Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Recetas: Ni mata ni engorda

"Ni mata ni engorda" es el blog de Rubén Amorín, ourensano de pro y gallego de convicción. En su descripción, Rubén explica que:

Si me preguntasen la definición de una Cocina yo les diría: “Lugar del mundo donde se fabrican momentos de felicidad”.

Y este es el uno de los pilares de mi pasión por el Mundo Gastronómico. Esos ratos que uno pasa entre hornillos y cazuelas aportan sensaciones que convierten la comida que luego degustaremos en algo más que un mero alimento. (...) Aprecio los buenos productos, como los de esta tierra, que son la base para  crear buenas y sabrosas recetas, y desde aqui las compartiré con todos vosotros.

Mis abuelas y mi madre han sido las causantes de todo esto, enseñándome en el  día a día su buen hacer y poco a poco dejándome “solo ante el fogón”. Según ellas hay que usar siempre el mejor condimento hasta ahora conocido: cocinar sin prisas y con un toque de cariño.


Pueden consultarse las sabrosas recetas en : Ni mata ni engorda

Thursday, January 26, 2012

European Parliament: Avoiding food waste

Besides the election of a president and vice-presidents for the Parliament, one of the main subjects being debated during this session will be the food chain – imbalances in the food supply chain, the distribution chain for agricultural raw material and also food waste. Italian MEP, Salvatore Caronna (S&D) wrote a report on the latter which focused on how to avoid food waste.

According to a European Commission study, food waste in the 27 Member States of the EU has risen to 89 million tonnes (i.e. 179kg per person). By 2020, this figure is expected to have risen by a further 40% reaching 140 million tonnes. This waste includes an ever-increasing amount of foodstuffs that are still edible. However, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, by reducing post-harvest crop losses (about 14%) along with losses at distribution and consumption level, it would be possible to fulfil 3/5s of the requirements for increased cereal production needed globally by 2050.

In order to raise awareness among citizens and national governments, the Council and the European Commission have decided to act. This report recommends making the subject of food waste one of the priorities on the European policy agenda. It also suggests declaring 2013 “European Year against food waste”.

With the aim of halving food waste by 2025, this report highlights the steps to be taken to reduce it across all stages in the food chain, while keeping a close eye on the areas that will be affected – the climate and the economy to name but two.

Read More: The European Parliament  in Action

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Data collection - processing - reporting for agri-environmental policies (EUROSTAT)

This document is the result of the DireDate project's task 6. DireDate stands for 'Direct and indirect data needs linked to the farms for agri-environmental indicators'. The DireDate project is a study financed by Eurostat, European Commission, and undertaken by a consortium led by ALTERRA (NL) (Service
Contract 40701.2009.001-2009.354).
The general objective of DireDate is “to create a framework for setting up a sustainable system for collecting a set of data from farmers and other sources that will serve primarily European and national statisticians for creating the agreed 28 agri-environmental indicators (AEIs) and thus serve policy makers, but as well agricultural and environmental researchers, observers of climate change and other environmental issues linked to agriculture”.

You can read the study for more information

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Commission proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on public procurement

The Europe 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth [COM(2010) 2020] is based on three interlocking and mutually reinforcing priorities: developing an economy based on knowledge and innovation; promoting a low-carbon, resource-efficient and competitive economy; and fostering a high-employment economy delivering social and territorial cohesion.
Public procurement plays a key role in the Europe 2020 strategy as one of the market-based instruments to be used to achieve these objectives by improving the business environment and conditions for business to innovate and by encouraging wider use of green procurement supporting the shift towards a resource efficient and low-carbon economy. At the same time, the Europe 2020 strategy stresses that public procurement policy must ensure the most efficient use of public funds and that procurement markets must be kept open Union-wide.
This proposal has two complementary objectives:
• Increase the efficiency of public spending to ensure the best possible procurement outcomes in terms of value for money. This implies in particular a simplification and flexibilisation of the existing public procurement rules. Streamlined, more efficient procedures will benefit all economic operators and facilitate the participation of SMEs and cross-border bidders.
• Allow procurers to make better use of public procurement in support of common societal goals such as protection of the environment, higher resource and energy efficiency, combating climate change, promoting innovation, employment and social inclusion and ensuring the best possible conditions for the provision of high quality social services.

For more information, please read the proposal.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Aeiraland cultiva las primeras trufas gallegas

AeiraLand es la primera empresa de Galicia y del Noroeste de España dedicada a la producción y comercialización de trufas. Su creación responde a un proceso que empezó como una investigación sobre la producción de este tipo de alimento en la comunidad gallega.
En la actualidad, y bajo la marca “Trufa Negra Atlántica”, la empresa ofrece variedades procedentes del arco atlántico, recogidas desde el sur de Portugal hasta el País Vasco. Debido a la inexistencia de tradición trufera en estas zonas, las trufas atlánticas son las más desconocidas, sin embargo, poseen un aroma más marcado que las más famosas de las áreas mediterráneas. Como resultado de un proyecto de investigación, AeiraLand ha realizado plantaciones experimentales en la montaña lucense y en zonas de la provincia de Ourense, con el objetivo de poder lanzar al mercado, en un futuro próximo, las primeras trufas gallegas del mundo. Existen varias zonas del territorio gallego, especialmente asociadas a las montañas de O Courel, que tienen un alto potencial como área de producción.
Hasta la fecha, se han plantado 10 hectáreas en la provincia de Lugo, y una pequeña parcela en Ourense. Para ello, se han utilizado distintas especies de árboles (encinas, robles, castaños y pinos) micorrizados, con diferentes especies de trufa (Tuber Melanosporum, Tuber Aestivum y Tuber Borchii). Las condiciones de los suelos y el clima de los espacios en los que se encuentran las plantaciones favorecen la intensidad de su aroma y sabor.

