By Danielle, on February 3rd, 2010%
A few weeks ago, Caitlin Flanagan published an article in The Atlantic about how programs like Alice Water’s Edible Schoolyard are damaging the most vulnerable students in the US school systems. I’m not going to write my own rebuttal of the piece here, but I do like a lot of what was written at the Serious Eater’s website.
I bristle a bit at articles that try to explain the negative impacts of local food education (especially curriculums that integrate exploration in a school garden with the set subjects for a grade) because I credit Alice Waters with my wanderings into the local and sustainable food movement.
When I was a freshman at Yale University, a close friend and suitemate of mine was part of the team that first acquired the grant money and land in New Haven to start Yale’s very own on-campus farm. Our dining halls started serving local and organic greens and meat. We had lectures and seminars on campus with agriculture rock stars like Joel Salatin and Kelly Brownell. I’d never heard of organic agriculture or most of the issues involved in food production before making my way to university. I even remember a discussion in a supermarket near my dorm room that started like this:
Continue reading Growing Minds in a Garden
By David Van Seters, on January 28th, 2010%
As someone who believes passionately in buying locally from small, independent farms and producers, my interest was peaked when I first heard about a new book titled, “Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller.” I thought I had a pretty good idea of what the book would be about and expected that it would be written by an environmental or energy policy expert. I was wrong on both accounts.
Firstly, the book contained a great deal of information that I had never come across before and, secondly, the book’s author, Jeff Rubin, is actually the chief economist at an investment bank called CIBC World Markets. You’d think that a guy who is focused on world markets would hardly be a candidate to write a book about how the world will soon become small and local.
However, as I read the book, I began to understand why Jeff wrote it. You see, one of his jobs as an economist was to predict future oil prices. He had compiled data for over a decade to back up his predictions and they increasingly led him to the conclusion that oil prices were going to rise dramatically in the near future due to dwindling supplies and increasing demand.
In fact, he was almost laughed off the stage at a national petroleum club meeting in 2000 when he predicted that oil would reach $50 per barrel within five years. However, five years later when he returned to give a new forecast, no one was snickering any more because the price of West Texas crude had just crossed the $50 mark. Jeff then proceeded to once again expose himself to ridicule and derision by making an even more audacious prediction: that oil prices would rise to $100 within 2 years. Once again history proved him correct and, in fact, in 2008, they actually surpassed $140 per barrel.
Continue reading It's going to be a small world, afterall
By David Van Seters, on January 8th, 2010%
We did a quick poll in the right hand column of this blog regarding topics you’d like to read about and the highest votes were for articles on our food system. We are happy to oblige and will include a variety of articles on food policy and the food system this year.
You’d think that something as . . . → Read More: Food security finally getting government focus
By David Van Seters, on November 27th, 2009%
I few weeks ago I heard an interesting speaker at a luncheon that I thought you would enjoy hearing about. His name is Art Hister, a medical doctor who has given up private practice to dispense healthy advice on radio and TV programs. He has also written a number of books including, “Dr. Art Hister’s guide . . . → Read More: Media Doctor Dispenses Health Advice with Humor
By David Van Seters, on July 3rd, 2009%
All of us are probably guilty of produce discrimination at the grocery store; choosing only produce items that look perfect while shunning those that aren’t as shapely even though they are equally nutritious. However, I was shocked to learn recently that our produce prejudices are so engrained that in both Europe and North America government . . . → Read More: Putting aside our produce prejudices
By David Van Seters, on June 17th, 2009%
In my blog entry on April 17, I shared my sudden urge to plant an organic garden at the side of my house. Two months have passed and, as you can see from the photo above, my garden is doing really well despite getting less than 4 hours of direct sunlight each day. I have already . . . → Read More: An update on my organic garden
