from the Nyéléni : the 2007 World Summit on Food Sovereignty, and it shows how farmers in the US and the rest of the world, have far more in common than we’re led to believe. Keep Reading »
The New York Times recently carried the following story on protests in India: Keep Reading »
Last week, KFC asked the Pope to bless its new Fish Snacker(tm) sandwich. It’s Lent, you see. Many Catholics have begun to fast for forty days. It’s forty days without meat. It’s forty days with more fish. And it’s forty days of profit opportunity for the food company with the right connections.
Over at Cook Here and Now Marco has posted a beautiful manifesto for the enjoyment of food. He makes, quite correctly, a connection between food and sex. Despite the fact that its residents eat so much of it, the US is still fairly priggish about enjoying food. Pleasure in eating is still a sin. Licking your plate clean is venal. If we’re to believe the adverts, food is more a vehicle for nutrition than anything else. Marco celebrates the fact that food is inescapably sensuous. Read his vision here.
Yes, I’ve just come back from one international conference, having cast a few (and soon many more) aspersions on it. But not all such gigs are lamentable. Via Campesina’s African organisations are mounting a major colloquium on food sovereignty in Mali later this month. The forum, oddly enough, is called “Nyéléni 2007″. Here’s a short gloss explaining why. Keep Reading »
Lester Crawford was the most senior offical at the Food and Drug Administration, from February 2002 to his resignation in September 2005. His departure, to join the lobbying firm Policy Directions, Inc coincided with accusations that he’d been less than straight in his disclosures of interest, hiding the fact that he owned a great deal of stock in companies that he regulated. His recent guilty plea gives grounds to be concerned whether regulatory authorities really have the best interests of the public at heart.
One of the reasons it has been a slow week here at Stuffed and Starved is that I’ve been busy editing the final draft of the book. Inevitably, editing means cutting things. And one of the cuts concerns the reign of biopiracy in Africa. If you don’t know what biopiracy or intellectual property rights mean for the poor, this post offers an introduction. I was sad to lose it from the book, because it showed how The Economist has done an about face on intellectual property – it now supports them, when once it didn’t. Its original arguments were stronger.
It’s a classic stand-off. The environmentalists want to save a toad, or a lizard, or a butterfly. Industry wants to use the land for something else. With a cry of “jobs, or lizards?”, and with large wads of lobbying cash, industry rallies politicians to their cause.
A link that’s going to get more and more coverage here at Stuffed and Starved is that between climate change and the world food system. The best resource for anyone interested in finding out how the way we eat is hostage to fossil fuels, is this article by Richard Manning over at Harpers. Keep Reading »
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