Nil by Mouth: Food, Farming, Science and Sustainability

The question of food is central to the issue of sustainability – it is literally what sustains us on a day to day basis, but food production contributes 30% of the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. 30% of the world’s population is malnourished and another 30% is obese. Food production uses 70% of the world’s fresh water and 40% of the world’s land. Developed countries waste 30%-40% of food.

The Nil by Mouth: Food, Farming, Science and Sustainability project kicks off Friday with a workshop between the four selected artists/collectives and scientists involved in the Scottish Government’s Strategic Research Programme Environmental Change; Food, Land and People.  Nil by Mouth is an initiative of the Crichton Carbon Centre in partnership with Wide Open.

Over the past few days we’ve seen, thanks to a variety of supporters, a number of interesting articles:

Suzanne Benton highlighted an article, Now This Is Natural Food, from the New York Times on farming, soil and perennial polycultures.

We just highlighted Common Ground’s new programme of work on Fields, including this outstanding manifesto, but it’s worth flagging it again.

And finally the obituary of Joan Thirsk, historian of agriculture was published in the Guardian.  The latter two are very much English, and the former is Kansas.  We wonder what Nil by Mouth can contribute from a Scottish perspective?

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