Back to Basics: Direct Hydropower
For almost two thousand years, water wheels powered machines directly via mechanical transmission.
Food & Water
A dialogue on sharing food
If we are concerned about stopping the enduring crime of starvation amidst plenty, we cannot restrict our actions to the level of our own country or community.
Open Pollinated: Seeds of Value
An open pollinated (OP) seed is a seed of value as it can grow into a plant true to the plant it was saved from.
Gauging the urban appetite
The agendas that are set so solemnly for international (or global) food and hunger problems cannot be used at the sub-national or local administrative level, which must analyse its own problems and find practical solutions, All too often, catering sensibly to the food needs of urban populations is ignored by policy makers, while economic ‘development’ (more infrastructure, more financing, more consumption, more personal mobility at the cost of public transport) is welcomed. The provisioning of food and the planning for shortening and localising food supply chains is usually abandoned by public administrators to the ruthless methods of the market
Saving water – headlines
•Water Works •New Mexico is the driest of the dry •Water shortages loom in Southwest, could trigger cuts •Wells Are Running Dry In Parts Of Kansas
Farming on the suburban edge
When most of us think of a typical farm, we probably imagine sprawling fields in an idyllic countryside, but many farmers have made a go of it in unexpected, underutilized, and challenging locations, sometimes within or on just outside of urban centers.
Slow Money Entrepreneur of the Year Focuses on Food Justice
Over the past five years, Revision has helped more than 240 low-income families in southwest Denver to grow food in their yards by providing needed resources and technical assistance.
“Renegade Gardener” Plots World Domination Through Home-Grown Veggies
Ron Finley grew up in South Central Los Angeles, a "food desert" where nutritious eats are chronically unavailable.
Food & agriculture – July 31
• An Agrarian Conversion: An Interview with Fred Bahnson
• U.S. program to save fragile land shrinks in size to 25-year low
• Wild crop seeds could provide £128bn boost to economy, study shows
• America’s food debates are just white men talking
• Making money from your vegetable patch
In Vermont Boat Project, A New Model for Carbon-Free Shipping
This week a new sailing barge was launched on Lake Champlain that its backers hope will soon be in the vanguard of a new carbon-neutral shipping alternative.
The Unexpected Renaissance of a Mining Town
Here is a small town that has bounced back thanks to a different vision of agriculture where scale matters, stakeholders collaborate, and, in most cases, ownership has more to do with stewardship than it does with possession.
Living laboratory for coping with drought in Brazil
The first surprise on arriving at Abel Manto’s farm is how green it is, in contrast with the dry brown surroundings. His beans and fruit trees seem oblivious to the persistent drought in the semi-arid hinterland of northeast Brazil, the worst in 50 years.
