Superfluous Blogging and the IFPRI

~ World ~

All fun and whimsy blogging aside, there is as a matter of fact, a reason that I'm keeping tabs on food - food interests among other people, and food interests of myself; a long term goal related to agriculture, travel, food, policy (perhaps?) and the tasty politics, *is* in formulation. Vague still, but in progress: farming, fighting pesticides, caged animal feeding operations, (CAFO's), hormone raised cattle, genetic engineering (GE crops), in combination with World Travel (!); plus a side of marketing skills that were somehow gleaned during those hefty-price-tag college years of mastering an undergrad degree in business management and design. 

All those simmering ideas in the brain cauldron are totally waiting for the 'ah ha!' moment.

And one just happened.

And it seems worth sharing - a piece of the puzzle in this boggling blog whose one central food theme  lacks the specific and minute. 

Thus far.

So,  just now, I was reading this (thanks, dad for your email services!), another acute and articulate (of course) nytimes perspective about the...well, obvious issues (still) surrounding the structure - or lack there of - of agriculture farming in India.

And while reading that, this - the International Food Policy Research Institute - popped on my radar. In one of those other moments in which for the hundredth time, a name, a place, or idea is put smack in your face, but only now, in this final repititious stage does the insignia stick, I saw the potential of the IFPRI. 

For my future!

Yay! Goals!

What lies ahead  - maybe research only. Maybe inspiration solely, Maybe itching-in-your-skin, want-to-be-a-part-of-it-feeling, simply. Time will tell.

But amen to some direction and the ability to forgo another dose of stammering next time some one asks the gun loaded question: 

So, What Do You Want To Do?

A Food Manifesto for the Future

~ Ny Times  ~

"For decades, Americans believed that we had the world’s healthiest and safest diet. We worried little about this diet’s effect on the environment or on the lives of the animals (or even the workers) it relies upon. Nor did we worry about its ability to endure — that is, its sustainability.
That didn’t mean all was well. And we’ve come to recognize that our diet is unhealthful and unsafe. Many food production workers labor in difficult, even deplorable, conditions, and animals are produced as if they were widgets. It would be hard to devise a more wasteful, damaging, unsustainable system..." read more

How Much Food Goes to Waste ????

According to a New York Times article on Monday, "A lot, if you are typical. By most estimates, a quarter to half of all food produced in the United States goes uneaten — left in fields, spoiled in transport, thrown out at the grocery store, scraped into the garbage or forgotten until it spoils...."

Long Island City, NY

NEW YORK CITY I LOVE YOU

photo Carol Miltimore: KICKSTART : NYTIMES

Pictured here, tucked away and above the New York City skyline, is Brooklyn Grange. Perched on a 40,000 square foot rooftop, the garden is a fantastic representation of the growing influence of urban gardening around the city, and its boroughs.