Landship Foods: May 2011

The Scoop

Landship Foods is inspired by the conviction that growing and eating healthy food is one of the most important things we can do for both ourselves and the broader communities of which we are a part. The name comes from the language of pre-industrial Europe. Before the enclosure movement and the associated rise in notions of private property swept England, the suffix “-ship” (as in "relationship," or "friendship") referred to an object or an abstraction with collective duties and mutual rights. Thus, the term “landship” suggests that land was an entity through which humans were joined to each other by a set of rights and responsibilities. I advocate for a revival of this awareness.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Climate Change

I just went to a really interesting talk about the politics and realities of climate change by Patrick Bond.

I wanted to share this link to a short video about the fundamentally problematic nature of "cap and trade" or carbon-trading schemes:

The Story of Cap and Trade

The basic argument is a strong, yet simple, one: market solutions cannot solve market problems. It is safe to say that this argument is applicable well beyond the issue of climate change. Check out the other interesting videos on the above link...

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Summer on the Roof

Now that the dust of spring semester has settled we have gotten some seeds started on the roof of the Geography department. It is pretty cool growing vegetables on a roof surrounded by atmospheric science equipment and curtained off by the tops of trees.

Every time I go up on the roof I am reminded of how much urban space is planted in ornamentals that could be growing food (especially somewhere like a university campus). I mean, Bradford pears (a fruit tree that was developed by USDA scientists to, paradoxically, not produce fruit) are one of the most common planted trees around these parts. What's up with that?