I was doubly pleased to see this report up at the BBC. Not only does it break with the “immigrants: string ‘em up” tone endemic to British journalism on the subject, but it makes direct connections between the food system and migration. Keep Reading »
The Meatrix turned over 10 million people on to the dangers of industrial agriculture. Even if its final message (‘buy organic’) didn’t quite get to the heart of the trouble with the food system today, it was vastly entertaining, and a great Food System 101 course in just over two minutes.
The killing in computer games isn’t all ‘blast’em with your BFG’ or ‘cast a spell with the Blade of Thringgarrr’. You can now administer an unpleasant end using nothing more than some misplaced pig shit.
Two new games have brought food system politics to cyberspace. In Bacteria Salad, your mission is to produce spinach and tomatoes without poisoning your consumers. And chances to poison there are a-plenty, what with your fields ravaged by loose-bladdered cows, pigs and ‘agroterrorists’. The politics of the game are pretty raggedy, and it gets dull quickly, but worth having a look at just to hear the priceless line Keep Reading »
In China, a supermarket has introduced a brand new, whizzbang up to the minute supermarket format – one in which shoppers sit in an electric rollercoaster car and are whizzed around the store, slowing to pluck goodies from the aisles.
The Times of India carries a story of what it calls “perhaps the first case of farmer suicide in Gujarat,”, in which “a debt-ridden farmer in Shera village of Bharuch district died on Monday by consuming pesticide.”
What do you get when you put together Fox News, the titan of mass media mendacity, with Monsanto’s truth-bending talent?
The exodus of people, particularly youth and women, from rural to urban areas has left male farmers in South Korea loveless. Entrepreneurs have stepped in to fill the gap.
Posters on the lampposts in Yangbuk declare: “Get a new life – marry a Vietnamese lady! You can pay later!”
Wal-Mart has just announced that it’s moving into India, partnering with Indian telecoms giant Bharti Enterprises. The Financial Times today reports that
Allowing in Wal-Mart through the back door will test the government’s determination to open the economy. By some
estimates, the Indian retail sector is worth $250bn, roughly a third of India’s entire gross domestic product.
With sales of more than $312bn last year, Wal-Mart benefits from massive scale economies and an ability to procure
globally, squeezing suppliers.
Indian “mom and pop” stores, by contrast, tend to be below 50 sq ft in size, run from stalls and mobile handcarts
and scattered across more than 5,000 towns and 600,000 villages. They are adept at holding the political class to
ransom.
“Over the next two-three years, the development in the retail sector may not have a significant impact on the
existing mom and pop shops,” says Morgan Stanley economist Chetan Ahya. “However, in the medium term, as the
reach of chain stores increases, some adverse impact on mom and pop shops is inevitable.”
The BBC, quite rightly, asks “Are fast foods really any worse for us than posher alternatives?”. Comparing similar meals at KFC and Nando’s, Domino’s and Pizza Express, and McDonald’s and Ed’s Diner, the second, more upmarket chain comes in more expensive, and wiht more calories. So why is it that the cheaper option gets a bad rap?
Paul Campos and friends have a good answer. In an important article in the International Journal of Epidemiology, Campos et al note that:
The Guardian carries a story on the attempts by the British telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, to ban the advertising of junk food to children. How do they administer the ban? Keep Reading »
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