Mel said:
"I consider myself and others who live in my area of the country blessed then. Many people here get locally grown organic vegetables, fruits, and me..." [read]
megoneill said:
"Greg: Thank you for taking the time to write about this topic transparently. This is a hugely important issue to TH readers (and staff), and, as yo..." [read]
Sombody Else said:
"Just how much cash do they need? Because I've seen many a business in this dilemma. If what everyone is saying is true, and both their product an..." [read]
Kent Ragen said:
"More teleconferencing and telecommuting - and encouragement of both by businesses - is critical to decreasing our footprints.
www.ecounit.com..." [read]
ecobore said:
"I buy free-trade if I can find the right goods and the price isn't HUGELY higher than the competition...." [read]
Terra Verde said:
"Yay! Support the loss of bees! Fun for the whole family......" [read]
I’ve found a way to save the bees and save your itchy, watery, allergy eyes. And, no, it doesn’t come in an orange prescription bottle or costly over-the-counter remedy. It comes from my favorite source –- nature.
Yesterday I was outside at a shoot for the cover for my book, surrounded by blooming trees and shrubs, with pollen flying freely all around us. I, who have never suffered from allergies, suddenly had watering eyes and a cough that wouldn’t quit. My makeup artist was thankfully on hand to catch the running mascara (come on -- I have to look good on the cover of my book!) and as she dabbed and blotted, allergies became the topic of conversation.
We've been listening closely at the Sierra Club to the public discussion -- on blogs and elsewhere -- about our endorsement of the new Green Works line from the makers of Clorox products. It's been a fascinating debate with folks lining up in various camps often for different reasons. The issues we've seen being raised are the same concerns that came up when members of various Sierra Club committees considered this new alliance.
After a thorough review of the company and its new product line, we decided to move forward with our collective eyes wide open. In response to the lively debate that's ensued, we've posted an FAQ on our website that answers questions like "What is Clorox's overall environmental record?" and "Isn't Clorox a big dumper of chlorine into the environment?" I hope it helps those of you who have following the discussion on Treehugger and elsewhere to understand why we made the decision we did.
Ozone, the miracle molecule
The miracle molecule, ozone, can be made in your own home now thanks to an award winning appliance, the Lotus Sanitizing System from Tersano. If you are up on green technology, you already know that ozone is a chlorine-free alternative to chemical disinfectants. Many industries now embrace the substitution of ozone for chlorine or other chemical disinfectants. But using ozone used to mean industrial-scale costs to install ozone generating systems. Tersano brings the technology into the home, in the price range of a typical kitchen appliance.
A perfect storm of research and technology has emerged that when taken together may provide part of a solution to food production and global warming. The key ideas are:
1. Biodiversity increases the ability of an ecosystem to capture carbon, says Brown University.
2. There are 100's of economically important native seeds according to Lee and Maggie Arbuckle.
3. Native perennial grasses can be used as food, according to The Land Institute.
4. Harvesting perennial grasses is getting easier, with the Arbuckle Native Seedster.
Together these innovations change the framework for how we can turn sunlight and water into food. Incorporating these ideas could sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, provide economic growth, improve soil health, reduce fossil fuel use, and provide sustainable and resilient food production.
When the students and staff in the Go Green Club at Putnam Valley Middle School held a community meeting back at the beginning of the school year to help educate other students and staff about the importance of composting and recycling there’s a very good chance they didn’t know how far their efforts to green the school would take them…
This one's all good news. Farm markets are growing at an unprecedented rate across the US State of Washington, which now has over 100 of them. In metro areas, every neighborhood wants one. The latest trend is to go year-round:
The West Seattle Farmers Market, which last year saw $1.1 million in vendor sales -- a 300 percent increase over the previous year -- is the latest to go year-round.
It's billed as the biggest farmer's market yet, with more than 500 vendors setting up stalls to show their wares. The best of British foods, by local producers and growers, has arrived and the show is awe-inspiring in the breadth of products and the commitment of the participants. There are gourmet cottage industries, boutique food producers, workshops, cooking classes and, of course, tastings galore. Real food, slow food: it is a movement dedicated to reconnecting with the land, farms and natural cycles, sustainable production rather than the mass consumerism of the supermarkets. Not everyone fitted that description exactly but here we go with the best of the show. As always, it is the people you meet and the conversations and stories that make an event memorable.
