Dr. Wayne Roberts spoke on food policy and a new vision for cities at Toledo Library in the US. As always his witty humour is always a hit. The photos he uses in the presentation are also quite insightful. Dr. Roberts also proposes hopeful solutions and answers to fixing cities and the food system. If you want the quick written summary you can read it below.
Watch the full video and get the quick written summary at FoodCycles.org.
(Photo via Amazon)
Author John Wargo talks about how humans act to put greedy profit making ahead of people’s health and the environment and how it has to change in his latest book, Green Intelligence.
People, pollution and profits – opinion – 02 November 2009 – New Scientist: “Wargo blames air pollution for the 74 per cent increase in asthma among young children in the US between 1980 and 1995. This is one of a series of well-sourced examples in Green Intelligence that Wargo gives in support of his contention that governments and regulatory agencies have failed to protect us from pollution.”
Get the book through Yale University Press or Amazon.
Recent research shows that salmon farms leads to a 50% higher amount of deaths of wild salmon in an area for every new generation of fish. Previous studies have shown that farmed salmon also breed with wild salmon while spreading diseases and worse. The researchers suggest better farm management however that’s tough because fish farming is getting so huge.
Salmon farming killing off wild salmon | Practical Fishkeeping magazine: “Salmon farming is slowly killing off wild salmon, according to a recent study by Canadian scientists. “
You can read the article about it here.
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Salmon lice from farmed fish could wipe out wild Salmon
(Photo via Practical Fishkeeping)
A recent study found that salmon farming is better than beef farming though not by much. In fact UK’s salmon farming was the worst of the lot while Norway’s salmon farms scored the best. In fact if Norway (or any salmon farm) were to switch to more plant feed instead of feeding ground animals they could cut the environmental destruction in half.
Salmon’s ecological finprint measured – environment – 04 November 2009 – New Scientist: “Overall, salmon farming has been a food success story: global production has soared from 500 tonnes a year in 1970 to 1.5 million tonnes today. But it also consumes energy, pollutes coastal waters and depletes populations of the smaller fish on which the salmon are fed.”
(Photo via Sydney Morning Herald)
Breast feeding mothers had their pictures banned as “obscene content” by Facebook in 2007. I wonder if this issue ever got solved? As things go online the idea of privacy and what’s acceptable or not is being pushed to the limit.
Facebook ban incurs ‘lactivist’ wrath – web – Technology – smh.com.au: “Thousands of Facebook members are on the warpath after the social networking site removed images of breastfeeding mums and banned others for posting ‘obscene content’.
They call themselves ‘lactivists’ and say Facebook’s practices are discriminatory.
Facebook’s hardline stance on what its members can publish on their profiles is somewhat hypocritical given that it was caught running an image of a topless model in a banner ad for a dating service.
The mothers, many from Australia, started a petition in the form of a Facebook group called ‘Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!‘. The group now has almost 7000 members.”
In fact it kind of reminds me of the controversy over gardening on front lawns. Weird, eh? Oh and their group size is nearly 250,000 today.
So what do you think are acceptable photos for Facebook? That aren’t obviously pictures of drunken madness and the stuff you know shouldn’t be up on a social network?
Facebook ban incurs ‘lactivist’ wrath
Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene!
(Photo via LifeDev)
According to a recent PEW survey, Internet, mobile phones, Facebook and Twitter don’t actually increase loneliness at all. In fact, the survey finds that people using these things actually have more varied and interesting social circles (compared to your real life ones for some) — you might talk with people you’d never have bothered or had time to know in real life.
Get the full post and download links at Sunny Lam & Associates.
(Photo via MailOnline)
Simon Enoch talks about how economic crises (caused by our really messed up banking system this time) are often used as an excuse to cut important public social services. These cuts were totally un-necessary and were used to make people even more vulnerable to mean business practices in the market and work place.
Canadian Centre For Policy Alternatives – Parting Shots: The Coming Austerity: “Canadians have seen this before. During the supposed ‘debt crisis’ of the 1990s, the common refrain was that Canada would face outright bankruptcy and International-Monetary-Fund-imposed austerity unless it pursued a vigorous gutting of all things public. Paul Martin’s infamous 1995 budget did just that, sacrificing 45,000 civil service jobs, privatizing CN Rail and Petro-Canada, slashing federal transfers to the provinces and transforming unemployment insurance into the woefully inadequate program it is today.
Progressive economist Jim Stanford argues that much of this belt-tightening was not only unneces sary, but ultimately damaging to the Canadian economy. As Stanford documents, Canada could have reached its deficit reduction targets through economic growth alone, without having to endure the draconian cuts to our social programs. Stanford concludes that the $50 billion in public programs and assets that were sacrificed to the deficit gods would have ‘made an incredible difference to the concrete quality of Canadians’ lives’ had they remained invested in public services and assets.”
(Photo via TravelBlog)
Localwashing: How corporate America is co-opting “local”: “HSBC, one of the biggest banks on the planet, has taken to calling itself ‘the world’s local bank.’ Starbucks is removing its name from at least three of its Seattle outlets, the first of which just reopened as ‘15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.’ Winn-Dixie, a 500-outlet supermarket chain, recently launched a new ad campaign under the tagline ‘Local flavor since 1956.’ The International Council of Shopping Centers, a consortium of mall owners and developers, has poured millions of dollars into television ads urging people to ‘Shop Local’—at their nearest mall.”
(Photo via VatorNews)
Lobbyists Accused of Blocking Climate Change Efforts | BNET Energy Blog | BNET: “Could lobbyists really be working against the greater good? Say it ain’t so.
The Center for Public Integrity says it is so. The organization sent out a team of reporters to eight countries starting this July, with the intent of figuring out just how much paid industry lobbyists are affecting the debate on climate change. The answer: a whole lot.
In the United States alone the number of lobbyists working on climate change issues has blossomed to 2,800, four times the number that existed six years ago, fielded by companies like ExxonMobil.”
(Photo via The Concordian by Cameron Fenton)
The Concordian – Chaos on Capital Hill: “Over 1,000 youth from across Canada gathered in Ottawa on the weekend of Oct. 23-26 for a conference on climate change. The Power Shift conference was organized by the Canadian Youth Climate Coalition and consisted of lectures, discussions, training and lobbying. On the last day, participants were invited to partake in a question and answer period at the House of Commons with elected Members of Parliament and Senators. The goal was to encourage MPs to make bold moves towards fighting climate change in Canada, to put money towards the creation of new green jobs and to see to it that Canada takes on a leadership role at the upcoming United Nations meeting in Copenhagen where a revised international deal regarding climate change will be signed. However, the conference took an unexpected twist during Monday’s question and answer session when actions by a group of protesters got out of hand, culminating in the forced removal of over 120 people from the House of Commons as well as two injuries and five arrests. “
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