Resilience

The Seed Underground

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:41:00 GMT

A delightful and thoroughly enjoyable read: in my many years of reading environmental books there aren't many I could say that about. I found The Seed Undergound on a table at the home of a member of Transition Mar Vista/Venice, at an open house (open garden) as part of last month's 100+ home Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase.

Spring Time?

Wed, 22 May 2013 11:11:00 GMT

I have ruminated enough times on this blog about climate change that it should no longer pop up its ugly head, and yet it never ceases to amaze me as to how well it lends itself to a quick article. As homesteaders, so many of our daily activities lead to the out-of-doors, and therefore keeps us connected to nature and all her changing faces.

Guerilla Gardeners Transform London, One Bus Stop at a Time

Tue, 21 May 2013 10:57:00 GMT

The Edible Bus Stop (EBS) is a gardening project trying to transform neglected spaces throughout London into vibrant green patches of community engagement. The project is due to launch May 18, 2013 at the Grand Opening event, ‘Donate a Plant’ at the Landor Road Garden.

So Much Wasted Energy - Rethinking food waste

Mon, 20 May 2013 13:01:00 GMT

Regardless of terminology, one point is writ clear: the most technologically and economically advanced cultures in the world have the highest rates of food waste on the planet

Foodlab Detroit Fosters New Business Paradigm, Jobs

Mon, 20 May 2013 12:01:00 GMT

As Detroit recovers from staggering unemployment due to the mass exodus of the auto industry, small business creation is now being touted by many locals as a better solution for resiliency, higher wages and employment stability than big business recruitment. But starting a new business from a dream with little business experience can be daunting, especially without the capital to carry you through early mistakes.

Mundraub.org: Sharing our common fruit

Fri, 17 May 2013 14:16:00 GMT

In a rural area in the former East Germany, late summer 2009: Shimmering heat, the intense odor of fermenting fruits is in the air. A tree covered with hundreds of juicy pears, and a foot-high layer of rotting fruit on the ground. A stone’s throw away – plums, mirabelles, elder bushes and every now and then an apple tree along the path, maybe of an old, rare variety. An abundance of fresh fruit – in normal seasons, much more than needed to feed birds, insects and other animals – forgotten, abandoned, unused.

Counting the Calories and calories

Thu, 16 May 2013 13:54:00 GMT

As soon as we step out of our homes in pursuit of food, we cross an energy threshold that is worth considering.

The Corporate Enclosure of Seeds Intensifies

Thu, 16 May 2013 11:09:00 GMT

If you think that a farmer ought to be able to use the seeds from one crop in the next season, you are entertaining illegal ideas.

Lawns Of Purple and Gold

Thu, 16 May 2013 09:50:00 GMT

We burn 800 million gallons of gas mowing lawns, and statisticians say that we spill 17 million gallons every year just refilling our lawn machines. If so, that beats the Exxon Valdez spill of 10 million gallons.

Reexamining Rationing

Wed, 15 May 2013 13:23:00 GMT

Recent interviews with Stan Cox author of Any Way You Slice It: The Past, Present, and Future of Rationing and book excerpt.

Organic No-Till

Wed, 15 May 2013 10:01:00 GMT

Many farmers consider organic no-till the ‘holy grail’ of regenerative agriculture because it combines the best of both worlds: reduced soil disturbance and no chemicals. Its development, however, came about as innovations so often do: by accident.

Water - May 14

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:48:00 GMT

•Water increasingly crucial in energy policies, experts say •Acidification: the latest unknown for stressed Arctic ecosystem •Rivers Carry Away Waste Heat Form Power Plants at a Cost to the Environment •Safe drinking water disappearing fast in Bangladesh •Land O' Lakes: Melting Glaciers Transform Alpine Landscape •Our Earth Hangout: Clean Water for All

Food & agriculture - May 14

Tue, 14 May 2013 10:25:00 GMT

•Science as Dialogue: What My Garden and I Are Discussing in 2013

•Biofuels a big cause of famine

•Food Price Inflation as Redistribution: Towards a New Analysis of Corporate Power in the World Food System

•Over half the world's population could rely on food imports by 2050 – study

•Agriculture and Livestock Remain Major Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Rethinking hot dinners and cold drinks

Mon, 13 May 2013 15:21:00 GMT

Data sometimes hurts, especially when it hits home. Just when it seemed like we could blame the farmer, the processor, and the distributor for our food energy woes, lo and behold, our constant culinary vacillations between hot and cold have conspired to put the American kitchen in the crosshairs of our food energy hunt.

Food ENERGY: Processing

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:06:00 GMT

It is difficult to say whether our eating habits are driven by changes in the food system or vice versa.

The global land grab: The new enclosures

Thu, 09 May 2013 13:54:00 GMT

Consider this. It is 1607. The English have been taking lands in Ireland for several centuries. First written down in the 7th century, Irish customary law is sophisticated and still administered by trained traditional magistrates (Brehons). Now rulings in the English courts on Gavelkind (1605) and Tanistry (1607) finally deny that customary law delivers property rights. Family holdings are made tenancies of by now well established Anglo-Irish elites, and the commons, crucial to grazing and hunting, are made more absolutely the property of the elites and new waves of English and Scottish settlers. Irish communities may use the commons at the will of these new owners.

