Review of Book 'Countdown - How our Modern World is Threatening Sperm Counts, Altering Male and Female Reproductive Development and Imperiling the Future of the Human Race'.
Glyphosate is a very widely used general weed killer. Much of the public discussion about its safety is around whether it causes cancer. But Stephanie Seneff's book highlights all the other ways that glyphosate can damage our health.
Chris Smaje argues that the best future we can now hope for is a small farm future (as opposed to the increasingly big farm present), in which many more people than now are involved in food production, mostly on privately-owned small-holdings – realising the old demand for ‘three acres and a cow’.
Chapman argues we should shift attention from carbon emissions to stopping fossil fuel extraction. The climate crisis requires we stop extraction now, but just as in the lockdowns there were exceptions to the general stay at home rule, there would need to be exceptions to the ban on fossil fuels
“Rather than fixating on veganism as being the answer to reducing the impacts of our food system we need to have a better understanding of the complexities of farming.” Director of Green House think tank Anne Chapman suggests an alternative way of looking at reducing carbon emissions from farming.
Much of the book addresses a problem much discussed in environmental philosophy, which is why we should care about what happens in the future, particularly the distant future when we will be long dead. Read’s answer is simply that the future matters to us because we love our children
Food in a Changing Climate is part of a series called SocietyNow. Books in this series are intended to be ‘short, informed books, explaining why our world is the way it is, now’ and that make ‘the best of academic expertise accessible to wider audience’
Green House's Anne Chapman discusses the potential for a transition in the Cumbria region into an economic powerhouse and the impact on jobs and the environment
report looks at the implications of a transition to net zero carbon by 2037 - a target date adopted by the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership. There could, on average, be 9,000 additional jobs, mostly in renewable electricity generation but also in transport, industry and waste management.
James Rebank's book is a personally written memoir, examining Nostalgia, focussed on how his grandfather farmed; Progress, the attempts Rebanks and his father made to try to ‘keep up’ with modernising farms; and Utopia, about how he is trying to farm now and pass on knowledge to his children
An interview with Cath and Bill Grayson who run Morecambe Bay Conservation Grazing Company in North West England about how they came to do conservation grazing, what makes it different from how beef and lamb are normally produced and its benefits for wildlife.
An interview with George Hosier of Wexcombe Manor Farm in Wiltshire about the changes he has made to his farming practices to improve soil fertility, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase biodiversity while reducing his costs.