Food---farming

Gustava Esteva, one of Mexico's most distinguished economists andsenior civil servants during the 1970s, gave it all up to live thesimple life of a traditional peasant on three acres of land in thevillage of San Pablo Etla in Oaxaca, a province of mostly Indigenouspeoples in southern Mexico…

The spiraling world food grains crisis has been a long time coming.There have been warnings aplenty, but they didn't really grab theheadlines…

The excellent Oakland Institute in California has produced this useful briefing which sheds a little more light on what's really going on.…

On March 2nd, Guatemalan banana union leader, Miguel Angel Ramirez ofSITRABANSUR, was shot dead…

For a while now, when asked about the NI magazine topic I’ll betackling next, I’ve had to say: ‘permaculture.’ Invariably asked whatthat is, I’ve had to say: ‘I have no idea.’ Extreme hairdressing? Thelifestyle of Siberia?So how come I am starting to put together a magazine aboutpermaculture? Here I enter Donald Rumsfeld territory…

Fair trade business is booming across the Western world, which can onlybe good news for the millions of poor farmers struggling to survive inthe face of collapsing commodity prices and ruthless multinationals,right? Maybe, but as fair trade goes mainstream, formerly-cleardistinctions about who really benefits are getting blurry.…