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Daniel Martin Varisco

Daniel Martin Varisco is an anthropologist and historian who specializes on Yemen's agricultural heritage. He blogs at Tabsir.net. (dmvarisco@gmail.com)

Agriculture
Food Sovereignty vs. Food Aid: Why Small-Scale Farming Suffers

Food Sovereignty vs. Food Aid: Why Small-Scale Farming Suffers

Daniel Martin Varisco

( Tabsir.net ) – The early major civilizations in the Middle East and Asia with their head start several millennia ago had one thing in common: an agricultural base that fed not only people but led to development of states and their services. Major river systems like the Nile and Tigris/ Euphrates, the Ganges of […]

Food Security
Ukraine Crisis: Yemen urgently needs Seeds to Avoid Famine given Global Wheat Shortages

Ukraine Crisis: Yemen urgently needs Seeds to Avoid Famine given Global Wheat Shortages

Daniel Martin Varisco

(Special to Informed Comment) – On top of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis created by a seven year war, Yemen is facing a new threat to feeding its people due to the impact of the Ukraine crisis. The FAO points out that almost half of the population is “undernourished” with famine conditions in some areas. […]

Houthi
Biden is Right to end US involvement in Bloody Yemen Conflict, but he Needs to end the War itself

Biden is Right to end US involvement in Bloody Yemen Conflict, but he Needs to end the War itself

Daniel Martin Varisco

Glen Cove, N.Y. (Special to Informed Comment) – President Biden’s about face on Saudi support for the war in Yemen, including setting aside the disastrous idea of designating the Huthis as a unique set of “terrorists”, is a hopeful step, but the road to peace is a steep climb. As noted by a recent report […]

Yemen
Kashoggi, Yemen and the War on Journalism

Kashoggi, Yemen and the War on Journalism

Daniel Martin Varisco

(MENA Tidningen) – For the past week, the news cycle on the Middle East has been focused, for obvious reasons, on the murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Kashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. Turkish authorities claim that they have hard evidence for the murder, which the Saudis are finding it […]

Saudi Arabia
Saudi: The Banana Republic with very few Bananas

Saudi: The Banana Republic with very few Bananas

Daniel Martin Varisco

Stockholm ( MENA Tidningen) – The Saudis are feeling offended that another country might criticize their dismal record of human rights. Last August Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland tweeted that a Canadian citizen, Raif Badawi, and his sister Samar should be released from a Saudi prison. Their arrest was due to their promotion of human […]

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