Do we have a choice between the global and local food systems and culture? How far can we influence food policy and food traders? What happens when modified genes spread to unaltered crops? We invite individual stories from around the world so that we can understand the pressures and opportunities that prevail. Ian Christie outlines the remit of the debate in his introductory article, Food: what we eat is who we are.
We invite you to respond to this theme and contribute your views and knowledge. Please send your ideas to sophie.jeffreys@opendemocracy.net
We invite you to respond to this theme and contribute your views and knowledge. Please send your ideas to sophie.jeffreys@opendemocracy.net
The price of food: ingredients of a global crisis
Prices are surging for food commodities worldwide, posing a tough policy challenge for developing countries - can they protect poor consumers without crushing new opportunities for farmers?
Heidi
Fritschel is a writer and editor.
This
article is also published on the website of the International Food
Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Poor
consumers across the globe are protesting
about their rising food bills. In December 2007, Mexicans rioted in
response to an enormous jump in tortilla prices, which quadrupled in
some parts of the country; in January 2008, Indonesians took to the
streets to protest high soybean prices; in February, protesters in
three major towns in Burkina
Faso,
angry about the rising cost of food and other basic goods, attacked
government offices and shops; unrest linked to food markets has
occurred also in Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan,
and Yemen.
The dumping-ground: Africa and GM food aid
Unequal power relationships in the world economic system mean that hungry Africans often have no choice but to eat genetically-modified food. Patrick Mulvany argues that food aid policies can be driven by the commercial policies interests of rich nations rather than the interests of the most vulnerable people.
GM Canola on the Prairie: gene patents, farmers' rights
Can a 73-year old Canadian farmer’s legal challenge to biotechnology giants succeed in altering global rules on patent law?
In praise of wine
The litmus test of a healthy, civilised life, the convivial route to harmony between people and nations: Frank Ward glimpses a better world in the mirror of a wine glass.
Absinthe: demon drink
When alcohol is imagined as evil, absinthe, the legendary 19th century French drink of the mad and bad, plays the role of the devil. Why its links with social unrest and sexual deviance?
Ireland's alcoholic curse
Irish people’s high alcohol consumption has been transformed in the public mind from a cultural trait into a major medical and social problem. How did the country’s drinking culture acquire its harder, violent edge?
A problem with drink?
Britain’s city and town centres float on a sea of alcoholic excess. After years of promoting the benefits of the “leisure economy”, can its public policy help restore alcohol to its truer place as a lubricant of life and laughter?
A drunken kiss, and then farewell
A combination of pagan roots, national traditions, and modern attitudes has shaped the Scottish New Year celebration called Hogmanay. Without the myths, is it any more than an inebriated street party?
GM: Africa's opportunity
The marketing and developing of GM crops across Africa is intensely controversial. But in an interview with Sophie Jeffreys and Ian Christie of openDemocracy, Walter Alhassan argues that African farmers have little to fear from biotechnology when it is correctly monitored, and much to gain.
Biotechnology against food security: the choice for Africa
From Zambia to Ghana, African countries have very different attitudes to the application of biotechnology to food production. In a context of systemic inequality, the process raises key issues of good governance and global justice as well as science. Can the new technology be used to address poverty and advance sustainability, or will it be a means of increasing global corporate control?
Small is dangerous? Schumacher, science, and social development
The promise of micro-technology as a tool of social progress is balanced by fear of its use to reduce freedom and widen global divisions. The benign if flawed vision of E.F. Schumacher still holds lessons for how a better social application of science can serve the interests of the world’s poor and the planet’s sustainability.
Biotechnology: the case for sustainability
Many environmentalists see biotechnology solely in terms of threat and danger. This is short-sighted, says John Elkington of SustainAbility. The challenges of the 21st century – climate change, poverty, disease, demography – make biotechnology a potentially valuable tool. The question is: can it be used in ways that sustain democracy and public trust?
Marketing GM: the making of poverty
Marginal farmers in India find it difficult enough to ensure a modestly sustainable life on existing patterns of land ownership and seed availability. But when manipulative marketing strategies introduce GM seeds, cash dependency and debt, their poverty becomes a cruel trap.
This week's editor
Europe from the bottom up
European debate
Democratic Wealth
Nuclear non-proliferation
oDRussia at journalismfestival .com
Mali - the plot thickens
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Remote control war
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Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050
Articles exploring the themes of the fourth international Nobel Women's Initiative conference May 28-31. Jennifer Allsopp and Heather McRobie will be reporting for 5050
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Martin Rose Bliss Was It in that Dawn to Be Next Door
Vron Ware Up in Arms
Jim Gabour Sunday Comics
James Warner Standing Perpendicular, as books do
Markha Valenta Inter Alia: religion, politics, culture
Paul Rogers on Global security
Mary Kaldor on Human security