Our first (and only) celebrity spotting was Craig Sams, former owner of Green & Black Chocolate, and now proud proprietor of Judges Bakery in Hastings. Looking very relaxed, he was hanging around his stall, urging people to taste the spelt bread, which is delicious. Sams doesn't ship his goods to London, it is too far and too complicated; he does a much more local business.
When it comes to recycling; leave it to the Boy Scouts to come up with one of the most unique and resourceful programs around.
It turns out for decades they’ve been turning antlers into cash after collecting, sorting, and bundling them for their annual auction. With over 200 scouts and troop leaders spending a total of close to 2,000 hours of labor to put together an event that draws international buyers to Wyoming each spring to bid on antlers in bulk.
Who said the revolution would not be televised? What with national newspapers talking about survivalism and community resillience, and radio soaps joining the Transition Towns initiative, it really seems like the mainstream media in the UK are embracing the idea that peak oil, fossil fuels and climate change are very real, and very immediate, threats to our way of life. Now, thanks to one of our periodic check-ins with Rob Hopkins' Transition Culture blog, we've come across this BBC Wales series, in which Patrick Holden of the Soil Association explores how to move his farm, and our food systems in general, away from their precarious reliance on dwindling oil supplies. It's dynamite stuff, looking at both the problems with the way we eat now, and the solutions that may help us move away from this crisis. Topics covered include everything from local food festivals to potential civil unrest in the face of rising fuel prices to urban community gardening to supermarket's phoney 'local' food initiatives - click below the fold for parts two, three and four. ...
Ozone, the miracle molecule
The miracle molecule, ozone, can be made in your own home now thanks to an award winning appliance, the Lotus Sanitizing System from Tersano. If you are up on green technology, you already know that ozone is a chlorine-free alternative to chemical disinfectants. Many industries now embrace the substitution of ozone for chlorine or other chemical disinfectants. But using ozone used to mean industrial-scale costs to install ozone generating systems. Tersano brings the technology into the home, in the price range of a typical kitchen appliance....
A perfect storm of research and technology has emerged that when taken together may provide part of a solution to food production and global warming. The key ideas are:
1. Biodiversity increases the ability of an ecosystem to capture carbon, says Brown University.
2. There are 100's of economically important native seeds according to Lee and Maggie Arbuckle.
3. Native perennial grasses can be used as food, according to The Land Institute.
4. Harvesting perennial grasses is getting easier, with the Arbuckle Native Seedster.
Together these innovations change the framework for how we can turn sunlight and water into food. Incorporating these ideas could sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, provide economic growth, improve soil health, reduce fossil fuel use, and provide sustainable and resilient food production....
As food prices go up, many people are trading down."In Ohio, Holly Levitsky is replacing the Lucky Charms cereal in her kitchen with Millville Marshmallows and Stars, a less expensive store brand." Others are changing what they eat and perhaps having a healthier diet.
...
Historically May Day has commemorated the coming of spring and a recognition of workers' rights. Here's another cause for its celebration: International Sunflower Guerrilla Day. It's easy, it's fun, it's slightly subversive and it brings joy to all who look upon its fruits. What could be bad?
Here's how to do it: Find a crummy, neglected and sunny public space somewhere near your place. Get some sunflower seeds, the bigger the flower, the better. Take a bottle of water and a little spade, stick or soup spoon with you to the spot. Dig a hole about 3/4 of an inch deep. Drop in a seed and water it. Return every once in a while to water it and clean off the litter. Watch the little seedling grow into full bloom by August. If you want to show your success to the world; take a picture and post it on the community website. Fellow gardeners in Brussels, London and France will be doing it too. Happy May Day, however you choose to celebrate it. :: International Sunflower Guerrilla Day...
Lambert, Getty Images
We had a faint hope that the rise in food prices might lead people to buy more carefully, perhaps cook more from scratch instead of buying prepared food, or even cut back on meat and eat more vegetables. No such luck; according to the IHT, Americans are just buying more crap, because the cheap calories come from the most processed, corn-based foods. My favourite quote:
"In Ohio, Holly Levitsky is replacing the Lucky Charms cereal in her kitchen with Millville Marshmallows and Stars, a less expensive store brand." Pizza sales at Domino's are down, while Wal-Mart says that sales of peanut butter and spaghetti are up. On the other hand, so are the sales of packaged food.
