Texting on the Farm: Mobile Technology Provides Farmers with Useful Information in India

by NourishingthePlanet

According to the U.N. Population Division, over 70 percent of Indians live in rural areas and over half of all Indians are farmers. Yet access to technology and information in many areas is limited, meaning farmers are often left uninformed and at the mercy of erratic weather and disease and pest outbreaks. And even in good growing conditions, farmers may not have access to price information that could help them negotiate with buyers or decide which markets to bring their products to.

But across rural India, mobile phones are quickly becoming an indispensable tool for farmers, helping to shrink the information gap.

http://blogs.worldwatch.org/...

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Making Water Clean with Dirt (New 2 Minute Episode of Nourishing the Planet TV)

by NourishingthePlanet

In this week’s episode, Nourishing the Planet research intern, Elena Davert, introduces a counter-intuitive method of cleaning water. In 2004 Peter Njodzeka founded the Life and Water Development Group Cameroon (LWDGC) with a rather simple goal. “ I wanted to see the people in my area have clean water,” he said. “And we kept expanding. That’s how it started.” Now, LWDGC, with support from Engineers without Borders (EWB) and Thirst Relief International, is teaching households how to use dirt and bacteria to clean their water, greatly improving the quality of drinking water and all but eliminating diseases caused by contaminated water.

Here is the link: http://bit.ly/...

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NtP TV: Acting it Out for Advocacy

by NourishingthePlanet

Nourishing the Planet is excited to introduce a whole new way to experience innovative projects and practices that are helping to alleviating hunger and poverty around the world. A new weekly video series, NtP TV brings you images, interviews and more in-depth information about different agricultural innovation. Get to know the NtP team and the innovations we are highlighting regularly, and stay tuned for more NtP TV in the coming weeks!

In this week's episode, Nourishing the Planet Research Fellow, Molly Theobald, highlights Food and Natural Resource Policy Analysis Network's (FANRPAN) Theatre for Policy Advocacy project to explain how the organization is using theater to help improve the livelihoods of rural farmers -- especially women.

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Understanding Consumers’ Responses to Genetic Engineering

by NourishingthePlanet

This is the third and final part of an interview with plant geneticist Pamela Ronald and organic farmer Raoul Adamchak. They are co-authors of Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food. You can also feel free to check out Part 1 and Part 2 on the Worldwatch Institute's Nourishing the Planet.

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The Many Misconceptions About Genetic Engineering and Organic Agriculture

by NourishingthePlanet

This is the second of three parts of an interview with plant geneticist Pamela Ronald and her husband, organic farmer Raoul Adamchak. They are co-authors of the book Tomorrow’s Table: Organic Farming, Genetics, and the Future of Food. Check out Nourishing the Planet for more and our Daily Kos diary on Tuesday for the first part of the series.

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Creating Food Sovereignty for Small-Scale Farmers

by BorderJumpers

This interview with Raj Patel, award-winning writer, activist and academic, was originally featured as a two part series on Nourishing the Planet.

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