“The final requirement of an ecological agriculture is an evolved, conscious human being whose attitude towards nature is that of co-existence, not exploitation.” ~ Dr. Miguel Altieri
This Thursday, Harry Blazer interviews an outstanding leader in the world of fresh food, intelligent agriculture and a human future, Dr. Miguel Atieri.
Dr. Altieri is a professor in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at University of California, Berkeley. He has extensive knowledge and experience working with farmers and students throughout North and South America.
Dr. Altieri is the founder of Agroecology:
Agroecology is a scientific discipline that uses ecological theory to study, design, manage and evaluate agricultural systems that are productive but also resource conserving. Agroecological research considers interactions of all important biophysical, technical and socioeconomic components of farming systems and regards these systems as the fundamental units of study, where mineral cycles, energy transformations, biological processes and socioeconomic relationships are analyzed as a whole in an interdisciplinary fashion.
Agroecology is concerned with the maintenance of a productive agriculture that sustains yields and optimizes the use of local resources while minimizing the negative environmental and socio-economic impacts of modern technologies. In industrial countries, modern agriculture with its yield maximizing high-input technologies generates environmental and health problems that often do not serve the needs of producers and consumers. In developing countries, in addition to promoting environmental degradation, modern agricultural technologies have bypassed the circumstances and socio-economic needs of large numbers of resource-poor farmers. ( From What is Agroecology?)
This interview will give you the facts about o and what is fresh, healthy food, which so greatly differs from most current developed world food production and distribution. Special thanks to Harry Blazer for once again bringing us the very finest people in the world of food and a human future.
Some of the things that Dr. Altieri discusses are the challenges to urban areas to provide fresh, local food. One response to the demand is the growing phenomenon of vertical farming. In Let’s Go to the Movies, take a look at documentary, The Rise of Vertical Farming, which addresses how farmers and entreprenuers are exploring indoor farming in cities in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.
I will cover the latest in financial markets and geopolitics in Money & Markets. I will be speaking with you from Mexico City where I will be accepting the International Journalism Award from the Club de Periodistas de Mexico (Journalist Press Club of Mexico). Please post or e-mail your questions for Ask Catherine.
We really do anticipate launching our new website this week! We thought we would last week but delayed for better bug mitigation. If the site is not launched by this coming Thursday at 6pm ET, we will post the audios here. If it is launched you will find the link to login at Solari.com here. Keep your fingers crossed!
Talk to you Thursday!
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I enjoyed Harry’s interview with Miguel. It seems that if we want to maintain a human civilization we will remember to respect and nurture the soil and each other. I just reread F.H. King’s ‘Farmers of Forty Centuries’. China, Japan and the Koreas, one hundred years ago, were wasting little in their production of food. A modern example of successful greenhouse growing in soil has been developed by Jerome Osentowski in Colorado. His recent book ‘The Forest Garden Greenhouse’is inspiring. John Todd has pioneered some amazing solutions that should be more widely copied.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOAyMCN2k60
Vertical farming lacks the vitality of the sun and the soil and the beauty of the natural world. If vertical farming is using mined nutrients, where and how are these nutrients being mined? What diversity can be found in a closed container? So many questions….so glad your new website is up!
Thanks for the links. I am with you – something creepy about vertical farming. That said, it is better than no fresh food in the big cities. It is amazing what can be grown in a flower box.
This guy Miguel is a Communist. We had great American farms 150 years ago before his visions. Make people responsible for their own food again. Thank you.
From my time traveling with Miguel, he did not strike me as a communist – more like someone who believed that people should be free to optimize and to be productive and in complex ways. You sound similar – let the small players be productive. He is very impressed with what the campesinos have achieved.
A W E S O M E ! ! !
Web site VERY well done …………… CONGRATULATIONS!!!!
Thanks! Glad to be back up!
Yeah, the website is up! Congratulations!
Najat:
Thanks so much for your help!
Catherine