Let’s Plant an Urban Food Forest in Stockton!
Seattle’s First Urban Food Forest Will Be Open To Foragers If you’re a regular reader of The Salt, you’ve probably noticed our interest in foraging. From San Francisco to Maryland, we’ve met wild food experts, nature guides and chefs passionate about picking foods growing in their backyards. Now, Washington state has jumped on the foraging […]
What We Learned From A Year Without Food From A Grocery Store
I can’t believe it’s been a year now since we started our year without groceries. We learned a lot in that year. We are definitely healthier, but also we’re happier. Our relationship with each other is stronger as we’ve had to learn how to really work well together. When we first decided to do a […]
Population Up, Resources Lost in America’s Vegetable Bowl: Rural California
This article, written by my colleague Gail Wadsworth for the Civil Eats Blog, is very insightful. Nice job Gail! – Jeremy When we think of “the rural,” California may not come to mind, though it’s estimated that 80 percent of the land area in California is rural. Now the lines between urban and rural there are […]
Farmer’s Markets Spur Job Growth, New Report Finds
As the economy limps along, farmer’s markets are showing record growth, and that growth could bring thousands of jobs with it. A dismal week for the U.S. economy featuring debt-ceiling drama in Washington and the threat of a double-dip recession on Wall Street, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) delivered some powerhouse statistics demonstrating the […]
Will Allen – Planting the Seeds of the Future
A humanitarian can be described as a person who seeks to promote human welfare. When thinking of people who fit this definition maybe Mother Teresa or Gandhi come to mind because of their legends. Some people might argue that a profession so simple as a farmer would not meet the humanitarian definition. Will Allen, however, is […]
Research suggests that Climate Change is Destabilizing the Food System
A Warming Planet Struggles to Feed Itself By JUSTIN GILLIS, NY Times, June 4, 2011 CIUDAD OBREGÓN, Mexico — The dun wheat field spreading out at Ravi P. Singh’s feet offered a possible clue to human destiny. Baked by a desert sun and deliberately starved of water, the plants were parched and nearly dead. Dr. Singh, […]
Farming in a Challenging Climate
The deep, almost inherent, adaptability and resilience of the world’s farmers makes them well suited to deal with a changing climate. But they are also dealing with limits to usable land and water, rising populations and the near-insatiable appetites of the world’s fast-expanding middle class. There’s every reason to think that farmers, along with the […]
Food Desert Locator Tool Released
Following on previous efforts to make information available to the public using visual interfaces, USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) released the Food Desert Locator this week. This new tool provides population characteristics of areas considered food deserts according the definition by the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) Working Group. The HFFI, a partnership between the […]
Eco-farming can double food output in developing world
Many farmers in developing nations can double food production within a decade by shifting to ecological agriculture from use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, a U.N. report showed on Tuesday. Insect-trapping plants in Kenya and Bangladesh’s use of ducks to eat weeds in rice paddies are among examples of steps taken to increase food for a world […]
Income should not determine access to healthy food…
Obesity’s hidden factor: high cost of healthy meals End childhood obesity within a generation – this is the goal of first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative. Mrs. Obama’s campaign focuses on sedentary children and lots of unhealthy snacking as the drivers of childhood obesity. In the national dialogue on obesity among adults, the discussion isn’t […]