Blog for People, Food and Nature

The environmental impacts of commodities have been a hot topic lately, from haze in Indonesia, carbon emissions from Brazil, and environmental degradation and poverty in Cote d’Ivoire. What do these stories have in common? They are all intertwined in global value chains for major agricultural commodities: palm oil, …

By Tibor Hartel, Sapientia Hungarian University of Transylvania, Department of Environmental Science and Art, Cluj-Napoca, Romania Wood-pastures are probably the most important ecological and cultural identity bearing landscapes of the European continent. These are grazed landscapes with trees and shrubs—similar lan…

By Lauriane Mouysset, University of Cambridge Modern agriculture and associated farming intensification has been identified as a major cause of declining biodiversity in farmlands. Nevertheless, the world’s growing population must be fed, and a balance must be struck between the ecological and economic objectives of …

By EcoPlanet Bamboo Group The Bonn Challenge aims to restore 150 million hectares of degraded and deforested land by 2020. Commercial bamboo plantations can help achieve these goals by serving as an alternative to traditional timber and as a resource to stimulate national and local economies and reduce foreign import…

By Dr. John Paull, School of Land & Food, University of Tasmania, Australia Todmorden may be a small, drab, post-industrial English village but it has one big, bold and bright idea. This Yorkshire village decided to “do something, take action” about the disconnect between food production and consumers. The Inc…

The theme of Earth Day 2014 is Green Cities, and as the cities of the world gear up for a day, a year, a future of more climate- and Earth-friendly practices and activities, we want to bring focus to a city region that is making an effort toward a sustainable agriculture future. Naivasha is a city of around 185,000 …