Eric Schlosser was one of the heroes on stage at Slow Food Nation here in San Francisco this weekend. He was, relentlessly, the only person who demanded that labour be treated with dignity. His friendly critique of Slow Food Nation is up at, appropriately enough, The Nation. And reposted below... ... read more »

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Posted on 5 September, 2008 - 17:43

It's a tried and tested solution - the British were using it so that the poor could feed themselves, but it's heartening nonetheless that the idea of community gardens is catching on. Below the fold, the story of Mexico City's new community gardens. ... read more »

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Posted on 5 September, 2008 - 17:41

This post falls firmly in the 'shameless self-promotion' category, but I'm really pleased and proud that San Francisco's literary festival, Litquake, is hosting a conversation between me and Molly Watson about the future of food, on October 10th. The best bit: we'll be having our discussion in the new California Academy of Sciences, which is one of the most beautiful buildings I've ever seen. ... read more »

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Posted on 2 September, 2008 - 05:50

George Monbiot writes below, eloquently as ever, about the rapaciousness of the European Union. In particular, he trains his sights on how EU policies are harming African fisheries. (Veteran Stuffed & Starved readers will remember the BBC covering this from a slightly different angle.)

But you know things are fairly far gone when Monbiot's analysis is adopted by a senior UN official, and reported in the Financial Times. Jacques Diouf, director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, puts it a little impenetrably:

"The risk is of creating a neo-colonial pact for the provision of non-value-added raw materials in the producing countries and unacceptable work conditions for agricultural workers.

But it's the same sentiment as Monbiot's. Below the fold, Monbiot parses out what, exactly, neo-colonialism means. ... read more »

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Posted on 26 August, 2008 - 23:34

Here's a piece with which I'm particularly pleased, which just came out as a commentary in this month's Radical Philosophy. ... read more »

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Posted on 25 August, 2008 - 15:58

Photo Credit: Limonada

I think what disturbs me about this Reuters news piece even more than the Let them Eat Mud story that I posted about mud cake consumption in Haiti, is that the government in Bihar, India, is actively promoting it.

Just to be clear. It's official government policy for people to eat rats. (The full story here and below.)

It's a useful case to ruminate over. What is it, after all, that's so appalling here? Clearly the idea of eating vermin is, by definition, distasteful, but what a culture decides is edible, and what is pestilent, isn't written in our DNA. As we used to chorus in Sociology 101: "it's a social construct". Some think pork is as dirty as rat. Some think that by renaming pigeons as 'squab', they'll taste better.

That people are eating rodents isn't the only thing that should turn our stomachs, though. The Bihari government endorsement of rat-eating is simultaneously a sign of defeat. They've given up on fighting poverty so that people can afford to eat. Given up on trying to protect the grain harvests with decent infrastructure. Given up, almost, on their people.

In a time of scarce resources and rising hunger, rat-eating becomes a handy technical fix. After all, what is rat-eating but a technology to increase nutrition and eliminate the use of pesticides and the need for secure grain storage?

And if we're appalled by this, and we should be, then how different is this from the logic that justifies Golden Rice? After all, doesn't golden rice become useful only when governments have resigned themselves to the fact that the only thing people can afford to eat is rice? That the healthcare system can't be resuscitated? That the best technology to fix the problem is one that doesn't address it?

_______________________ ... read more »

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Posted on 20 August, 2008 - 15:27

While this post isn't exactly about food, it is about the hypocrisy with which developed countries pretend to fight hunger on the one hand, and cause it on the other.

This is a graph of what embassies pay their security staff in Zambia. In none of the cases does the pay meet the requirements to feed a family of six in Lusaka, according to a union report. Predictably, at the bottom of the list, paying six times less than what a family needs to survive, is the World Bank. The full list, from best paying to worst, below the fold. ... read more »

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Posted on 20 August, 2008 - 14:53

Here's another fine article from Walden Bello, reposted from Business Daily Africa

Africa’s food crisis the handiwork of IMF, World Bank

Walden Bello

Despite being a net food exporter at independence, Africa now imports 25 per cent of her food from donors.

August 18, 2008: At the time of decolonisation in the 1960s, Africa was not just self-sufficient in food but was actually a net food exporter.

Its exports averaged 1.3 million tonnes a year between 1966-70. But today, the continent imports 25 per cent of its food, with almost every country being a net food importer. ... read more »

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Posted on 18 August, 2008 - 19:16

The Financial Times has a nice wee mini-site on the food crisis, here. Some good data to be had, if you're looking...

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Posted on 18 August, 2008 - 16:40

Photo Credit kylita

I've just finished reading an excellent book on shit. Entitled
The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters, and written by Rose George, it's an investigation of the ways in which humanity does, or doesn't, clean up after itself. The book is a splendid blend of anthropology, sociology, economics, and toilet humour, written in a style that, above all, is clean. It's tremendously readable, highly recommended, and after reading it, your porcelain throne will never seem the same again.

What's the connection between food and what food becomes when we're done with it (other than the obvious one)? ... read more »

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Posted on 18 August, 2008 - 15:07