Policy & Technical Writing

Neonicotinoids have been the number one insecticide group since the mid 1990s. They have been widely used throughout the United States and quickly spread to Europe. Over the last 25 years, there has been a concurrent phenomenon between neonicotinoid use and pollinator decline.

It all begins with an idea. Maybe you want to launch a business. Maybe you want to turn a hobby into something more. Or maybe you have a creative project to share with the world. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Mole is borne out of culture, and it is timeless. It transcends the unpredictability of humanity - from the Zapotecs and their complex cohabitation with the Mixtecs, to the slaughter of both civilisations by the Aztecs and the colonial subjugation by the Spaniards. It has existed despite this turmoil and alongside the Oaxacan people, acting as an anchor to the past. In the subsequent pages the author will advocate for the distinction of mole as an Intangible Heritage separate from the Michoacán Paradigm.

Throughout the centuries agriculture has been an exceptional sector, responsible for feeding and fueling nations, integral to the creation of empires, and helping to alleviate hunger throughout the world. The stubborn belief that agriculture is exceptional has led to a precariatisation of the labour force, historically from the economic periphery (once called developing countries).

This value chain analysis will follow the corporate and economic actors along Unilever’s tea supply chain and will focus on tea sourced from Kenya. Unilever is the leading tea manufacturer, the 2nd largest tea purchaser in the world, and they employ over 20,000 employees in Kenya (Kenyan Human Rights Commission, 2008, pp. 7). Unilever received a lot of press when they released their Sustainability Plan (Unilever, 2019) and again when they published their tea supply chain in 2019 (Unilever, 2019).

A Tribal Conservation Advisory Committee (TCAC) is a federally recognized tribal council that allows for the identification and resolution of natural resource issues on tribal lands. The purpose of a TCAC is to effectively translate the unique conservation needs of tribes—needs that are often deeply rooted in traditional ecological knowledge—to fit the often narrow scope of federal funding guidelines.

Salmon graces the menus of hundreds of Portland restaurants — lovingly poached in butter, pan seared with tarragon, or grilled with a fresh wring of lemon, coaxing consumers with its bright sunset-coloured hue. Reminiscent of the wild waters and streams in which it swam, it is evocative of its mountainous and wooded locale. Portland, Oregon is squarely situated in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, sharing the Columbia River with Washington state. For those culinarily inclined, Oregon is overflowing with natural bounty - and here, Salmon is King.

Food Sovereignty and notions of sustainability are experiencing a renaissance in public discourse — I say this with the caveat that I am speaking about Western/Northern countries; the global south and Indigenous communities have used traditional cultivation practices throughout time. From the 1970s onward, the pace at which industrialized nations transitioned towards industrial agriculture was swift and aided by governmental deference for business, resulting in corporate agriculture — or Agrifood.

The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted the incongruent rhetoric between the WHO guidelines and the treatment of agricultural labourers in EU member states and the US states. As the pandemic spread, WHO recommended that individuals maintain a social distance of 1 to 2 metres. However, housing and working conditions in the horticultural sector are not conducive to social distancing measures (Perez, 2020; Murray, 2020; Grant, 2020; Paun, 2020). The precarity of this workforce is largely migrants who endure poor conditions, are beholden to restrictive labour contracts, lack advocates in case of emergencies (such as Covid-19), and routinely work to live.