Re:Article on Interviews for Culinary and Food... Re:What do these chefs do?
The changing climate due to global warming, deforestation and other issues is threatening water shortages in some places and too much water in others.
These days, "green" demands are constantly thrown in our faces from every angle. "Buy organic!" Easy enough. "Recycle!" Okay, I can do that. "Compost your trash!" Wait...what? And why? Well, there are actually many good reasons to compost your trash, and it is a lot easier than you might think!
First of all, what is compost? Compost is really nothing more than decomposed plant and animal materials that are decomposed through aerobic decomposition and turned into a very rich dark soil. This rich soil cannot be beat and is great for many uses, including use as a soil conditioner and fertilizer. Compost soil is 100% organic.
Global food prices have been volatile for a couple of years now, leaving shoppers to make an uncomfortable choice between the cost of their shopping in a recession and buying healthy, natural foods.
So how have food shopping habits changed over this period? What has been the impact on the growing trend for natural, healthier foods and can anything be done to make food prices less volatile?
Oil price rises in early 2008 had a major impact on food prices - both because of the increased costs to farmers of producing them, plus increased costs of packaging materials and of transporting to the shops.
The UK's most recent 2010 Fairtrade Fortnight, the Big Swap, encouraged consumers to swap their usual purchase for a fair trade alternative.
Almost a million people rose to the Fairtrade Foundation's challenge between February 22 and March 7 2010.
That's great for producers in the developing world, many of them small farmers who often struggle to make a living when they have to compete with import protection and the costs of buying the seeds and fertilizers.
Here's what the Department for International Development has to say on Fair trade: "DFID welcomes Fairtrade Fortnight. It supports its message of making trade work for the developing world. But our commitment to fair trade is not just confined to two weeks in February. We believe that trade is a very powerful way to reduce world poverty, which is why we work throughout the year to improve trading opportunities for poor countries."
Will Agri-business and National Interests block Hopes of Sharing Innovative Agricultural Solutions?
Agriculture is the direct or indirect livelihood of three quarters of the world's poor, who live in rural areas. The 2008 food crisis and the subsequent global financial crisis, showed the extreme vulnerability of developing countries to fluctuations in food prices and supplies. But the impact was not only on developing world farmers - it affected consumers world-wide in food scarcities, eg rice in Thailand, and higher prices.
Consumers increasingly demand food free from chemical additives and the residues of chemical pesticides.
UK shoppers are increasingly switching to a safer, more natural shopping basket even though organic and fair-trade products are generally a bit more expensive.
A sample of 432 UK supermarket shoppers revealed that just over two thirds said their purchasing behaviour had changed significantly in the last ten years.
In particular, spending habits had shifted towards buying more free range (46 percent), more fair trade (42 percent), more locally sourced food (32 percent), and more organic and less processed foods (32 percent). So in the UK the numbers of shoppers choosing organic and fair trade products are slowly increasing.
