Twin Cities Daily Planet (https://www.tcdailyplanet.net/author/iatp/page/24/)
by Ben Lilliston, 10/8/08 • Costs for farmers around the world have gone through the roof—particularly for fertilizer. As the New York Times reported in April, rising fertilizer prices are limiting the production of farmers in developing countries trying to respond to the global food crisis. Is this just a case of tight supplies and growing demand, or is something else going on?
by Ben Lilliston • 10/3/08 • Earlier this week, ten Canadian civil society groups called on political candidates running in Canada’s October 14 election to “stop ducking Obama’s NAFTA challenge.” Specifically, the groups asked for candidates to respond to U.S. Senator Barack Obama’s pledge to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) if elected President.
by Allison Page • 10/2/08 • The Phillips neighborhood (comprised primarly of people of color and low-income households and including a federal superfund site for arsenic) provides a stunning example of what environmental justice means.
by Mark Muller • 9/25/08 • I’ve probably heard and read dozens of times over the past two weeks that this is the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. Our stock market and confidence in the banking system are allegedly on the brink of a 1929-style collapse.
by Ben Lilliston, 9/24/08 • New research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on the health risks from the chemical bisphenol A (BPA), found in many plastic and children’s products, highlights the challenge for consumers to find safer plastics.
by Mark Muller • 9/16/08 • Thanks to Business Week, I finally have a name to put on a topic that has been rattling around in my brain over the past several months – innovation economics. The September 11 issue of Business Week has a cover story called “Can America Invent Its Way Back.”
by Shi Yan, April 16, 2008 • On April 16, after 24 hours of complete exhaustion and lack of sleep, my plane landed in the city of Minneapolis. Claudia came to the airport to pick me up, and I suddenly realized that I had already arrived in America. Because of the time difference, I held on for another couple of hours, and I took a walk beside a Minneapolis lake not far from the place I was staying. This city makes a person feel very comfortable—the weather is nice, and so is the air.
by Jim Harkness, 9/10/08 • I wasn’t sure what to expect when I drove out to Western Minnesota to check in on Ms. Shi Yan. She has been working at the Earthrise Farm, an organic CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) farm, since early April, as part of IATP’s ongoing relationship with the School of Agriculture and Rural Development at People’s University in China. Shi Yan’s blog posts have been wonderful. Continue Reading
By Shi Yan, 4/19/08 • “Cha dui” is a historical term meaning, more or less, “being sent to the countryside to do manual labor and be reeducated by the peasants.” For the vast majority of Chinese young people, the concept of cha dui [“being sent to the countryside”] is a strange one, especially for kids like me who’ve grown up in a city from the time they were small
by Jim Harkness, 8/26/08 • “You should tell more people around the world about America’s non-mainstream agriculture and food system. Then they won’t hate you so much!”