A design for the Hudson Yards in Manhattan.
Inhabitat » Spiraling Skyscraper Farms for a Future Manhattan
Today in Tuxtla, Janet and I and some 40 other journalists recorded Lopez Obrador taking his firmest stand against NAFTA. Here's the AP report. "Aranceles" means tariffs, "TLC" or Tratado de Libre Comercio de Norteamérica means NAFTA. Lopez Obrador rejects the requirement that Mexico drop tariffs on US corn and beans in 2008.
Rechaza AMLO eliminar aranceles a frijol y maíz de EU - El Universal - Elecciones
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Agricultural Sustainability = Agricultural Productivity
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Making Backups
The room is a "doomsday vault" designed to hold around 2 million seeds, representing all known varieties of the world's crops. It is being built to safeguard the world's food supply against nuclear war, climate change, terrorism, rising sea levels, earthquakes and the ensuing collapse of electricity supplies. "If the worst came to the worst, this would allow the world to reconstruct agriculture on this planet," says Cary Fowler, director of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, an independent international organisation promoting the project.
On Avenue D?
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Vertical Farming
How to protect food from bioterrorism.
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Contributor: Think Globally, Eat Locally
From the Guardian, a roundup of comments on the WTO meeting in Cancun, from a number of news sources.
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Press review: WTO talks collapse
In the Arizona Republic, the impact of NAFTA on Mexican farmers and immigration. More illegal immigrants are coming from southern Mexico states, including Chiapas.
In the current issue of Harper's Magazine (June 2003). I did this story in 1997 and 1999. Don Moises has been telling it for decades.
Harper's Magazine June 2003 Highlights
THE LAST AMERICANS
The Political Price of Environmental Collapse (p. 43)By Jared Diamond
Pulitzer Prize–winning author Jared Diamond writes about the political effects of an environmental disaster. "Few people, least of all our politicians, have absorbed the significance of recent discoveries by archaeologists and historians: pointing to a primary cause of collapse of many societies: the destruction of the environmental resources on which they depended." By tracing Maya history, Diamond is able to compare and contrast their patterns to the present environmental situation. "Today, just as in the past, countries that are environmentally stressed, overpopulated, or both are at risk of becoming politically stressed, and of their governments collapsing."
Reuters AlertNet - Commission adopts four new humanitarian aid decisions worth almost €4.7 million
Mexico - €1 million
Following the uprising in 1994, a large number of people in the Chiapas region of Mexico are still displaced. A significant proportion of those who have returned home also have continuing urgent nutritional and health needs. Many communities have little or no running water and preventable illnesses are widespread.
The ECHO funding is being used to provide food rations, medical and communities services to approximately 30,000 vulnerable people in Chiapas. The decision also has a component for training in sustainable farming methods.
Good Ginger Thompson report on NAFTA kicking in on Jan. 1, removing Mexican tariffs on agricultural products. (free registration required)
Nafta to Open Foodgates, Engulfing Rural Mexico
A report from my adopted hometown, by way of today's edition of TheNewsMexico.com. The conflict in Chiapas has been quiet for months, but the reasons for it remain.
The News - Poverty stokes conflict in Chiapas, peace commissioner says
This is not simple bashing of genetically modified foods. When a starving country rejects GM corn because it could worsen their situation, the issues involved in patenting of food crops are starkly illuminated. Other good links on this page with the article from the Washington Post.
The ETC Group, formerly RAFI, has a Vital Statistics and GM Crops Update that summarizes issues worldwide concerning transgenic and GM crops.
They also have a section on Spanish language resources and news.