Mas Informacion y Fuente: Revista de Innovacion

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Author Carol Deppe on growing ‘lots of delicious food for the least possible work’

As weather patterns change and fossil fuel supplies dwindle, communities have to start thinking about food resilience. How can farmers and gardeners grow and preserve food amid rapidly changing weather conditions, and without easy access to cheap industrial fertilizers? In her new book, The Resilient Gardener: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times, longtime gardener and scientist Carol Deppe digs into just such questions.

You can read her interview at GRIST

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Urban agriculture digs in: ploughing ahead, in the city

In the last decade, urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) have resurged in the North: in most European cities, waiting lists for allotments have grown, and city farms and school farms blossomed. However, most UPA still blends the frugal and the recreational, with a few financially viable urban farms getting by through the mutual benefits of employing special-needs patients in 'care-farming'. However after a recent launch conference of the Greater Liverpool Food Alliance (GLFA) in north-west England, urban agriculture is being seen as a tool of resilience for crisis-hit Western economies.
In the early 2000s, a World Health Organization report claimed that the commercial farmers of Greater London, plus its registered individual 'allotment' plots, produced some 9,400 tonnes of fruit and vegetables annually. Representing a mere two per cent of London's minimum recommended intake (FAO: 2 pieces of fruit, 200 grams of vegetables daily), it bears no comparison to the 80 per cent of all vegetables grown and consumed in Accra or Hanoi.
That such statistics are hard to find today for Liverpool, the fourth city of a major OECD country is a legacy of when food security had fallen off the agendas of most city managers. Few Western cities can actually answer the innocent query "how big is your city's harvest?" with either ease or pride. In North America, interest is richest in cities with high eco-awareness (the north-west) or in the coping strategies of places knocked down by recession, such as Detroit.
MAINSTREAMING URBAN AGRICULTURE
This is not really the foundation stone of a resilient, pro-active, food-secure city in a century of untold variabilities and vicious vulnerability - a notion much used at the GLFA conference held in July, 2010. Max Steinberg, CEO of sponsoring agency Liverpool Vision, made clear that the city's economic development company has no doubts about the core strategic role of UPA. "Most current urban agriculture projects focus on achieving social objectives. What differentiates this initiative is its focus on economic viability. Urban agriculture needs to become part of the mainstream economy, one of the key industries for a low-carbon, post-industrial society."
Aware that Liverpool is no early-adopter of UPA, the conference allowed practitioners (and bankers, community care agencies, business counsellors, dieticians, traders, retailers plus procurement agencies) to exchange experiences and aspirations. "The 85 attendees had enough ideas for ten times that number," smiled one organiser in UrbanAg. This community-interest company is co-funded by Liverpool Vision who, incidentally, describe their highly adaptable city as being "on the up". External reports of a soaring coriander crop, thanks to recent Somali immigrants, testify to this.

Read More at the New Agriculturist

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Community-based Food Initiatives in the UK

This article, written by Mark Stein, explains that community-based food initiatives have developed in the UK in recent years reflecting growing interest in developing local sources of food supply. Such initiatives often use volunteer labour and exploit urban land which is otherwise underutilised. They strengthen bonds within communities and can be particularly helpful for people with disabilities.
Community-based food businesses are not primarily engaged in the pursuit of profit although ideally they will be able to survive in the long term without public sector grant funding. They aim to reconnect people in a particular locality with food growing in the belief that this will lead to better nutrition, greener food production and more local jobs.
The context for the growth of these businesses is a radical critique of the current UK food system such as that expressed by the Hackney-based social enterprise Growing Communities in its “Manifesto for Feeding Cities" published in 2010:
“Currently the supermarkets and agri-business control our food. The centralised and industrialised system they have developed has provided us with plentiful, cheap food but at enormous cost to the environment and communities."
For reading the article, please click here.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Les Français préfèrent consommer local

Les Français sont réticents face à la mondialisation et privilégient l'achat de produits et services locaux pour faire vivre l'économie de proximité, selon un sondage Ifop.
Pour vivre heureux, consommons local. C'est ce qui ressort d'un sondage Ifop* paru mardi. A la question, "la mondialisation est-elle bénéfique pour l'économie locale?", trois Français sur quatre se sont déclarés "pas d'accord".  Dans le détail, 49% d'entre eux ne sont "plutôt pas d'accord" et 26% ne sont "pas du tout d'accord", selon cette étude commanditée par le loueur de voiture ADA. Pour 89% des personnes interrogées, "plus l'économie se mondialise, plus il est important de privilégier l'économie locale", contre 11% en désaccord avec cette idée. Une majorité des sondés (64%) n'est pas d'accord avec la phrase: "la mondialisation est une tendance positive", 32% étant "plutôt d'accord".Selon l'étude, une grande majorité d'entre eux (89%) privilégie "les produits et services locaux à prix équivalents ou moins chers". Parmi les raisons invoquées pour justifier l'achat de produits et services locaux, 71% estiment qu'il s'agit de "faire vivre l'économie locale". Pour 33% des Français, "les produits et services locaux inspirent davantage confiance" et 32% évoquent "un geste écologique". Dans le détail, 40% des moins de 25 ans et 41% des cadres déclarent que "c'est plus écologique". Enfin, 88% des sondés se disent "satisfaits des offres de produits et services locaux de proximité".
*Ce sondage a été réalisé en ligne entre le 11 et 13 octobre 2011 auprès d'un échantillon de 1.027 personnes représentatif de la population française âgée de 18 ans et plus.

Source: TF1