Crusade, with Complications
by TaoTao Holmes It’s like poking a bear,” Kristin Braddock said. “You start doing good work in a community and this is what happens. You poke the bear, you wake it up.” And after a while, Braddock discovered, the bear bites back. Braddock, who is spearheading an income generation program in Delhi, has been a social worker in India for three years....
Game: Cracking Down on Ecuador’s Illegal Meat Trade
by Aliyya Swaby: In the morning of June 11, 2011, the Ecuadorian navy publicly burned a heap of confiscated wild animal meat in front of their offices in Coca, a jungle town in the country’s northeast. The smoke from the bonfire and the smell of the meat were carried away by the wind, enveloping a...
Liberia’s Rough Road to Rice Production
by Jessica Shor: 85 percent of calories consumed in Liberia come from rice, but after decades of turmoil and war the country relies on imports to feed itself—at a steep cost. In 1979, Liberian Minister of Agriculture Florence Chenoweth proposed to raise the price of imported rice from $22 to $26 per 100-pound bag. It...
Back to the Grassroots: An Alternative Model of Rural Development Takes Root in India
by Dan Gordon: India has forgotten Gandhi. His face might be on the rupee note in everyone’s pockets, but his philosophy of self-reliant small villages is rarely on anyone’s lips. Gandhi’s once-prominent dream for a nation of agricultural villages is now regarded as nothing more than a pastoral fantasy. Policymakers have instead opted for rural...
Letter from Chile: Meeting the Keepers of the Seeds
by Diana Saverin: I sat alone in the plaza as the thick November dusk dissolved off the stones. I was in a town in southern Chile called Curarrehue: a village of a few thousand people, mostly indigenous, nestled at the base of a volcano-speckled valley, with gravel roads twisting through the passing farms. I watched...
Boricua Roast: Café-Hopping in San Juan, Tasting an Endangered Espresso
by Diego Salvatierra: I want to try Puerto Rico’s best coffee,” I told my San Juan cab driver. He drove me through the cobblestone streets of Old San Juan, the city’s colonial district, until we reached Café Cola’o, a waterfront café. Sipping my macchiato (tangy, not too bitter) out in the warm Caribbean air, I...
Q&A: A Conversation with William Trubridge
William Trubridge holds the world record in free diving. For a living, he treads water at the surface of the ocean, takes a big gulp of air, and proceeds to dive straight down more than 360 feet without any equipment to assist him. Then, he comes back to the surface without taking a breath. Free...
Recent Comments