Hey Tiger! Sometimes you gotta be up to be down. Sometimes you gotta flip the narrative. How can you do more by doing less? Less scrolling negative social feeds, more nourishing the mind. Less procrastination, more creative inspiration. Take a quick prowl through our curated jungle of positive news bites. They say a Tiger can’t change its stripes, but it can read between the lines.
When did we begin needing so much?
The hunger of rampant consumerism began when advertising grew in prominence, when Capitalists realised that there were too many goods being produced, but not enough consumers. So, they decided to warp human values with the misconstruing idea that we need things to make us happy. Today we are all hungry for something. A new job, a new challenge, a new holiday to plan for… We purchase goods as though we are in need. When all we really need is… less.
Enjoy the weekend prowl Tigers… can we practice being hungry for less?
hunger /ˈhʌŋɡə/
noun
a feeling of discomfort or weakness caused by lack of food, coupled with the desire to eat.
verb
have a strong desire or craving for.
Art: Fighting hate with food. The number of reported hate crimes in Italy has steadily increased, fuelled by incendiary populist politicians reacting to an influx of refugees and migrants. In Verona, Pier Paolo Spinazze is a street artist who goes by the name Cibo (Italian for “food”). He is being celebrated for his creative countermeasures. Whenever he encounters swastikas and other racist graffiti, he paints over them with colourful depictions of his favourite foods, from cupcakes to pizza, writes Flannery Dean. To Spinazze, food is a natural corrective to hate. It represents a language that connects people and cultures.
Watch: The future of the food ecosystem, and the power of your plate. Many people across the world don't have access to healthy food, while in other places tons of food goes to waste. Social entrepreneur Ndidi Okonkwo Nwuneli thinks we can take bold steps to fix this problem. She lays out what it would take to build a more equitable, sustainable food system that nourishes all people and asks us to widen our perspectives before eating our next meal.
Listen: The evolution of intuitive eating. Anti-diet dietitian and Intuitive Eating co-author, Evelyn Tribole dives into the research that supports intuitive eating, the impact of diet culture and the weight-loss industry. Her best-selling book, Intuitive Eating, includes a mind-body self-care eating framework with 10 principles, which has given rise to over 125 studies to date.
Long read: Doing more with less – Lessons from 50 years of UN sustainable development policy. Doughnut economics, degrowth, circular economy, and the wellbeing economy are each grounded in the idea of doing more with less. Yet in our consumerist culture, that is the hardest idea to sell. The UN’s SDG 12 outlines the need for sustainable consumption and production. This deep dive article walks us through the major trends arguing against perpetual growth since the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm.
App: Too good to go. One-third of the world’s food production goes to waste. Now a European app called Too Good to Go offers users food that is heavily discounted to about a third of the regular price. Too Good To Go has been downloaded by 22 million people in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Austria, Italy, Poland, Portugal and the U.K. Users can see which outlets in their neighbourhood have surplus food available that day, which they pick up at closing time. “Food waste contributes to eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions,” says Mette Lykke, Too Good To Go’s CEO. “Together we can fight food waste and ensure quality surplus produce doesn’t end up in the bin.”
Listen: Hunger is an inconvenience for some, and a matter of life and death to others. As Ukraine and Russia are huge grain exporters, the war is catalysing a global food crisis. Food prices everywhere are expected to rise, and there’s fear that the war might hit the poorest parts of the world hard. Tim Lang, Emeritus Professor of Food Policy at City University of London, and Dr Hannah Ritchie, Head of Research at the website Our World in Data, discuss food security. How can we rethink the food system?
Quiz: What is your foodprint? Food impacts more than your health. It impacts the environment, animals and people. What you eat, where it comes from, and how it was produced contributes to your FoodPrint — think of it as a carbon footprint, but for food. Take this 3-minute quiz to find your foodprint.
Take it Easy Tiger, and thank you to everyone who’s joined our now 18,000+ strong community of Easy Tiger and Love Mondays readers. We appreciate your readership. If you’d like to help us spread the word, we would love you to share Easy Tiger with a friend.