Tag Archives: food

Arab grain imports rising rapidly

The Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa make up only 5 percent of the world’s population, yet they take in more than 20 percent of the world’s grain exports. Imports to the region have jumped from 30 million tons of grain in 1990 to nearly 70 million tons in 2011. Now imported […] … learn more→

Chimps show food link to walking

A study of chimpanzees gives tantalizing evidence that humans may have evolved upright walking in order to carry more food. A team of scientists from Oxford University, Cambridge, and Kyoto University tested the theory that two-legged (bipedal) walking should occur more of the time when animals are carrying prized but rare resources. The researchers put […] … learn more→

Good nutrition starts with the basics

March brings another National Nutrition Month. We Americans have unlimited sources of dietary information and frequent reminders about weight, diets, nutrition and food. Look at the magazine rack at the supermarket, the large sections devoted to cooking and food in bookstores and on Amazon.com, or search for “nutrition” on the Web and it’s all there. […] … learn more→

Bumper 2011 grain harvest fails to rebuild global stocks

The world’s farmers produced more grain in 2011 than ever before. Estimates from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the global grain harvest coming in at 2,295 million tons, up 53 million tons from the previous record in 2009. Consumption grew by 90 million tons over the same period to 2,280 million tons. Yet with […] … learn more→

Food is ‘the great convenor

“Cities can’t exist without farms,” says Mark Bomford, the newly appointed director of the Yale Sustainable Food Project. A Canadian transplant, Bomford comes to Yale from the University of British Columbia (UBC), where he honed his vision of making a university the standard-bearer for raising the food consciousness of a growing population of city dwellers […] … learn more→

Rising meat consumption takes big bite out of grain harvest

World consumption of animal protein is everywhere on the rise. Meat consumption increased from 44 million tons in 1950 to 284 million tons in 2009, more than doubling annual consumption per person to over 90 pounds. The rise in consumption of milk and eggs is equally dramatic. Wherever incomes rise, so does meat consumption. As […] … learn more→

Food vs. fauna: can we have our biodiversity and eat, too?

So, we have to feed an extra 2.5 billion people by 2050. For those of us interested in the future of biodiversity on this planet, this poses an uncomfortable challenge. It is also the topic of a recent paper in Science by Ben Phalan and colleagues at Cambridge University. Clearly, we need to ramp up […] … learn more→

CU-Boulder absent from Sierra Magazine \’green\’ list, no longer cooperating with surveys

The University of Colorado debuted one of the nation\’s greenest dorms this week, a building where chefs and farmers will make appearances and share recipes that students can replicate with locally produced food in a kitchen outfitted with energy-efficient appliances. The Boulder campus this summer also announced it would stop using pesticides on its turf, […] … learn more→