How Great are Cashews?
Cashew trees are known not only for their delicious nuts but also for their numerous benefits that cut across nutrition, economics, and the environment.
Food & Water featured
Another England, or Another Rome?
The present global meta-crisis seems certain to affect not just global politics but also the underlying structure of global politics in the existing system of nation-states. What’s the outlook for modern nation-states as the crisis unfolds?
The transformative power of Urban Recipe’s Atlanta food co-op model
Members don’t just receive food; they gain a voice, a role, and a support network that extends far beyond the distribution line. This approach challenges the traditional food charity model and offers a blueprint for building stronger, more resilient communities grounded in cooperation and shared responsibility.
Tir The Story of the Welsh Landscape: Excerpt
So what is this Welsh cultural attitude and why does it matter so much in a book about the history of the landscape? In summary, it is the deeply held conviction that the land and its people are inextricably intertwined.
Rethinking Rewilding: or, re-farming and the right to plant
The word ‘rewilding’ has had its day and now needs to slip gracefully into retirement. That, at any rate, is the polite suggestion I’m going to make in this post, which is the last in my recent mini-series on ‘wrecked’ land and what to do about it.
The Humble Carrot’s Colorful History
The world’s love of carrots and the importance of color in different societies and food cultures means the many traditional varieties grown for centuries will continue to thrive alongside modern cultivars, which are the product of sophisticated modern plant breeding techniques.
Can we do without them?
In this last in my series of nitrogen articles, I turn to the question if we can do without synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.
N-wrecked
The way that humans have messed with the Earth’s carbon cycle rightly figures as planetary eco-problem No.1 in public debate, but the way we’ve messed with its nitrogen cycle probably ought to get more attention than it does.
Letter from the Farm: Strong Roots for a Surer Future
Investing in a small family farm is much more than an economic consideration: it can help to revitalise an entire village. Rural communities are rooted in multi-generational family farms.
After Cape Town will a breakdown of confidence bring ‘Day Zero’ to Mexico City and Bogotá?
As climate change proceeds apace, more and more cities will face serious water shortages. Will they be able to cope?
You are what you eat
Soils and human health are both very complex systems and the systems are dynamic, which means that it is very difficult to establish a direct causality between the use of nitrogen and any, positive or negative, effects on human health.
C-wrecked: agrarian transition as politics, Part 2
Making too big a deal about the specific commodity in a given place – such as sheep in upland Wales – risks missing the bigger picture of a general overproduction in the global agricultural and wider economy. But if we really want to name the culprits in these wider economies, pride of place would have to go to fossil fuels, cereal grains and grain legumes.