Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Research shows amazing results when people come together and build social ties: People are healthier, happier and live longer. One study found that social isolation is as bad for you as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.
The enthusiasm of the Cameron Tories for community development and localism, and its convergence with the New Labour and Lib Dem ‘community empowerment’ agendas, suggests it is time to ask whether community development and community action, once a radical force in local politics, has been efectively depoliticised and incorporated as an arm of government. Has community radicalism been silenced, or is it more complicated than that?
-How world rice trade sparked price riots
-Our £17bn waste mountain: Annual bill for throwaway Britain
-Resistance to Weedkillers a Growing Problem for Engineered Crops, NAS Report Says
-In India, Wal-Mart Goes to the Farm
-What it will take to feed the world
-Report Says Contaminated Meat Is In Supermarkets
-Crop Diversity Pays Off
Get back to where you once belonged. Get your hands dirty, with this week’s grow-op on Radio Ecoshock. We’ll hear from the young farmers movement, with film maker and dirt farmer Severine von Tscharner Fleming of Greenhorn Radio. Community supported agriculture, organic, getting out, or grow where you are, feed the city, from the city. Our second guest, Sharon Astyk, says we need a nation of farmers…Radio Ecoshock digs in.
-Urban farms herald green city ‘revolution’
-The art of hen keeping
-Hoophouse ventures prove crops can thrive year-around in Michigan
-On job creation—local fruits and vegetables vs. corn and soybeans
-Central Illinois produce 48 weeks of the year?
-From farm to fork
When we think about the taxes and the federal deficit, we don’t usually think of Social Security and Medicare, because in government lingo, the payments we make for these programs aren’t taxes, they are contributions, and the funding deficit for these programs is not taken into account in determining the federal deficit.
As you know, Greer and I at times have our differences in perspective, but I think this week’s column is particularly acute, and offers up two point that I think are really essential to grasp when thinking of the future.
From activists to politicians, everybody loves to talk about the promise of green jobs. But in reality, who the heck actually has a green job, and how do you get one?
The pea, radish, lettuce, and quinoa sprouts have emerged in my new backyard garden, outracing the chervil, cilantro, carrot, and chard seeds—and Wayde Lawler, my new-found Hyperlocavore buddy, is responsible for all this.
Cachexia is a term which means being in a general bad state of health, seemingly referring to the American medical system and the health of Americans in general. Rather than taking a reactive approach to health care (such as taking pills to mask symptoms), do-it-yourself (diy) health involves taking a proactive approach–claiming and maintaining health as a normal condition of daily living.
A reader of mine named Aaron emailed me to ask if I’d respond to Alex Steffen’s latest piece at Worldchanging. (Serious Things Day II)
-Make Birth Control, Not War
-Resilience and Ruggedness: Why Faster, Bigger and More Complex May Be Better
-Building a Green Economy
-Ill Fares the Land
