Visiting Japan a few years ago changed the way I look at the difference between conventional and nuclear war. On August 6, 1945, Hiroshima became the target for the first atomic bomb dropped on civilian populations, a chilling example of the use of non-conventional weapons. That moment is now commemorated around the world every August. [...]

Canadian Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff released his proposed national food policy on April 26. Policy-wise, the dish makes for slim pickin’s, mostly overcooked, a bit stale, loaded with artificial sweeteners and flavors, low on basic nutrients. But that’s not the point. Ignatieff is Canada’s first major political leader to stake out ground for the next [...]

The best publisher’s freebie on the ’Net these days is the February special issue of Science devoted to Food Security. But, as with all things gratis, it rolls out a welcome mat to something else that should raise more questions than gratitude for the free pass. It’s an indicator of the potential of the emerging [...]

Wayne will be speaking about his essay in The Edible City at the Hart House Library and Literary Committee meeting on March 1 from 7 – 8:30 in the Hart House Debates room. More details found here!

A review of Raj Patel, The Value of Nothing: Why Everything Costs so Much More Than We Think (Harper Collins) I can barely contain my enthusiasm for Raj Patel’s book on the failings of market-driven societies, but at this stage of my and my younger daughter’s life, all I can think is: what a terrific [...]

The British government raised the bar on New Year’s Resolutions on January 4 when it released its 20 years worth of pledges in Food 2030. Eat more fruits and veg, lose weight, buy local, sustainable and fair trade, grow your own, stop wasting so much, make full use of people power… the list goes on. [...]

Money talks, power whispers – it’s a norm of politics that may be challenged at the Copenhagen conference, which will decide if the world’s power brokers are ready to adopt a treaty in time to prevent irreversible climate pollution. For the dozen years since the Kyoto protocol of 1997 was adopted, someone or other has [...]

Any number multiplied by 27 billion will be fairly big, so the prospects of the planet coming up with three meals a day for nine billion humans on the planet some 40 years from now has some people worried. The worrying went mainstream during 2007 when a sudden hike in the price of groceries fomented [...]

The following is an excerpt, written by Wayne, and edited by Christina Palassio and Alana Wilcoxfor The Edible City: Toronto’s Food from Farm to Fork. The Edible City: Toronto’s Food from Farm to Fork asks: if a city is its people, and its people are what they eat, then shouldn’t food play a larger role [...]

A lot of people were upset to learn that their best friend was a major global warming culprit. According to the October 23 issue of the New Scientist, pet owners can no longer look down on SUV owners as if they alone belonged in the eco-criminal doghouse. New Zealand green architects Brenda and Robert Vale [...]

Click here to listen to a great podcast featuring Wayne Roberts being interviewed by Peter Stock.  Thanks to Rabble.ca for also hosting this podcast.

The Ontario government has a new theory about the cause of the global recession. To share this breakthrough in economic analysis, Minister of Education Kathleen Wynne announced on November 2 that she will require that financial literacy be integrated into the school curriculum from grade 4 on in order to “promote a stronger economy.” According [...]

Cities Alive, the first world congress of green roofers held in Toronto, put me a little over the top, so as chair of the October 19 session on urban agriculture, I opened the event as if it were a wedding ceremony. Dearly beloved, I intoned, and went the whole nine yards on Sustainable Urban Design [...]

Sneak preview of Wayne Roberts’ controversial article from Alternatives’ new issue, Work. Watch for it newsstands next week. Suppose they had a depression and nobody came? Instead of accepting today’s economic downturn as a pink slip that can’t be refused, what if our governments reacted as if they had received a Facebook invitation: by selecting [...]

Wayne is heading to Iowa to speak at community food security coalition. While there, he’ll receive an honourable mention for the Toronto Food Policy Council for its work on food sovereignty. (They’re right next to Via Campesina!)

As we pass the first anniversary of the recession brought on by the crash and burn of houses of financial speculation and ill repute, who still remembers the great one-liner from Rahm Emanuel, chief of staff for then-presidential contender Barrack Obama, who gave his version of “a crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” As [...]

One pundit had it exactly right. It’s no wonder, he sneered, that many environmentalists ignore Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution: Borlaug “actually thinks man can do something useful by altering nature through science.” Nevertheless, on July 17, in his 93rd year, Borlaug was awarded the U.S. Congressional Gold Medal for his contributions [...]

The Gardiner Museum is hosting its third annual From the Ground Up symposium next week on September 23. This year’s topic: Fresh Thoughts on Food Security, and yes, I am one of the guest speakers.

Detroit I was in Motown speaking at a City Council meeting the day Detroit auto execs jetted into Washington to ask for the big bailout that could forestall certain bankruptcy. Though they were shown the door in Washington, the mood at Detroit City Council was anything but deathwatch. The city that’s become an icon for [...]