By Thomas Beard
Posted on May 21, 2013
“For me, as an ethnographer and filmmaker,” Jean Rouch once remarked, “there is almost no boundary between documentary film and films of fiction. The cinema, the art of the double, is already the transition from the real world to the imaginary world, and ethnography, the science of the thought systems of others, is a permanent crossing point from one conceptual universe to another; acrobatic gymnastics, where losing one’s footing is the least of the risks.”
By JULIE CRESWELL
Published: March 18, 2013
“From the potato fields of Michigan to the high prairies of Kansas, farmers are receiving record prices for their land — but economists and banking regulators warn that this boom, like so many before it, could end badly.
Across the American heartland, farmland prices are soaring. In places like Waco, Neb., and Chickasaw County, Iowa, where the boom-and-bust cycle of farming reaches deep into the psyche, some families are selling the land that they have worked for generations, to cash in while they can.”
By Benjamin Yeh
“It was just a simple idea I had,” Lai said. “If I was to safeguard Taiwan, I would have to plant trees.”
For the past three decades, Lai has bought and planted thousands of trees every year, often with his own hands.
Today his efforts can be seen in the 130 hectares of mountainsides near Greater Taichung covered with 270,000 deep-rooted trees, representing indigenous species such as Taiwan incense cedar and Cinnamomum micranthum.
by DAN CHARLES
For years, I’ve been hearing stories about the changing agricultural landscape of the northern plains. Grasslands are disappearing, farmers told me. They’re being replaced by fields of corn and soybeans.
On Kraft owner Philip Morris’ foresight with regards to processed foods
“As Philip Morris came under pressure for nicotine and cigarettes, it eventually started looking at the food divisions in light of the emerging obesity crisis. And there were moments in these internal documents where Philip Morris officials were saying to the food division, ‘You guys are going to face a problem with salt, sugar, fat in terms of obesity of the same magnitude, if not more than [what] we’re facing with nicotine right now. And you’ve got to start thinking about this issue and how you’re going to deal with that.’ “
by DAN CHARLES
This week, the Supreme Court will take up a classic David-and-Goliath case. On one side, there’s a 75-year-old farmer in Indiana named Vernon Hugh Bowman; on the other, the agribusiness giant Monsanto.
The farmer is fighting the long reach of Monsanto’s patents on seeds — but he’s up against more than just Monsanto. The biotech and computer software industries are taking Monsanto’s side.
Bowman also is battling a historic shift that’s transformed the nation’s seed business over the past 20 years.
