Obesity epidemic worsens in CA
Obesity, diabetes epidemics continue to grow in California, UCLA study finds By: BJS, Scienceblog.com A majority of adults in California are obese or overweight, and more than 2 million have been diagnosed with diabetes, according to a new study from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Both conditions — which are related to each […]
Egg Co-ops Take Community Gardens to a Whole New Level
Yesterday’s piece on salmonella shown a pretty negative shadow on our nation’s egg producing industry. The recent salmonella outbreak is a clear example of the downfalls of an out of control globalized food system. But the picture isn’t all grim. As a farm-to-fork trend further gains momentum across the nation, there’s certainly a light at […]
Good planning improves community health!
Urban Planners Make You Fat April recently wrote Bike-Happy, Ped-Friendly Cities Less Obese, but how do they get that way? George Monbiot writes that “We are, to a surprising extent, what the built environment makes us,” quoting a series of studies which show trees make us more social, quiet areas are friendlier and vegetation reduces […]
The meat industry feels the heat as the sustainable-food movement gains force
BY Tom Philpott, Grist.org Once, the meat industry acted with impunity, confident that its lobbying clout in Washington could deflect any challenges to its practices. But now, it finds itself on the defensive. In northwest Iowa, the EPA has taken the brazen, virtually unheard-of step of actually enforcing the Clean Water Act for CAFOs, or […]
School gardens help make children smarter!!!
School Gardening Enhances Academic, Social, and Physical Skills in Children, Says Report Forget about playing Mozart when the baby is in the womb–start a school garden instead! A new report from the Royal Horticultural Society has found that when children work in school gardens they develop increased life skills, greater literacy and numeracy and are […]
The inevitable has happened: GMO’s growing in the wild!
GM crop escapes into the American wild Transgenic canola found growing freely in North Dakota. Natasha Gilbert, Nature.com A genetically modified (GM) crop has been found thriving in the wild for the first time in the United States. Transgenic canola is growing freely in parts of North Dakota, researchers told the Ecological Society of America […]
Can Charcoal Slow Climate Change and Improve Agriculture?
Adding biochar to soil might be a good way to cut pollution from agriculture while improving fertility. By: David Biello, Scientific American The ancient inhabitants of Amazonia knew how to keep fragile soils fertile—and may have hit upon a way to combat present-day climate change. That technique? Biochar, or any plant or animal waste turned […]
Location-efficient mortgages make Smart Growth affordable
How to make Smart Growth affordable by Jonathan Hiskes, Grist.org Let’s say you want to live in one of those fancy Smart Growth developments that green urbanists are always going on about. Let’s say you want to live in any neighborhood with transit service and a grid that encourages walking and biking. Great. Living in […]
The story of an East Coast “AGTIVIST”
The New Agtivist: Urban farmer Annie Novak aims sky high By: Aeire Faerie, Grist.org Urban farmer Annie Novak is on a mission to inspire New Yorkers to grow, cook, and eat good food — and to nurture the relationships that make it all possible. Born in Chicago, she is the oldest daughter of an artist […]
LEED Loophole: ‘Platinum’ buildings can score zero points for indoor environmental quality
Is There a Loophole in LEED Building Certification? Utne Reader, 8/2/2010 3:57:23 PM by Will Wlizlo So your new corporate campus was built with reclaimed lumber and uses 90 percent renewable energy. Too bad on the inside it might be a toxic deathtrap. In These Times reports on a possible loophole in the Leadership in […]