Green Options

The largest ever transnational operation targeting wildlife crime across Africa has resulted in the arrests of over 100 people and the seizure of more than two tons of ivory.

INTERPOL has announced that the success of “Operation Costa” - Africa’s largest ever transnational wildlife crime operation - was due to the coordinated efforts of police, national wildlife, customs and national intelligence officers across Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Kenyan and Ethiopian authorities have seized over 1,200 kilograms (2,600 pounds) of ivory - representing the killing of about 100 elephants.

Raids in the main airports of Kenya and Nairobi have netted two shipments of bloodstained tusks headed for Thailand. While the final destination is not known at the moment, these shipments may be part of the growing link between China and elephant poaching.

El Nino is blamed for changing rainfall patterns, and that, combined with inadequate harvests and increasing conflict has led to a drop in cereal production already affecting Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. This could increase the number of people relying on food aid.

Many people have never heard of teff, but this unique gluten-free grain dates back to the age of the pyramids.  Most often ground into flour to make injera, a fermented flat bread, teff has served as a primary food source in Ethiopia and Eritrea since approximately 3000 B.C.  Despite its enduring history as an African staple, teff’s presence in America is less than forty years old. In the 1970s, an entrepreneurial farmer observed a parallel between the weather of Idaho’s Snake Valley and Africa’s Great Rift Valley, and began successfully cultivating teff in the United States.

Individual grains of teff are extremely small, just 1/150th of the size of a kernel of wheat.  When cooked as a hot cereal, the tiny grains –  comparable to the size of a poppy seed — create a deliciously smooth texture.  In fact, the taste and consistency of teff porridge is more like cream of wheat than any other gluten-free whole grain I’ve prepared.

When you see teff’s impressive nutritional profile, you’ll see why it provides a compelling case for adding this gluten-free grain to your diet.

Draws upon a recent news reports in Science about the stem rust fungus, Ug99, that is sweeping the globe and threatening to decimated the world’s wheat harvests. Also, the politics behind some nation’s reluctance to give full access of their seed banks (which may possess genetic varieties of these crops that can withstand this and other diseases) to other nations.

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation has announced today that it plans to build Africa’s largest wind farm. The farm, which is being built in Ashegoba, will have a relatively impressive output of 120MW— enough power to supply 15 percent of Ethiopia’s energy needs.

Ethiopia could soon have the largest wind farm in Africa after a new deal between the country and the French company Vergnet.

Starbucks announced yesterday that it has reached a licensing agreement with the Ethiopian government regarding the marketing use of Ethiopia's well-known coffee producing regions, most notably Sidamo, Yirgacheffe and Harar.

This is the resolution to a row that Starbucks began last year when the Ethiopian government filed applications to trademark its most famous coffee names. Securing the rights to these names would enable Ethiopia to capture more value from trade, by controlling

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Tedesse Meskela at the Chicago Green Festival

The Fair Trade coffee documentary Black Gold has been screening for over a year now but becasue it wasn't released widely I had not had a chance to see it until it was shown at the Chicago Green Festival a couple weeks ago - and I was impressed. The Village Voice called it "a model of patient

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