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Urbivore’s Dilemma, Week 4: A disgusting mess

The bounty of week 4.(Jennifer Prediger photos) Welcome to week four of my CSA experience, which I’m chronicling here in this Urbivore’s Dilemma series. This week’s CSA bounty included Bibb lettuce, mustard greens, sorrel, raspberries, sugar snap peas, and lovely, blossoming yet spicy curly cress. Food like this is what makes switching from takeout to […]

We need a declaration of independence from foreign oil

This weekend, our nation will recognize its 234th birthday — celebrating the freedom we have fought for since the first shots of the American Revolution were fired in the town of Lexington, Mass., in the heart of my congressional district. The great American experiment still has battles left to fight, freedoms we must achieve. The […]

Tories’ attack on Jamie Oliver reflects conservative parenting styles

From the international edition of the “Why Elections Matter” handbook comes news that chef and school-food activist Jamie Oliver‘s well-regarded and successful set of school food reforms are being dissed by Britain’s new Tory health minister. Oliver has spent years on the program, which has improved school menus, kids’ eating habits and, according to studies, […]

10 fresh ideas that can help set you free (from oil)

With the Fourth of July approaching, let us pause and consider the words of that great patriot Sarah Palin: “Americans are not addicted to oil, Americans are addicted to freedom — the freedom to move freely and independently where and when we want.” Makes you want to go out and drive a Hummer in circles, […]

Retrofitting suburbia: The task at hand?

“The big design and development project of the next 50 years is going to be retrofitting suburbia,” architect Ellen Dunham-Jones says in an interesting TED talk. Much of that work will be repurposing shuttered retail spaces — redeveloping dead malls and big box stores and turning empty parking lots back into wetlands, she says. For […]

Newt Gingrich isn’t pro-market, he’s pro-business

Here at the end of the week, I have a few final thoughts on my carbon debate with Steve Everley of American Solutions (see: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) and Amanda Little’s interview with Newt Gingrich, Steve’s boss. A recent report from the International Energy Agency revealed a stunning fact: Worldwide, fossil-fuel energy corporations receive $550 […]

Ask Umbra’s Pearls of Wisdom on Independence Day

Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave to a greener Fourth of July?Photo courtesy of Hryck via flickr It’s 4th of July weekend!  Time to “ooh” and “aah” and eat things on buns with mustard.  This year, dear Readers, make the most of the red, white and blue holiday.  Before and after the sparklers, […]

Savory fruit salads are a 4th of July taste revolution

(April McGreger photos) We all know the 4th of July routine: fireworks, grilling, and all-American pies for dessert. But unlike Thanksgiving, no side dishes traditionally stand out. This year, don’t get stuck eating potato salad or tri-color pasta from plastic deli containers. Instead, give fruit salads a chance to redeem themselves. Forget that big heaping […]

Brooklyn’s Eagle Street is poster child for urban farming

January 2011 update: Many of the photos have been removed from this series so they can be published in a Breaking Through Concrete book, forthcoming this year from UC Press. Karen Turner, 25, wants to farm 100 acres in Texas. Her family has lived on 10 acres in San Antonio since she was a child. […]

Good news for deepwater-oil junkies

We’ve all heard that we’re addicted to oil. But in the wake of the BP spill we might do well to take the oil-as-a-drug metaphor a little more seriously. For starters we need to understand that deepwater oil is the really bad stuff, the petrochemical heroin – high risk, costly, deadly. Sooner or later we […]