Blog for People, Food and Nature

Biodiversity and food insecurity in the tropics The 3rd International Conference on Biodiversity and the UN Millennium Development Goals (entitled Biodiversity and Food Security – From Trade-offs to Synergies) is currently underway in France. The conference serves as a platform to discuss the loss of biodiversity at…

A roadmap for feeding the world On October 22nd National Geographic and the FAO co-hosted the 2014 World Food Day discussion Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth. The event, which took place at the National Geographic Headquarters in Washington, DC, brought together global leaders from the food and agriculture sect…

The tragedy of the (fungal) commons Commons are always being overexploited to maximize individual benefit, which also leads to local extinctions of species in some areas. The yarsagumba (or “summer plant, winter insect” Ophiocordyceps sinensis), an endemic species to the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau, faces this…

Shifting cultivation has been considered a major cause of deforestation and forest degradation many times over by both by scholars and conservation agents. Thus, the adoption of permanent agriculture is advocated as an environmentally friendly alternative, allegedly because it will allow the intensification of land use…

Across villages and cities in India (and around the globe), water plays an undeniably vital role in human survival and resilience. In today’s world, wastewater could possibly be playing an even bigger role, particularly in agriculture development, although this is not well documented due to its informal nature. Urban…

Editor's note: Democracy in landscape policy and planning appears to be lacking. It is imperative to understand the roles and values of those cultivating the land when deciding the future of agriculture in a particular region. However, as Andrew Butler argues in this post that originally appeared on AgriCultures Netw…