Positive Future #868 (Feature photo – Grain Harvest – Courtesy of Benjamin Gisin) The World Agricultural Outlook Board (WOAB), a committee of the USDA, reports regularly on the production, consumption and ending stocks of major grains in June of each year. Reports of harvest and production issues with wheat, have the WOAB projecting a drop…
Touch the Soil News #1759 (Feature Photo – FAO Logo – Public Domain) The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations provides monthly updates on what is going on with basic food prices globally. The areas include meat, dairy, cereals, oils and sugar. In August of 2020, the food price index stood at…
Touch the Soil News #1719 (Feature Photo – Food – Public Domain) While it is true that Agriculture has been exempted from most economic lockdowns, in theory there are problems. Community gardens have been shut down and shipping ports have been constricted in the trade of food. However, it is not just the production of…
Positive Future #795 (Feature photo – Grain Harvest – public domain) As grain harvest gets underway, the topic of global warming on crop yields gets underway as well. GrenBiz journalist Jim Robbins brings us the story of how the world is searching for more heat-resistant crops to stave off yield reductions. You can read the…
Touch the Soil News #1664 (Feature Photo – Stressed Crops – USDA Public Domain) The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s latest report on the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World is sobering. For the third year in a row hunger in the world is growing. The report finds that 2 billion…
Touch the Soil News #1649 (Feature Photo – Cheese – CCA SA 4.0 International, Franck Schulenburg) Called the Great Cheese Emergency, small artisanal cheese companies who relied heavily on restaurants to sell their product have been sent into an economic tailspin. Called the Great Cheese Emergency, warehouses are piling up with artisanal cheeses that cannot…
Positive Future #764 (Feature photo – The World – NASA Public Domain) The New Yorker, one of the nations top weekly magazines, brings us a story by journalist Isacc Chotiner that is worth noting. While news of the covid 19 has dominated the public debate for several months now, is it possible that the covid…
Positive Future #763 (Feature photo – Closure and Delays at Shipping Ports Threaten Hundreds of Millions Of People – Public Domain) Covid Statistics, updated each day, reflect worldwide deaths of 346,000 so far. The Food Pandemic – made worse by economic disruption – has the potential to claim that many lives in just one day…
Positive Future #758 (Feature photo – Clean Air Buttons – Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=167450) It is not secret that coal plants emit particle pollution that has been linked to respiratory health. Inhabitat news portal brings news of how Sweden and Austria just closed their last coal plants. Now three nations in Europe are coal-free – Belgium,…
Economic and Job Lockdowns Versus a Food Pandemic and a Global Recession Positive Future #757 (Feature photo – World Food Programme Seal – Public Domain) In a world of economic volatility, anything that increases that volatility will – as in decades past – unleash tremendous increases in risks to life. The World Food Programme –…
