A Sad Day as the Curtain Closes for the Leopold Center
The Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture has had it’s funding cut by the state of Iowa. A big chunk of sustainable agriculture research capacity will be lost.
Articles by Marc Brazeau
(Practically) Nobody is Anti-Science
As I was at the Portland, OR March for Science today, I walked past a woman who had cornered me at a March Against Monsanto rally a few years back. She had very misinformed, conspiratorial views about biotech in agriculture and when she spied my I ♥ GMOs sticker on my shirt today, she gave me a side eye and I could see her trying to decide whether to challenge me again. It was a little jarring, but not at all surprising to bump into someone who I knew rejected the scientific consensus on more than one issue at a March for Science. This essay looks at why that’s the case and how to process that fact and try to put it to some productive use.
The FAFDL Earth Day Reader
In honor of Earth Day, I thought it would be a good opportunity to gather together some of our most salient pieces on the environment and the food system. The pieces are grouped into three main sections: agriculture, food waste, and oceans. – MB
Farming or Gardening? What’s the Difference?
Food historian Rachel Laudan unpacks the historical differences between gardening and farming and the important roles they have played in different cultures. The “digging stick” vs the “plough”.
#Cargillgate Dissonance
When Cargill announced on Twitter that they had partnered with the Non GMO Project all hell broke lose in the agvocacy community in a way that seemed out of proportion to the crime. The problem may stem from a breach of trust within a coalition than the real world impacts.
Race and the Proletarianization of the American Farmer
Despite contributions made by African Americans, the most recent Census of Agriculture found that of the 2.2 million farms in the United States, 83 percent have white males as principal operators; African Americans constitute only 1.4 percent of principal farm operators
A Three Legged Stool or Four Legged Table for Development?
If cash transfers replace in kind contributions in development, will essential services be lost? Can the development community transition to a fee for service model?
Recipe: Roasted Tofu
This is a recipe I use a lot so that I have tasty chunks of tofu to toss in anything from lo mein to kung pao tofu to cold peanut noodles to a bean burrito. It works anywhere that you might use chunks of chicken (except maybe for chicken salad). It’s super easy, so calling it a ‘recipe’ is probably a stretch.
Ask a Farmer: Thomas Duffy – Dairy Farm, County Cavan, Ireland
” I farm about 55ha (136 acres) of good ground. I am in a partnership with my mother, Kathleen, and my father, Ned. We have a 10-unit Dairymaster parlour for milking. We have 90 cows milking at the moment. They are a mix of Norwegian Red, Jerseys, Montbéliarde X and pedigree Holsteins. “
What Uganda’s Seed Problems Tell Us About How to Develop Dynamic Markets
The dysfunction of Uganda seed markets and aid efforts gives a number of lessons on ways that markets, regulation, and aid efforts fall into familiar traps over and over. They also point the way past those traps.
3 Ways to Move the Goal Posts on GMOs and Defend Your Position Without Getting Caught (very often)
Do you feel like the person on the other end of a conversation about GMOs isn’t playing fair? Recognize three common strategies for moving the goal posts on the subject and keep the conversation on point. You may not change anyone’s mind but you’ll feel a lot more sane.
Why Giving Surplus Food to Charities is Not a Solution to Food Poverty
A key danger of charity food aid is the de-politicisation of hunger. As the charity sector mobilises to meet this need, there is less pressure on the government to address the root causes of food poverty, which are essentially income related.
Jayson Lusk Answers Your Ag Econ Questions | The FAFDL Interview
Jayson Lusk has researched and written extensively on the impact of the Farm Bill and agricultural subsidies. Jayson joined the FAFDL community last fall for a Q&A on ag economics.
Holiday FAFDL Fundraiser
Hello readers! We appreciate your support and we hope you value what we do at Food and Farm Discussion Lab. Please consider becoming a supporting […]
The Challenges and Economics of Local Seafood (Local Anything)
A little while back Civil Eats ran a story on local efforts in North Carolina to bolster the incomes of local fishermen by connecting them […]
Mental Maps and Power Law Distributions in the Food System
In the organic/conventional debate, you’d think that organic production made up a significant portion of sales and production. In spite of the column inches devoted to discussing organic farming, it only accounts for about 5% of grocery sales, despite two decades of rapid growth. But even that masks how little organic production actually accounts for in the overall scheme of things.
Diversification Practices Boosts Organic Yields. They Turbocharge Conventional Yields.
A new paper shows that when organic farmers employ the conservation agriculture techniques of diverse rotations and growing in polycultures, we see the gap closes to around 9 percent. However, when conventional farmers also employ the same conservation techniques that boost organic yields, the gap widens to over 20 percent. So, why didn’t the authors promote this finding?
Thanksgiving Reader 2016
• The DES MOINES REGISTER reports that it will cost 24 cents less to prepare a typical Thanksgiving dinner this year, according to the American […]
“The fridge is outside. It’s quite big.” – Making Grilled Cheese in Antartica
“We need salami. For that we need to go to the fridge.” “Where’s the fridge?” “The fridge is outside. It’s quite big.”
Tales of a Recovering Pollanite
So I was a chef with left wing politics, a former union organizer and farm worker, and an armchair nutritionist when I started stumbling across various voices from the Food Movement some time around 2005. It’s hard to imagine someone better primed for a message of sustainable agriculture, grassroots activism, local economics, and low income community food security. Being a Massachusetts born union organizer who lived in cities but often worked in rural communities in the South has irrevocably scrambled my cultural allegiances in ways that would eventually play havoc with my loyalties in the debates the Food Movement had started. But I’m getting ahead of myself.