Donna Dunaway, a homemaker, used to splurge on the ingredients for homemade lasagna, her husband's favorite, before food prices began to surge this year."Now he's lucky to get a 99-cent lasagna TV dinner, or maybe some Manwich out of a can," she said. "I just can't afford to be buying all that good meat and cheese like I used to."
Sigh. ::International Herald Tribune
...
"Farmers can't keep up with rising demand. The world is in a food crisis that's already boiled over in some places." Thomson Reuters has put together slideshows with stunning photography covering the rice situation in each of the countries shown. The graph on corn is also worth a look. Turn off your popup-blocker and read about ::Agflation
...
When the students and staff in the Go Green Club at Putnam Valley Middle School held a community meeting back at the beginning of the school year to help educate other students and staff about the importance of composting and recycling there’s a very good chance they didn’t know how far their efforts to green the school would take them…...
Massimo Sciacca for The New York Times
The New York Times digs up some examples of extravagant and silly food miles. "Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground. Half of Europe’s peas are grown and packaged in Kenya."
And not just fruit and vegetables; Britain imports -and exports- 15,000 tons of waffles every year. “We’re shifting goods around the world in a way that looks really bizarre" says economist Paul Watkiss.“We are not paying the environmental cost of all that travel.”
One reason is that fuel used for international transport is tax-free, thanks to a treaty signed in 1944 to help the airline industry and still on the books. ...
Image courtesy of Flourish.
Whenever we’ve discussed Triodos Bank, the European sustainability-oriented savings bank with branches in the UK, Spain, The Netherlands and Belgium, we’ve always been impressed at the number of customers who attend their annual meetings. In many ways it’s no surprise though, as these events are far from the usual dry run-through of the organization’s finances – last year’s event included an organic lunch and a chance to hear speakers explore the thorny but fascinating topic of ‘ethical consumption.’ We’re bringing news of this year’s event a little late for anyone to actually attend (it was held on Saturday), but it is still worth noting for the sheer relevance of the topics that were due to be discussed:
...
Guerrilla gardening—making vacant, neglected public lands green and flower-filled—is becoming almost mainstream. So much so that the number one English practitioner has a how-to book coming out. Richard Reynolds, with his co-conspirators, has been making bleak corners of London flower since 2004. Now he is telling-all including topics such as: use of colour, what’s a seed bomb, what to plant, and how to deal with vandals.
The use of bright colours in the planting is key: “shock and awe” is the way to get a big bang. Daffodils and tulips return year after year. Canna lilies are very striking with their pink, yellow and orange brightly coloured flowers. Primroses (this is England after all) make nice spots of colour, in blinding colours and have a long flowering period. Incongruity: plant something large and outrageous which will really stand-out. Sunflowers grow to 15 feet in dry soil. Christmas trees are hardy and look green all year. Fragrance: lavender and sage have lovely purple flowers and are sweet smelling. Mock orange is a tall, fragrant shrub that survives in poor soil. And then there are seed bombs….
...
Yesterday we took a look at Peak Moment TVs visit to White Sage Gardens, an Oregon experiment in backyard permaculture but, given the rising costs of food and fuel, we can’t get enough of any information that helps folks to grow local, sustainable food. While watching yesterdays video we came across another episode of Peak Moment that also explores the idea of diverse, edible landscapes for our homes and gardens, and we couldn’t help but share it with you. In this episode, also in Oregon, Jan Spencer shows Peak Moment his quarter-acre suburban permaculture project featuring fruit and nut trees, vegetables, brambles, and native habitat, plus a 3500 gallon rainwater catchment system, a sunroom heating the house, and even a small detached bungalow that was added to increase residential density. As we mentioned yesterday, for more information on the permaculture concept, take a look at our previous posts on instant permaculture for the suburbs, a mini permaculture movie, or our interview with co-creator of the permaculture concept David Holmgren.
::Peak Moment::via YouTube::
...
It’s been a while since we checked in on Peak Moment TV, the innovative public access TV show bringing you “Community Responses for a Changing Energy Future”. In the episode above, Peak Moment explores White Sage Gardens, an Oregon experiment in backyard permaculture-informed sustainability created by Scott McGuire. Unfortunately the website for White Sage appears to be down right now, but for more information on permaculture, why not check out our previous posts on instant permaculture for the suburbs, a mini permaculture movie, or our interview with co-creator of the permaculture concept David Holmgren.
