Gardens of peace and reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The project isn’t just about food – reconciliation and the regaining of trust are equally important. We’re working with people who suffered a lot during the war and our main goal is to bring conflicting sides together. We’ve tried to make a secure space where thoughts and opinions can be exchanged freely; somewhere people can be useful to both the community and their families.

The secure space is in urban gardens. Great idea.

The link to the Community Gardens Association of Bosnia and Herzegovina is wrong in the article. You can find them at their website and on Facebook. Go support them, even just by making seed donations.

The economics of nutrition

Or nutrition in The Economist at any rate. Three — count them! — nutrition-related pieces in that venerable organ today for your delectation. Here come the money quotes:

People’s spending choices are a good way to assess levels of hunger. “Using data on people’s choice of what to eat leads to an estimate of hunger that is about half as large as the estimate using the standard method.” Which “typically involves fixing a calorie threshold—2,100 calories per day is a common benchmark—and trying to count how many people report eating food that gives them fewer calories than this number.”

How much can farming really improve people’s health? Haven’t read this yet, but Jeremy says the article takes you round the block, from farming has no impact, to the right kind of farming has great impact. Sounds like quite a ride.

Why small doses of vitamins could make a huge difference to the world’s health. “Public money should be concentrated not on supplying cheap food but on providing for those who do not control what they eat: babies and children.”

Meanwhile, away from the world of think-tanks and economic analysis:

Nibbles: Intensification, Turnips, Colourful breeding, Development, CGIAR Research Programs, C4 ALV, IRRI,