FullCircles Canada Blog

By Mark Kinver 
Science and environment reporter, BBC News

A sustainable global food system in the 21st Century needs to be built on a series of “new fundamentals”, according to a leading food expert.

Tim Lang warned that the current system, designed in the 1940s, was showing “structural failures”, such as “astronomic” environmental costs.

The new approach needed to address key fundamentals like biodiversity

If you think you’ll end up with a pile of presents you really don’t want this Christmas, don’t worry! Help is at hand…

More proof that giving is good for your health

“Several studies over the years have found links between altruistic behavior and improved physical and psychological health,” says Dr. Ann Vincent, an internal medicine physician at Mayo Clinic who researches the mind-body connection. “In general, I think altruism makes people feel better about themselves, which often translates into improved physical health. Other benefits that have been attributed to positive emotions include: enhanced creativity and ability to cope with stress and broadened cognition. In essence, thinking positively about ourselves is good for our physical and mental health.” 

Traditionally, a country’s economic health and well-being is measured by something called the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or its cousin, the Gross National Product (GNP). The media eagerly reports the number on a monthly basis and its rise or fall is used as an indicator of how well things are progressing or not. A recession, for instance, is defined as two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. But it’s really just a measure of national spending with no distinctions between transactions that add to well-being and those that diminish it. As long as money changes hands, the GDP increases.

Living La Vida Cluttered

What’s Slowing You Down?

It’s all your stuff! Do you realize that your stuff owns you, not the other way around? Well I’ve been realizing this lesson once again as I pack for a small move. Every piece of stuff that you own weighs you down a little bit, and when you add it all together it can weigh you down a lot, not just physically, but mentally too. Clear the clutter and you clear your mind!

In the past few months, though, as the economy has waned, things have started to boom on the local Freecycle site. Users put up a record number of posts in August, then broke that record in September, and set yet another record in November.

As the economy has sagged, and as the number of posts has increased, people on the lookout for freebies have started asking for more and more, and the sob stories from people wanting things have become more and more elaborate.

It’s keeping the moderators – as they are called, people who work for nothing monitoring the various posts, enforcing the local rules – plenty busy.

Moderators have had to start sending out periodic messages to registered users, reiterating the local rules: no offers to give away pets, no asking for pets, don’t post Christmas wish lists and eliminate the sob stories.

So the sad tales have been banned, along with the offers of pet kittens and requests for gift cards.