Posts Tagged ‘food’
For scientific progress
In: Uncategorized
7 Dec 2009When I first came across Denialism by Michael Specter the title almost put me off. The term “denial” is often used by climate change alarmists to close down debate on the topic. But when I looked more closely at the content of the book I was pleasantly surprised. Specter, a staff writer on the New […]
- Tags: book, food, science, technology
Happy Thanksgiving
In: Uncategorized
26 Nov 2009I have never been in America at Thanksgiving time but it seems to me that celebrating prosperity is an excellent idea. In that context this article from the Washington Post by Ezra Klein probably qualifies as the saddest article of the year. He argues for people to follow economic principles so they can limit their […]
- Tags: America, consumption, food
Hunger in America
In: Uncategorized
19 Nov 2009An article in USA Today reports on a Department of Agriculture study which estimates that one in six Americans – 49m people – went hungry at some point in 2008. The newspaper goes on to say that: “17 million people in the U.S. went hungry or did not eat regularly for a few days of […]
- Tags: America, consumption, food
The banality of overeating obsession
In: Uncategorized
9 Nov 2009A scathing review by Jacob Sullum in Reason of a book on overeating by David Kessler, a former head of the Food and Drug Administration under Bill Clinton. A couple of paragraphs will give the flavour of Sullum’s delicious critique: “Kessler fearlessly accuses major restaurant chains of a crime they brag about, relying on unnamed […]
- Tags: consumption, food
Towards a critique of microfinance
In: Uncategorized
4 Oct 2009An article in today’s Sunday Times (London) suggests that microfinance fails to spread wealth. It cites studies by Dean Karlan and Jonathan Zinman of Yale as well as another by Esther Duflo, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For example, it quotes Karlan as saying: “Microcredit is not a transformational panacea that is […]
- Tags: development, food
Norman Borlaug: the man who fed millions
In: Uncategorized
14 Sep 2009I was particularly saddened to read of the death of Norman Borlaug, a veteran American plant scientist and pioneer of the “green revolution” (see 9 September 2009 post). Among the tributes to him are articles in the Atlantic, the New York Times, Reason and spiked. By coincidence spiked has also just started an online debate […]
- Tags: consumption, food, spiked
Ending Africa’s hunger
In: Uncategorized
9 Sep 2009Anyone who doubts the political degeneration of what passes for the left nowadays should read the article on “Ending Africa’s Hunger” in the 21 September issue of the Nation. From the start it derides the idea that agricultural productivity should be raised as a technological fix. Yet, in a world whose population looks set to […]
- Tags: Africa, consumption, development, food
Malthus 2009
In: Uncategorized
1 Sep 2009George Alagiah’s three-part BBC2 series on the Future of Food – still available to watch on BBC iPlayer – was classic Malthusianism. From start it assumed that a combination of rising population and increased prosperity is sending the Earth towards environmental catastrophe. For him a combination of water shortages, impending energy shortages and climate change […]
- Tags: food, Malthus, television
Apocalyptic nightmare fantasies
In: Uncategorized
26 Aug 2009John Beddington, the British government’s chief scientific adviser, argues the world is facing a “perfect” storm of crises by 2030: rising population, rising food demand, rising demand for water and rising demand for energy. Taking its cue from him the BBC has produced several pieces on the subject for its website and for broadcast. It […]
- Tags: energy, environment, food, Malthus, water
Stinging nettle underpants
In: Uncategorized
21 Aug 2009Evidently pants made of stinging nettles are the Next Big Thing for greens. The idea is being promoted by Jean-Paul Flintoff, a Sunday Times contributor and author of Through the Eye of a Needle: The true story of a man who went searching for meaning and ended up making his Y-fronts, in an item in […]
- Tags: consumption, environment, ethics, food
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