COVID on USA campuses and in India news reports

    Reporting from The New York Times gives us a good look as to what’s happening on college campuses, and then the current crisis in India. What has caused the crisis? Poor government policies? Poor preparedness? New variants? Lagging vaccination rates? The New York Times reports, all important information, from a FoodWISE perspective: COVID…

FoodWISE, why quality matters, and beliefs about the fall

Gigi Berardi reads on food quality and why it matters in FoodWISE—and reflects on how “why quality matters” can extend to the whole of higher education. Author Masha Gessen writes, quite optimistically, in The New Yorker, most colleges plan on a face-to-face experience in the fall. Maybe. If the colleges let students in on the…

FoodWISE and resilient farms, resilient universities

Image: Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland Gigi Berardi reads FoodWISE on agrarian evangelists and raspberry farmers trying to do the right thing—for the environment—and protect their investments. Some of the same kind of decisions are at play in colleges and universities, Katherine Long of the Seattle Times writes: tough times for colleges and universities. She offers…

FoodWISE and doing the right thing—climate, universities, farms

Gigi Berardi reads on climate change, and just why banana-production “isn’t that bad.” It’s all about—really—doing the right thing. What is clear is that colleges and universities are not—clear, as here, in the New York Times (colleges and universities opening in the fall?, talking about a hodge-podge of opening strategies in the fall: “But opening…

FoodWISE—which colleges will be open in the fall?

Gigi  reads FoodWISE and begins the discussion of farm labor in the agricultural web. She looks at a newspaper story on what is going to happen to colleges in the fall? Open or not? Her own university is open—but with many caveats. To her mind, online for the fall looks like the best bet. It’s…

FoodWISE, resilience, farm programs

  Gigi Berardi reads some from FoodWISE—on organic, certification and farm programs, and farms contributing to community. As a follow up to previous vlogs, she highlights the USDA’s official, consensus forecast for agricultural markets, known as the  World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates with Dr. Andrew Novakovic commenting (USDA’s Latest Dairy Forecast, and also on…

FoodWISE and controversy—fiscal solvency vs medical emergency

  Gigi Berardi reads from FoodWISE and explains some of the controversy around organic—a lot of controversy around organic certification. The most immediate controversy for her and her immediate constituency—students—is: Will school be face-to-face this fall? That means colleges and universities. She offers two articles, one a vehement “Yes,” because universities lose their very identity…