June 17th, 2024
Via Australian Strategic Policy Institute, commentary on the link between food security and national security: Australia’s food security should not be taken for granted. The Covid-19 pandemic shows what can go wrong with it during seismic strategic challenges. January’s empty supermarket shelves across Darwin, caused by flooding, illustrate the precarious nature of food security even […]
Read more »Land Squeeze: The Hidden Battle for Africa’s Soils
June 3rd, 2024
Via African Arguments, a look at how land grabbing is not just back with a vengeance. It is taking on new guises such as carbon offsets, green hydrogen schemes, and other “green grabs”: In recent years, Africa has been at the epicentre of an alarming global trend: the land squeeze. The 2007-8 global financial crisis unleashed […]
Read more »April 30th, 2024
Courtesy of The Financial Times, a report on the over-reliance and pending constraint of Russia fertilizer on European agriculture: Europe is “sleep walking” into becoming dependent on Russian fertiliser, just as it did with gas, says one of the largest producers of crop nutrients. Nitrogen fertilisers, which are important to plant growth, are made using […]
Read more »Dark Side of U.S. Solar: Productive Farmland Put At Risk
April 30th, 2024
Via Fast Company, a look at the dark side of solar power: Some of America’s most productive farmland is at risk: Dave Duttlinger’s first thought when he saw a dense band of yellowish-brown dust smearing the sky above his Indiana farm was: I warned them this would happen. About 445 acres of his fields near […]
Read more »April 19th, 2024
Via Asia Times, a look at how Moscow has leveraged disruption of the Ukraine war to weaponize food supplies while angling to use BRICS to muscle US and Australia out of Africa: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “grain diplomacy” continues to cause headaches for the European Union while potentially reshaping global trade dynamics and markets more […]
Read more »Exporting Hay (and Water)
April 12th, 2024
Via LandDesk, a report on international destinations of U.S. hay that is grown with limited U.S. water: Pretty much every time I write about the amount of Colorado River water that is consumed to irrigate alfalfa and hay, readers respond with a comment or question about how much of the alfalfa — and therefore Colorado […]
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