the GoodEater Collaborative

Urban Agriculture in Boston: Growing Promise, Weeding Challenges

Boston chefs, community advocates and entrepreneurs are broadening the dialog and shortening the distance between farm and table. Never mind the 100 mile diet, how about 100 blocks, or 100 steps?

Meet a few new urban farmers, giving us a window into the promises and the challenges of urban agriculture in its many forms.

Haiti’s Post-Quake Grassroots Sustainable Agriculture Movement

Haiti’s post-quake humanitarian disaster is directly tied to its food supply and the collapse of the rural economy. Combating the dominant paradigm is an accelerating grassroots movement — from farmers burning Monsanto seeds to edible schoolyards.

In Heels and Backwards – Women Butchers Break Bones and Barriers

Share

Top 5 Moments in Western Food History

1. Neolithic Revolution

The last ice age ended 13,000 years ago, leaving behind a warmer environment full of the flora and fauna we know today and starting the Neolithic Period. This environmental shift fueled a 13,000-year explosion of population, technology, and culture. One plant that prospered in the newly warmed climate was wheat.

The Age of Government in Food and Agriculture

Governments have become more active across the entire economy and this is no less true in food and agriculture. However, what is often portrayed as a choice between free market and regulation often seems misguided.

Do Bangladeshis Think the Earth Will Be Okay?

In places like Bangladesh, a one meter increase in sea level will submerge 20 percent of the land and displace 35 million people, many of whom will die in the flooding. How many people there can afford to take the attitude that humans are just a blip?

Raw Milk: Healthy, Hazardous—or Both?

Last month, the ongoing debate about the risk—or reward—of raw milk reached a boiling point in Massachusetts, and advocates and dissenters alike took to the Boston Common on a Monday morning to duke it out over a “drink-in.”

To GM or Not to GM – Is that the Right Question?

Debates over Genetically Modified (GM or GE or GMO as you prefer) food remind me all too much of debates over religion or other moral questions. Too often the discussion is driven from an assumed right answer and arguments crafted accordingly. There is no real debate but instead two sides talking past each other.

Why Did the Haitian Earthquake Become a Food Crisis?

Why did the Haitian earthquake become a food crisis? I spent the last nine days in Haiti working with refugees in Haiti and personally trying to better understand the answer to this question.

Is Looking to the Past the Future of Wheat?

Modern wheat is designed for high yields, and to produce flours with consistently high protein contents. In the meantime, flavor has fallen by the wayside.

Is looking to heirloom varieties the solution? I don’t think so.