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Research in Real Time
Dear Naresh,
Last Saturday, I attended the 10th Anniversary of the launch of Growing Power Chicago,
a national nonprofit organization and land trust that provides people
from diverse backgrounds with equal access to healthy, affordable----and tasty----food. Congratulations to Growing Power and founder Will Allen for showing urban youth that agriculture can be fun and profitable.
Our trip to Latin America is rapidly approaching! On April 29th, we will begin our tour of agricultural innovations in the region. Before our return on May 13th,
we will visit projects in the field and meet with policymakers,
journalists, and farmers' groups in Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.
We have already received lots of exciting feedback from individuals and
organizations, but we want to hear from you too! If you know of any
initiatives that we should highlight, please email me.
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All the best,
Danielle Nierenberg
Nourishing the Planet Project Director
Worldwatch Institute
Here are some highlights from the week:
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According to the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a quarter of the world's known plant species----some 60,000 to 100,000 species----are
threatened with extinction. And even though plants may not receive as
much attention as endangered animals, they are important. Among their
many attributes, plants are a vital source of food, they can help
stabilize the climate, and they also provide shelter, medicines, and
fuel. Here are five agricultural innovations----seed banks, permaculture, native crops, indigenous livestock, and crop breeding----that are working to protect the world's fragile biodiversity.
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On January 21st, TEDxManhattan featured
a series of speakers with backgrounds in food and farming who shared
their knowledge and expertise with thousands of audience members
watching either in-person from seats at the event or virtually from
around the world. In this post, Nourishing the Planet highlights a
TEDxManhattan Talk by Fred Kirschenmann, who discusses the importance of soil in our food production system.
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In
many developing countries, poor people spend more than half their
income on food, but many of them are not getting enough nutrients to
stay healthy. The International Development Research Center (IDRC)
is working to change that problem. IDRC has provided CA$2.8 billion in
grants since its founding with a focus on agricultural programs that
increase food security in the developing world and grow local rural and
urban economies. Research funded by IDRC is helping find ways to help
small-scale farmers deal with shocks to food prices and utilize
technologies to enhance agricultural productivity.
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Chris Jordan is an acclaimed digital photography artist whose previous collections have included pieces such as Toothpicks,
which depicts in toothpicks the annual number of trees cut down to make
junk mail. In 2009, he embarked upon a new project called "Running the
Numbers II: Portraits of Global Mass Culture." Every piece in this
collection is a digital image, some replicas of very well-known
paintings or graphics, and was created to illustrate issues affecting
the world. One work, Maya, appears to depict a circular Mayan
artifact, but upon closer viewing visually demonstrates the number of
people in the word suffering from malnutrition.
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Our indigenous crop of the week is soursop, or guanábana,
a tropical fruit that is native to Central America, northern South
America, and the Antilles, but that now grows wild and is cultivated in
warm, tropical climates around the world. Soursop's milky-white pulp is
fibrous and punctuated with black, mildly toxic seeds. When you can get
it fresh, the fruit is eaten raw with a spoon. Soursop also preserves
well, so commercial farmers often squeeze it to make beverages, candies,
custards, and jellies. Guanábana juice concentrate or carbonated soft drinks abound in Central and South American countries.
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You
can now check out Nourishing the Planet's latest PowerPoint
presentation from the recent Global Citizenship Symposium at Georgia
College. In this presentation we outline the connection between
sustainable agriculture and public health.
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Looking for Borlaug Field Award Nominations
The World
Food Prize is currently looking for nominations for its first
annual Norman Borlaug Award for Field Research and Application. This
award aims to recognize exceptional, science-based achievement in
international agriculture and food production by an individual under 40
who has devoted time, effort, and stamina towards the fight to eliminate
global hunger and poverty. Nominations for the award will be accepted
online through June 30.
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Our research continues to garner exciting press coverage. This week, The Epoch Times interviewed
me about the growing food crisis tragically taking place in Somalia and
the efforts needed to eliminate hunger in that region.
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