In his new book, Max Ajl makes the case for putting agriculture and the Third World's struggles for self-determination at the heart of environmental politics.
Could depletion of fertile soil trigger a bigger U.S. food crisis?
By Ted Kelly posted on March 9, 2021
U.S. farmland in the Midwest has lost over one-third of the soil necessary to sustain crop production, according to scientists at University of Massachusetts, Amherst. The study concluded that fertile soil has been destroyed not as a result of natural wind and water erosion, but by a century of overplowing. (tinyurl.com/wps8c99c)
Topsoil is the “black, organic, [carbon and mineral] rich soil that’s really good for growing crops,” said Evan Thaler, Ph.D. student at UMass. Topsoil accumulates over centuries and is teeming with microorganisms.
Blake Yarger Named Winemaker for Big Basin Vineyards
Posted on February 24, 2021
Boulder Creek, Calif. Blake Yarger has been promoted to Winemaker at Big Basin Vineyards, officially assuming the job title for a role that he has been sharing with Bradley Brown for the past year. Yarger has responsibility for the full portfolio of the highly acclaimed Big Basin Vineyard wines and will continue his heavy involvement in vineyard management.
“Promoting Blake to Winemaker was a no-brainer for me,” says Founder and Owner, Bradley Brown. “When we hired Blake as Assistant Winemaker in 2017, he already had almost 10 years of winemaking and cellar experience. We have worked side-by-side for four harvests at Big Basin, and I have come to trust and value Blake’s knowledge, opinions and integrity.
From urban farming to sustainable design, young people could be set to enter a new world of work as green careers are set to expand in the next decade..
No sooner had Brexit been approved, than the GMO lobby shifted up a few gears Details
Discussion around new GMOs should be chance to ask uncomfortable questions about research and innovation, not sneer at non-GMO-believers, say professors
In the article below from the Belgian press, four professors (from schools of law, philosophy of science, and bioengineering) warn that Brexit shouldn t be a reason for deregulating new GMOs.
They make a number of extremely important points. Among them, that the driving force behind deregulation in Britain and parts of Europe – they focus on Belgium – is not really the issues that are flagged up (the hype about silver-bullet solutions to agricultural problems), but the lobbying power of Big Ag, together with an obsession at the national level with competitive advantage.