::Peak Moment::via YouTube::
...
This one's all good news. Farm markets are growing at an unprecedented rate across the US State of Washington, which now has over 100 of them. In metro areas, every neighborhood wants one. The latest trend is to go year-round:
The West Seattle Farmers Market, which last year saw $1.1 million in vendor sales -- a 300 percent increase over the previous year -- is the latest to go year-round.
It's billed as the biggest farmer's market yet, with more than 500 vendors setting up stalls to show their wares. The best of British foods, by local producers and growers, has arrived and the show is awe-inspiring in the breadth of products and the commitment of the participants. There are gourmet cottage industries, boutique food producers, workshops, cooking classes and, of course, tastings galore. Real food, slow food: it is a movement dedicated to reconnecting with the land, farms and natural cycles, sustainable production rather than the mass consumerism of the supermarkets. Not everyone fitted that description exactly but here we go with the best of the show. As always, it is the people you meet and the conversations and stories that make an event memorable.
Our first (and only) celebrity spotting was Craig Sams, former owner of Green & Black Chocolate, and now proud proprietor of Judges Bakery in Hastings. Looking very relaxed, he was hanging around his stall, urging people to taste the spelt bread, which is delicious. Sams doesn't ship his goods to London, it is too far and too complicated; he does a much more local business. ...
The challenge is a rather simple one: set up a life that is local and low-carbon without sacrificing the beloved creature comforts. The kicker is not getting electrocuted, shot, burned, crushed, bitten, or driven insane. Doug Fine has assumed this challenge and actually seems to be doing a bang-up job. He spoke to us from the Funky Butte Ranch, his own low-carbon Neverland. ::TreeHugger Radio
Listen to the podcast of this interview via iTunes, or just click here to listen, right-click to download.
You can find part one of our interview here.
Special thanks to Calabash Music for the soundtrack.Full text after the jump....
Guarding rice in Manila, Romeo Ranoco/Reuters via the star
They are rationing rice at Sam's Club and Costco; in Manila they have to post guards around it. All over the world, food prices are rising and supplies are disrupted as people start hoarding.
In Washington, the $300 billion Farm Bill plods on as it has for months. It has $5.2 billion dollars in direct payments to farmers as their income hits record highs. David Herszenhorn writes in the New York Times:
'It will not change biofuel mandates that are directing more corn to ethanol and contributing to a global rise in food prices. It will do little to ease worldwide food shortages. And at a time of high volatility in the futures markets, it will not require tougher regulation.In other words, Congress seems oblivious.
“It really is astounding,” said Representative Ron Kind, Democrat of Wisconsin, who has pushed for broad changes in farm subsidy programs. “It’s as if this farm bill is being negotiated in a vacuum.” ::New York Times
UPDATE: Great post on Grist by Bill Chameides: How Congress is shortchanging our health and sweetening things for the food industry...
The life and times of a beehive on the roof of the Royal Festival Hall. This is what happens when a filmmaker and an artist, both beekeepers, get together at a pub and have a great idea. They concocted a plan to create a hive in the shape of a scale model of the Festival Hall in honour of the reopening last June. Plunk the hive on the roof, and follow the bees' progress for a year. Invite some artists to visit the bees to add a touch of class and culture. And so they did. It is English eccentricity at its most lovable. To mark the first day of spring, they had a poetry reading: " The bees are flying. They taste the spring." The author of "The Cloudspotter's Guide" did a reading under Altostratus clouds ("the boring cloud") and a choral trio sang a traditional English 'round' written in 1260, "Summer is Icumen". Over the coming months they will be visited by other musicians and writers.
There is a serious point being made here. The filmmaker says: "It is a statement about urban agriculture and the idea of growing food in cities using spaces like rooftops." The pollen will come from all the surrounding greenery such as churchyards, trees across the river, St James's Park and even windowboxes.The hive is in full swing (buzz?) with a Queen bee and 15,000 bees. As the beekeeper says "there are getting to be so many now it’s becoming harder and harder to remember each of their names."
...
