bernardpollck

In this regular series we profile advisors of the url=http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/meet-the-nourishing-the-planet-advisory-group-chuck-benbrook/Nourishing the Planet project. This week, we feature Chuck Benbrook, Chief Scientist at the Organic Center. Name: Chuck Benbrook Affiliation: The Organic Center Location: Enterprise, Oregon Bio: Dr. Charles Benbrook is Chief Scientist at the Organic Center. He worked in Washington, D.C. on agricultural policy, science and regulatory issues from 1979 through 1997. He served for 1.5 years as the agricultural staff expert on the Council for Environmental Quality at the end of the Carter Administration. Following the election of Ronald Reagan, he moved to Capitol Hill in early 1981 and was the Executive Director of the Subcommittee of t... read more

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's url=http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/turning-the-catch-of-the-day-into-improved-livelihoods-for-the-whole-community/Nourishing the Planet and written by Christi Zaleski. Leaving Gambia’s capital city, Banjul, you’ll find a group of women standing road side offering up oysters for 15 dalasis a cup, or about 55 cents for approximately 75 pieces of oyster meat. These women in the community have been harvesting oysters from the extensive mangrove wetlands of Gambia for decades. Much of the harvesting is concentrated in Tanbi National Park, a Ramsar site, or wetland of international importance. Surprisingly, the mangroves themselves have undergone little change during the last thirty years, even as the population of the country, increasingly concentrated around Tanbi in the Greater Banjul Area, more than doubled dur... read more

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's url=http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/innovation-of-the-week-fighting-global-malnutrition-locally/Nourishing the Planet blog. Every year, 5 million children worldwide die from malnutrition-related causes, including immune-system deficiency, increased risk of infection, decreased bone density, and starvation. But a variety of local efforts are hoping to turn things around. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country struggling with internal conflict, food shortages, and poverty, thousands of lives are threatened by acute malnutrition. When a child is brought to one of the therapeutic Stabilization Centers at regional hospitals, run by the Congolese Ministry of Health with support from the organization Action Against Hunger, they receive rations of specia... read more

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's url=http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/innovation-of-the-week-locally-produced-crops-for-locally-consumed-products/Nourishing the Planet. In Zambia, sorghum—a drought resistant cereal that thrives in the country— was considered a “poor man’s crop” in the past, often shunned by small-scale farmers for the more commercially viable maize. But an article in the June issue of Farming Matters explains how a Zambian brewery with a new brand of beer is changing the way small-scale farmers think about sorghum. While most clear beers such as lagers and pilsners are made with expensive, imported malts, the Zambian Breweries’ Eagle Lager is made from sorghum. A ... read more

Cross posted from Worldwatch Institute's url=http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/innovation-of-the-week-using-digital-technology-to-empower-and-connect-young-farmers/Nourishing the Planet. At the Rural Development Foundation’s (RDF) primary school in Kalleda, a small village in the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh, India, students carry gardening tools, along with their notebooks and pencils. All of the students work in the school’s garden, cultivating and harvesting rice, lentils, corn, and cotton that is used to make the daily meals or sold to the village and to other schools. Students also take turns tending a field of marigolds and selling them in Kalleda. All of the profit goes back to the school. And the students carry another important tool—a camera. Cameras were provided by url=http://www.bridgesweb.... read more