Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
The homely and practical art of composting has implications that stretch far beyond its value as a way of maintaining soil fertility. Can it teach us to build societies less vulnerable to resource depletion and the hard realities of life on an unstable planet?
An open letter to Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources, the Hon. Gary Lunn. The author has been researching peak oil for the National Farmers Union.
Grocery stores being demolished for condos
The great-granny diet
With food, it’s not as simple as ‘buy local’
Picking roses that don’t despoil the land
Better biofuels before more biofuels
RFA’s Bob Dinneen on viability of biofuels
Britain runs out of pasta as costs soar
“Food miles”- don’t forget land use policies
Soy displaces cattle as main farm activity in Argentina
Green collar jobs study
Paul Krugman: Poverty is poison
New book: Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail
The crisis is so bad the financial press turns bolshie
The history of the 19th and 20th centuries could fairly be characterized as the history of urbanization. Will the history of the 21st century be more of the same?
Michael Pollan: The omnivore’s next dilemma
Energy Farms – blogging from the epicenter of relocalization
AI (Agricultural Intelligence)
Obesity – key driver for food localization?
Two reports at odds on biotech crops
Heat or eat – an expanding crisis
The growing battle for the right to water
UN says soaring prices leave poor hungry
Cooking gas crisis hitting India’s poor hard
We have only to look at historical events to see that it is perfectly possible, for both good and ill, to radically change circumstances in a host of ways that looked completely impossible not very long before.
As we move deeper into the twilight of the petroleum age, grand pronouncements and proposals for massive “solutions” abound. Far more useful, if less noticed, are simple, scalable, low-energy technologies that could make a big difference in the unraveling of industrial society.
If we transition to cellulosic ethanol — which utilizes whole plants, not just the seeds, as in conventional ethanol — we’ll need even more phosphorus. And demand for this finite resource, located mainly in geopolitically troublesome places, will grower at an even faster clip than the current 2.3 percent compounded annual rate.
