How many times have you gone to a restaurant and not been able to finish your whole meal? Or worse, taken home the leftovers only to throw them out after several days of them sitting untouched in the refrigerator?
Innovation of the Week: Tobacco as an Organic Pesticide
April 25, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Health concerns over tobacco use have hurt tobacco farmers—the number of farms growing tobacco in the United States dropped from 512,000 in 1954 to 56,977 in 2002. But the poisonous quality of tobacco could help farmers enter the pesticide market.
Innovation of the Week: Greening the Desert
March 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there are 1 billion hungry people in the world, most of who live in poor rural areas. As the world’s population is set to hit 7 billion, policy-makers are struggling to find ways to nourish our planet’s growing population.
Global Meat Production and Consumption Continue to Rise
November 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Global meat production and consumption have increased rapidly in recent decades, with harmful effects on the environment and public health as well as on the economy, according to research done by Worldwatch Institute’s Nourishing the Planet project for Vital Signs Online.
Farming the cities, feeding an urban future
July 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment
As people move from rural to urban settings in search of economic opportunities, urban agriculture is becoming an important provider of both food and employment, according to researchers with the Worldwatch Institute.
Targeting Gaps in the Food Supply Chain: Going Beyond Agricultural Production to Achieve Food Security
July 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Agricultural production is only the first step in moving the world’s food from farm to fork, according to Nourishing the Planet, a project of the Worldwatch Institute. The other links in the food chain—harvesting, packaging, storing, transporting, marketing, and selling—ensure that food actually reaches consumers. Inefficiencies in these activities, rather than just low yields or [...]
Reducing Food Waste: Making the Most of Our Abundance
July 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment
According to staggering new statistics from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), roughly one-third of the food produced worldwide for human consumption is lost or wasted, amounting to some 1.3 billion tons per year.
Innovation of the Week: Community Seed Banks to Empower Women and Protect Biodiversity
May 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment
For fifteen years, Muniyamma, a farmer in Karnataka, India, practiced agriculture with the help of agro-chemicals, such as chemical fertilizers and pesticides, but in recent years she noticed a drastic decrease in yield.
What works: Making the Most of Small Spaces
April 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment
More of the world’s people live in cities–according to the United Nations by 2050, approximately 70 percent of humans will be urban-dwelling. And at least 800 million people worldwide practice urban agriculture today.
Innovation of the Week: Barefoot College Empowers in More Ways than One
April 6, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Barefoot College has an effective educational model for rural development—educate and empower those people who care about the local community most to be able to make a difference. Barefoot founder Sanjit “Bunker” Roy, he has found that the best candidates are women, and often they are grandmothers.