A fast-unfolding food shortage is engulfing the entire world, driving food prices to record highs. (Check out the full report or podcast.) Over the past 50 years grain prices have occasionally spiked due to weather-related events -- such as the 1972 Soviet crop failure that led to a doubling of world wheat, rice, and corn prices. The situation today is entirely different, however. The current doubling of grain prices is trend-driven, the cumulative effect of some trends that are accelerating growth in demand and other trends that are slowing the growth in supply....
Leisa Thompson/ Ann Arbor News
One of the side-effects of the race to print TRANSFAT FREE! on the side of every package is a big boom in production of palm oil, on plantations cut from the rainforest home of orangutans. 12 year old girl scouts Madison Vorva and Rhiannon Tomtishen of Ann Arbor, Michigan have stopped selling Girl Guide Cookies, and have started an education drive, website and petition against palm oil.
Palm oil production leads to conflict between orangutans and people, the girls said. "We've seen pictures of orangutans set afire and beaten.You really just want to reach out and do all that you can to help save them," Madison told the Ann Arbor News.
...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the weekly archive if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.
TreeHugger breaks it down for you in a series of in depth how-to articles that will help you green your life. No time like the present!
As food prices go up, 
Historically May Day has commemorated the coming of spring and a recognition of workers' rights. Here's another cause for its celebration: International Sunflower Guerrilla Day. It's easy, it's fun, it's slightly 
Lambert, Getty Images
We had a faint hope that the rise in food prices might lead people to buy more carefully, perhaps cook more from scratch instead of buying prepared food, or even cut back on meat and eat more vegetables. No such luck; according to the IHT, Americans are just buying more crap, because the cheap calories come from the most processed, corn-based foods. My favourite quote:
"In Ohio, Holly Levitsky is replacing the Lucky Charms cereal in her kitchen with Millville Marshmallows and Stars, a less expensive store brand." Pizza sales at Domino's are down, while Wal-Mart says that sales of peanut butter and spaghetti are up. On the other hand, so are the sales of packaged food.
Donna Dunaway, a homemaker, used to splurge on the ingredients for homemade lasagna, her husband's favorite, before food prices began to surge this year."Now he's lucky to get a 99-cent lasagna TV dinner, or maybe some Manwich out of a can," she said. "I just can't afford to be buying all that good meat and cheese like I used to."
Sigh. 
"Farmers can't keep up with rising demand. The world is in a food crisis that's already boiled over in some places." Thomson Reuters has put together slideshows with stunning photography covering the rice situation in each of the countries shown. The graph on corn is also worth a look. Turn off your popup-blocker and read about 
Massimo Sciacca for The New York Times
The New York Times digs up some examples of extravagant and silly food miles. "Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground. Half of Europe’s peas are grown and packaged in Kenya."
And not just fruit and vegetables; Britain imports -and exports- 15,000 tons of waffles every year. “We’re shifting goods around the world in a way that looks really bizarre" says economist Paul Watkiss.“We are not paying the environmental cost of all that travel.”
One reason is that fuel used for international transport is tax-free, thanks to a treaty signed in 1944 to help the airline industry and still on the books. ...
Image courtesy of 
Guerrilla gardening—making vacant, neglected public lands green and flower-filled—is becoming almost mainstream. So much so that the number one English practitioner has a how-to book coming out. Richard Reynolds, with his co-conspirators, has been making bleak corners of London flower since 2004. Now he is telling-all including topics such as: use of colour, what’s a seed bomb, what to plant, and how to deal with vandals.
The use of bright colours in the planting is key: “shock and awe” is the way to get a big bang. Daffodils and tulips return year after year. Canna lilies are very striking with their pink, yellow and orange brightly coloured flowers. Primroses (this is England after all) make nice spots of colour, in blinding colours and have a long flowering period. Incongruity: plant something large and outrageous which will really stand-out. Sunflowers grow to 15 feet in dry soil. Christmas trees are hardy and look green all year. Fragrance: lavender and sage have lovely purple flowers and are sweet smelling. Mock orange is a tall, fragrant shrub that survives in poor soil. And then there are seed bombs….
...
Guarding rice in Manila, Romeo Ranoco/Reuters
The life and times of a beehive on the roof of the Royal Festival 
Leisa Thompson/ Ann Arbor News
One of the side-effects of the race to print TRANSFAT FREE! on the side of every package is a big boom in production of 
