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 »
Here’s something I’ve been keeping an eye on – the rising price of food in Mexico. There’s a great deal more going on than recent coverage suggests. It’s not simply a case of corn biofuel purchasing in the US causing a price rise in Mexico. The market isn’t operating that straightforwardly. Here’s one of the better analyses about it in English. It’s up at Portside but I’ve re-posted it here, in full. I’m hoping to be able to plug the gaps in this analysis, with articles in La Jornada like this one by Alejandro Nadal. In the meantime, though, here’s the basic 411.
The Financial Times yesterday carried this announcement, on the expansion of the empire of supermarkets in India.
India opens western-style supermarkets
It’s a sign. As I write this post, two of Michael Pollan’s books – The Botany of Desire and The Omnivore’s Dilemma have randomly been spat out into the right column there by the LibraryThing widget.
Microsoft has now launched its new operating system – Windows Vista. Within a year, 100 million computers will be running it. The code underneath the hood of the operating system is a tightly kept secret. There’s no way to fix it if it’s broken, other than to wait for Microsoft to come out with a patch. Indeed, most users won’t have a choice about whether they want it – it’ll come standard with new computers. Unlike free, open source software, Vista will depends for its adoption on market domination, heavy advertising, and unforgiving software license contracts that force businesses to upgrade to it.
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