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 –…
Positive Future #755 (Feature photo – Food Gardening in the Philippines – CCA 2.0 Generic, Sustainable Sanitation Alliance) One thing is becoming clear – food chain disruptions may be the antidote to a world that has succumbed to coronavirus fears. Few things represent a greater existential risk to food than dramatic economic curtailment. While the…
Touch the Soil News #1619 (Feature Photo – Trans-Ocean Container Ships – Own work, CC BY-SA 2.0 Generic, Kees Torn) Phil Lempert ( https://www.supermarketguru.com/) brings us information on the food pipeline that has and continues to be disrupted by the virus lockdowns on the economy. The next mega-concern may eclipse the virus to be one…
Positive Future #743 (Feature photo – Cow With Calf – CCA SA 3.0, Uberprutser) Recently the heads of the World Health Organization, The Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Trade Organization warned of the trade shutdowns and the existential risk to food security. In a reversal of fortunes, some dairy farms are now having…
Touch the Soil News #1605 (Feature Photo – Director Generals of WHO, FAO & WTO – By M. Jacobson – Gonzalez – ITU Pictures from Geneva, Switzerland – https://www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/36433272494, CC BY 2.0, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic,By The White House from Washington, DC – President Trump at Davos, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=86339937https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=65393569 While shutting the…
Touch the Soil News #1584 (Feature photo – Map of Nations Facing Acute Food Insecurity – courtesy of the Food and Agriculture Organization) While the Coronavirus takes international headlines, the 4,100 flu deaths from coronavirus pale in comparison to some 450,000 other flu deaths that happen every year. More pressing are the acute food insecurity…
Touch the Soil News #1444 (Feature photo – Canola Field – CCA SA 3.0 Unported – John O’Neil) The Financial Post of Canada reveals the dramatic financial collapse that has visited Canadian family farms – primarily from trade reversals with China. Net farm income has fallen in half from 2017 to 2018. How many of…
Touch the Soil News #1435 (Feature photo – Pork Meat – CCA SA 3.0 Unported – Rainer Zenz) China continues to struggle with supplies of pork, since the African Swine Fever has wiped out roughly one third of China’s pigs. This is no small problem as pork is the favored meat for China’s 1.4 billion…
Touch the Soil News #1401 (Feature photo – African Swine Fever Virus – CC BY-SA 3.0, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18630318) Confinement animal feeding operations (where there are concentrations of pigs), the global pork meat trade and the spreading African Swine Fever are creating an unprecedented food tremor. News about how African Swine Fever is not contagious to people…
Touch the Soil News #1365 (Feature photo – North Korean Farm Without Adequate Equipment – Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (Stephan) at Flickr and http://nk.subnetwork.org/) While the news on North Korea is generally about potential armed conflict and weapons, North Korea is facing a food crisis. While trying to wave military threats to the…
