Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Monty Don, new head of UK Soil Assn, calls for wholesale change of food system
Russia’s collective farms: hot capitalist property
China raises, extends fertiliser export duties
Raj Patel on the mystery ingredients in our food
This US election year an unprecedented number of voters will likely head to the polls to cast their ballots in an exercise that should take just a few minutes to complete. But what about the rest of the minutes left in the year? Author and activist Chris Carlsson has some suggestions for social change beyond voting in Nowtopia, a new book about modern day rebels who, in his words, “aren’t waiting for an institutional change from on-high but are getting on with building the new world in the shell of the old.”
“Come to the table,” Slow Food Nation invited. And come to San Francisco over Labor Day weekend they did—around 50,000 people attending perhaps the largest food celebration in American history.
Tables and straw bales appeared in the heart of the city’s Civic Center around a victory garden on about a quarter of an acre that had replaced a lawn. It was surrounded by a huge marketplace, which was like an old-fashioned farmers’ market that gets food directly from the farm to the fork, bypassing corporate super-markets.
Slow Food brings many issues to the table
Sewage sludge: Too good to waste?
Was the organic food revolution just a fad? Fear for farmers as shoppers tighten belts
As food prices soar, Brazil and Argentina react in opposite ways
Switzerland: Contract farming co-ops show organic growth
Dmitry Orlov writes: “[Don’t] neglect to look at boats as an important element of your post-collapse preparations. Ian’s article takes this subject, which for most people resides in the realm of daydreams, and brings it down to the level of practical reality.”
If we had to, we could have survived on are garden alone through the fall and winter. All because we really wanted to do it and nothing was going to stop us. So we found ways to extend the seasons, and to use them to our advantage. Article includes ten reasons to grow a 4-season garden, what crops to grow, and when to grow them.
Cultivating a suburban foodshed (audio and video)
Talking directly, and kindly, to believers in the eco life – (profile of “Ask Umbra”)
Little Farm in the City(text and video)
“Stuffed & Starved” by Raj Patel – a review
An interview with Bob Waldrop
Cambodians eat rats to beat global food crisis
Why urban farming isn’t just for foodies
Eight years ago my husband Richard and I, the eccentric new kids on the block, snuffed out our front and back lawns with sheets of cardboard and turkey mulch and planted edibles. Lately, in my strolls around the ’hood I’ve noticed more than a few shrinking or altogether disappeared lawns, some sporting edible replacements. It appears as though rising food and energy costs have finally hit mainstream and human adaptability may be kicking in.
Masanobu Fukuoka, 1913-2008 – Long live ‘do-nothing farming’
Australia’s gardening icon Peter Cundall going strong at 81
Rich countries once used gunboats to seize food. Now they use trade deals
Plan seeks neighborhood leaders in capital city
Rediscovering bicycles, and her inner kid
New bike commuters hit the classroom, then the road
Pinching pennies like your grandparents
National Geographic on Our Good Earth: The future rests on the soil beneath our feet
Let them eat rats
Food, fuel and water crises converging
Tackling the global fertilizer crisis (Bangladesh)
TVA fertilizer technology used worldwide — but few new products since 1970s
