Tag: Sustainability

  • Simple Ways to Go Zero Waste

    Erin Rehm takes every opportunity to educate others about reducing waste. At December’s IDEAS For Us Hive, a monthly meeting where community members brainstorm climate change solutions, she spoke to a room of 50-some individuals about the importance of adopting a zero waste philosophy. Our garbage, and, yes, that includes materials rejected from recycling facilities,…

  • What is Sustainable Development

    I remember so distinctly standing in the middle of the “bullpen” shortly after our annual sales meeting and thinking the company’s new “growth targets” were ridiculous. Their targeted 15% annual growth in a mature market was unrealistic. It dawned on me then that, on a larger scale, the idea of growth year over year over…

  • Fair Trade and Climate Justice

    Please take a moment to join the Fairtrade fight against the climate crisis. Add your name to the petition at The Fairtrade Foundation and spread the word to your family, friends and associates. Fairtrade is more than a Mark on a product. It’s a call for change. With the next UN Climate Summit taking place…

  • Zimbabwe Adopts Plan to Protect Rights of Small Farmers

    Jeffrey Gogo’s latest piece in The Herald outlines how the Plan for Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) “aims to ‘catalogue, protect and promote’ cultivated indigenous crops as well as wild plants and fruits” in Zimbababwe. The National Strategy and Action Plan for Plant Genetic Resources For Food and Agriculture is based on protection…

  • Women’s Day Special

    The World Fair Trade Organization is celebrating Women’s History Month with a series of podcasts featuring Fair Trade Enterprises started and run by women. Allison Havens founded Yabal Handicrafts in Guatemala to keep alive indigenous weaving techniques and create livelihoods for local women. Today, the women producers are becoming the main income earners in their…

  • Nobel laureates call for a revolutionary shift in how humans use resources

    Reposted from theguardian.com, Deforestation is among a growing list of planetary ailments, the Nobel laureates warn. Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features   Eleven Nobel laureates will pool their clout to sound a warning, declaring that mankind is living beyond its means and darkening its future. At a conference in Hong Kong coinciding with the annual Nobel awards…

  • FAO Announces International Symposium on Agroecology

    The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) will host an International Symposium on Agroecology for Food Security and Nutrition on September 18 and 19, 2014. The symposium, at FAO headquarters in Rome, will explore recent scientific research and knowledge around agroecological practices, promote open dialogue, and showcase existing experiences and programs on agroecology. Food Tank is excited to be participating…

  • UN Praises Role of Cooperatives in Sustainable Development

      United Nations officials are highlighting the role cooperative enterprises can play in economic development, social justice and environmental protection. In his message for International Day of Cooperatives, marked annually on 5 July, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that this year’s Day falls at a “critical time” with the UN working to reach the 2015 deadline for the…

  • Indian Bio-Diversity Board to Open up 110 Seed Banks in States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana

    News like this gives me great hope that we are wising up and moving away from mono-cultures and industrial farming. HYDERABAD: To preserve indigenous seed varieties and also promote organic farming, the state bio-diversity board will soon open over 110 seed banks across the two states. With the requisite budgets sanctioned for this pilot project,…

  • Imagining Healthy Work

    These excerpts from Jeffery Bilbo’s lecture at Spring Arbor University’s annual Focus series gets to the heart of why “good work often seems impossible…” I’ll begin with a rough definition of good work, one we can refine as we proceed. Good human work participates in God’s redemptive work; thus it is our loving, healing, and humane…