VIDEO: The Great Laws of Nature: Indigenous Organic Agriculture Documentary

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:45:53 GMT

Let's reconnect with our relatives in nature... The plant beings. Here's how: A group of First Nations People in Saskatchewan Canada are reclaiming their Indigenous organic and natural agricultural heritage, reconnecting with Nature, learning and observing her natural laws, and getting back on the road to self-reliance.

The future of protein

Wed, 08 May 2013 14:05:00 GMT

We come from a long line of bug eaters. Our earliest primate ancestors were insectivores, and our closest living relatives, the chimpanzees, make rudimentary tools to fish termites out of narrow tunnels in their mounds. Among the laws of Leviticus codified by the Israelites millennia ago is permission to eat “the locust after its kind, and the bald locust after its kind, and the cricket after its kind, and the grasshopper after its kind.” Roman naturalist Pliny wrote that beetle grubs were so prized that they were fattened on meal to enhance their flavor. And the German explorer Heinrich Barth wrote in his 1857 Travels and Discoveries in North and Central Africa that people who ate locusts could “enjoy not only the agreeable flavor of the dish, but also take a pleasant revenge on the ravagers of their fields.”

Eating Rich, Living Poor: DIY Food By Necessity

Wed, 08 May 2013 12:54:00 GMT

It started disastrously. Three bare months before my partner and I moved, at the start of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, I was diagnosed with celiac disease. There was no cure, only a strict diet to be followed. No more gluten, which meant wheat, rye, or barley. Those three ingredients seemed to be in everything. No cookies, no crackers, no soups, no bread, no pasta, no potpies. Nothing. I couldn’t even add soy sauce to my stir fry. It was winter and the cold was already taking a toll on me. Long, cloudy months lowered my spirits. Winter cut through my jacket and bit at my bones.

Farming with fire: Revaluing a Japanese agricultural tradition

Tue, 07 May 2013 14:20:00 GMT

Many Japanese people probably think of yakihata (’burned field’ agriculture) as something of the past, or may even consider it primitive. It is not a familiar topic and most people have likely never seen it. Yet, surprisingly, yakihata still takes place around Japan today.

Practicing Commons in Community Gardens: Urban Gardening as a Corrective for Homo Economicus

Tue, 07 May 2013 08:05:00 GMT

“In these times of ever more blatant marketing of public space, the aspiration to plant potatoes precisely there – and without restricting entry – is nothing less than revolutionary,” writes Sabine Rohlf in her book review of Urban Gardening.1 Indeed, we can observe the return of gardens to the city everywhere and see it as an expression of a changing relationship between the public and the private. And it is not only this dominant differentiation in modern society that is increasingly becoming blurred; the differences between nature and society as well as that between city and countryside are fading as well, at least from the perspective of urban community gardeners.

Michael Pollan on How Reclaiming Cooking Can Save Our Food System, Make Us Healthy & Grow Democracy

Tue, 07 May 2013 07:12:00 GMT

We spend the hour with Michael Pollan, one of the country’s leading writers and thinkers on food and food policy. Pollan has written several best-selling books about food, including "The Omnivore’s Dilemma," and "In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto." In his latest book, "Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation," Pollan argues that taking back control of cooking may be the single most important step anyone can take to help make our food system healthier and more sustainable. "There is a deliberate effort to undermine food culture to sell us processed food," Pollan says. "The family meal is a challenge if you’re General Mills or Kellogg or one of these companies, or McDonald’s, because the family meal is usually one thing shared." Pollan also talks about the "slow food" movement. "Slow food is about food that is good, clean and fair. They’re concerned with social justice. They’re concerned with how the food is grown and how humane and chemical-free it is." He adds, "Slow food is about recovering that space around the family and keeping the influence of the food manufacturers outside of the house. ... The family meal is very important. It’s the nursery of democracy."

Food Movement: Wheels, Water, Rail, and Air

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:25:00 GMT

When we hit the distribution issue, we see the challenge of taking on the Goliaths of the food world with nothing but a slingshot in the form of a pickup truck.

Convinced that food can save America

Mon, 06 May 2013 15:17:00 GMT

It’s hard to overestimate the importance of food. Yet, sometimes it appears just as hard for food writers to avoid hype.

Difficult Words #5: Illth

Mon, 06 May 2013 11:09:00 GMT

The first thing to know is that illth is a real word which you can find in Volume VII of the Oxford English Dictionary. It was coined in 1860 by John Ruskin, the English writer, artist, philanthropist and all-around too-smart-guy-with-spot-on-taste. Ruskin, from his vantage point in the cockpit of the industrial revolution, realized that reality had outpaced the language. In an era of spectacular explosions of riches and astounding leaps in material culture — that is, the stuff that we have access to — there was something else happening, too. That something was the opposite of wealth, which he termed illth.