Update from Satish

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Satish Kumar, Editor-in-Chief, Resurgence & Ecologist
Our Focus on Food, plus why we need to defend the rights of Nature
 

There is nothing more important than food and yet multinational corporations and governments across the world persist in interfering with the good work of small-scale farmers and growers worldwide.

So in the fortnight since my last update, we’ve put the spotlight firmly on the issue of food - with a range of stories from the mostly hidden but alarming rise in the number of food assistance programmes and food banks now opening their doors to the urgent need for greener farming measures in Europe.

George Monbiot, John Vidal, Vandana Shiva and our own Ecologist writer, Paul Creeney, have all been addressing the critical issues of food production, seed protection and water conservation.

Their articles (all links below) all demonstrate that our current (and unsustainable) cavalier attitude towards food is a mere symptom of a deep-rooted disregard of the rights of Nature.

The fact is, we won’t solve the problems of food production until we accept the central premise that Nature – just like people - really does have rights.

We are also delighted to announce that the respected environment and political journalist, Bibi van der Zee has now joined us as our new political correspondent. She published an excellent piece on the implications for the environment following the new cabinet reshuffle and we will be looking forward to many more insights from Westminster and beyond from her.

Welcome Bibi….

And finally, don’t be shy about entering the brand new Resurgence & Ecologist Nature Writing competition (2013). Next week we’ll be posting some of the winning essays from the ICUN/Thomson Reuters competition which should help whet the appetite…

Satish Kumar

Bibi van der Zee on the red herring that is the third runway at Heathrow…
/News/news_analysis/1574388/left_in_the_dark.html

Environmental activist Vandana Shiva launched a new campaign to protect the freedom of farmers to grow their own seeds /News/news_analysis/1547385/defending_seed_sovereignty.html

John Vidal suggests looming food shortages could force the world into vegetarianism
/News/news_analysis/1566070/food_shortages_could_force_world_into_vegetarianism_warn_scientists.html

Paul Creeney investigates the alarming rise (and rise) of food banks
/News/news_analysis/1562383/food_banks_how_food_assistance_charities_keep_soup_kitchens_in_stock.html

George Monbiot on the day the world went mad
/blogs_and_comments/1564265/the_day_the_world_went_mad.html

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