One Fifth of China’s Soil Contaminated

The title of this post says it all. China’s Environmental Protection Ministry has released a report of an official study conducted between 2005 and 2013, which showed that 16.1% of China’s soil and 19.4% of its arable land are contaminated, principally with excessive levels of cadmium, nickel and arsenic. It is well known that China’sContinueContinue reading “One Fifth of China’s Soil Contaminated”

Forging an Agriculture for All

Here is my latest ‘Activisionary’ article, getting to grips with engaging people in a food culture and analysing current (and future) opportunities for people to get involved with food localism. For more of my work at activisionary please visit http://activisionary.org.uk/author/ben-eagle/ The farmer-philosopher Fred Kirschenmann wrote an essay entitled ‘On Becoming Lovers of the Soil’ inContinueContinue reading “Forging an Agriculture for All”

A focus on soil

A focus on soilhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03s645l BBC Farming Today this week focused last week on arguably our most precious resource: soil. Soil isn’t a single substance but a vastly complex combination of organisms which all need to be cared for properly. If a soil is too wet, too dry or too compact it will not function as wellContinueContinue reading “A focus on soil”

The Need for Food Education – not a new issue

A few days ago I had a conversation with a local historian about a subject matter relevant to some research that I have been doing for a few years now regarding my local area. One of the themes that we discovered as a result of this conversation is that ideas tend to repeat themselves inContinueContinue reading “The Need for Food Education – not a new issue”