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Research in Real Time
Dear Naresh,
Today, the Worldwatch Institute released Vital Signs 2012, a compendium of all the Vital Signs trends we posted online over the last year from our Vital Signs Online. From organic farming to global meat production and consumption, Vital Signs 2012 documents 24 trends that are shaping our future in concise analysis and clear tables and graphs. Click here to purchase a copy today.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, roughly a third of all food produced for human consumption----approximately 1.3 billion tons----is lost or wasted each year. With nearly 1 billion people suffering from hunger, this amount of wastage is unacceptable.
Luckily, organizations, such as Love Food, Hate Waste and Practical Action,
are working with consumers and farmers to reduce that waste. But we
want to know, what you are doing to reduce food waste? What are steps
that we all can take to reduce food waste? Email me and let me know your thoughts! We will highlight some of your suggestions on Nourishing the Planet.
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All the best,
Danielle Nierenberg
Nourishing the Planet Project Director
Worldwatch Institute
Here are some highlights from the week:
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Our
Nourishing the Planet TV episode this week discusses a program that is
helping farmers in Tanzania work together to increase their incomes,
while healing the land. CARE International's Equitable Payment for
Watershed Management program encourages, and works closely with,
smallholder farmers to use intercropping and terraces to help restore
soil.
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The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) and Italian energy company Enel are
teaming up in an effort to address food security and climate change by
providing green cook stoves and solar panels to communities. Enel Trade
has committed support to WFP's Safe Access to Firewood and Alternative Energy in Humanitarian Settings Initiative,
which provides high-efficiency cooking stoves to schools, community
centers, and poor households for use in cooking WFP food rations.
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In this guest post, Marketing Communication and Multi-media Specialist with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Jerome Bossuet discusses a new pilot project in the Indian states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Andhra Pradesh. Led by the Water and Agriculture Working Group and
run by ICRISAT, the project seeks to scale up the adoption of
water-saving irrigation practices via the development of a simple,
farmer-friendly irrigation decision-making tool. The project is
developing a Simple Water Impact Calculator for farmers,
which estimates the impact of their current practices on water
conservation, and explores ways to use water more efficiently.
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In this post, we discussedFirst Peoples Worldwide (FPW),
an indigenous-led organization that aims to strengthen indigenous
communities through the restoration of control over their assets. FPW
advocates on behalf of Indigenous Peoples with governments, economic
development institutions, and funders. It calls for U.S. and foreign
governments to work directly with Indigenous Peoples in establishing
mutually beneficial agreements.
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In
this TedxManhattan talk, "Raising Pigs & Problems: Saying No to
Antibiotics in Animal Feed," the Institute for Agriculture and Trade
Policy's Dr. Wallinga explains that producers in the large-scale meat
production industry often incorporate antibiotics into their animal feed
in an attempt to ward off disease, which can spread rapidly among
animals kept confined in close quarters. But widespread use
of antibiotics can actually create antibiotic resistance, making it
harder to fight illness among animals and humans alike. Antibiotics that
are present in animal waste leach into the environment and contaminate
water and food crops, posing a serious threat to public health.
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In this guest post, Agro-Insight Director, Paul Van Mele discussed his organization's partnership with theInternational Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropicsto
create a comprehensive series of 10 farmer-to-farmer videos to combat
Striga, one of the world's most troublesome weeds. The "Fighting Striga"
videos have been shown in farmer exchange visits and discussed at
open-air evening screenings. They are effective because they are made
according to the zooming-in, zooming-out (ZIZO) method,
which relies on strong interactions with farmers. The ZIZO method
results in regionally relevant and locally appropriate farmer-to-farmer
training videos and can be applied to many topics.
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Check out this National Geographic article, written by Worldwatch senior fellow and Freshwater Fellow of the National Geographic Society, Sandra Postel, which discusses a new study on humanity's water consumption, or its water footprint. Many everyday items contain surprisingly high water footprints----it
takes 2,700 liters (713 gallons) to make a cotton t-shirt and 2,400
liters (634 gallons) to make a hamburger. The study alerts consumers and
producers to areas where they can contribute to decreasing our global
water footprint.
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The
Worldwatch Institute's 16th Annual State of the World Symposium will
take place on April 11 and will be hosted at the Woman's National
Democratic Club in Washington, D.C. Worldwatch President Robert Engelman
and senior researchers Michael Renner and Erik Assadourian will speak
at the event, where they will officially release State of the World 2012: Moving Toward Sustainable Prosperity. State of the World 2012 includes
sustainability discussions that range from agriculture to biodiversity,
green jobs to economic degrowth, communications technologies to
sustainable buildings, and local politics to global governance. Click here for more information and here if you would like to register for the event.
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