Latest Articles
-
![]()
![]()
Getting back to our green roots with potlikker soup
Collard greens, pork stock, and corn dumplings soak in the rich broth of history. (Photos by April McGreger) Recently I was one of more than 1,000 Southern farmers, chefs, and co-producers attending the Georgia Organics Conference in Athens, Ga. The theme of the conference was “Reclaiming Agriculture,” with the spotlight on “culture.” The keynote speaker, […]
-
![]()
![]()
Nothing will drive the suburbs away
Photo: FrankMaurer FlickrThe news that GM will cease production of Hummers revived the brewing argument that suburbia is in fatal decline. Hummers are the perfect corollary to McMansions, symbols of excess, leftovers from the roaring aughts that now seem outlandish, indulgent and environmentally offensive. No buyers for Hummers plus no buyers for homes in far […]
-
![]()
![]()
Putting Wal-Mart’s green moves in context
What journalists and even environmentalists so often fail to do in reporting on Wal-Mart’s sustainability announcements is to provide some context. Context is everything. Consider Wal-Mart’s latest announcement: It will push some of the factories that supply its stores to cut their greenhouse gas emissions. That’s a good thing in and of itself, but what […]
-
Stop the Attacks on the Clean Air Act
A Senate vote is looming on a measure that would gut the Clean Air Act, proposed by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. The resolution’s passage would give big polluters a bail out by blocking President Obama and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from taking action to limit global warming pollution – even from the biggest polluters […]
-
Maybe locavores can save the world after all
Financial blogger Felix Salmon has an essay in Foreign Policy called “How Locavores Can Stop World Hunger.” Salmon normally focuses on issues involving economic crises, monetary policy, complex derivatives, macro-economics and governmental oversight of financial markets — but here is talking monocultures, sustainable agriculture and GMOs. Tom Philpott has opined on the similarities between financial […]
-
![]()
![]()
The N of an era: America’s nitrogen dilemma — and what we can do about it
There are three things on which the mighty engine of U.S. agriculture depends: water, fuel, and synthetic nitrogen. Like water, nitrogen is elemental to life. It’s the essential building block of the plants we eat. Farmers remove it from the soil when they harvest the year’s crop, and they must replenish it for the following […]
-
![]()
![]()
Peepoo bags help the developing world take off a load
A rotting Peepoo: what a load of crap.Photo: Sustainable sanitation via FlickrWhen poor people don’t have a loo, They pee and poo wherever it’s easy to, But it’s gross for them and the planet too. So Peepoople invented a biodegradable loo. It’s a little bag for doing numbers one and two, And after they planted […]
-
![]()
![]()
Teeny tiny tiny digs [slideshow]
Urban apartment dwellers are nothing if not scrappy. New Yorkers, of course, are famous for stuffing themselves into shoe boxes with hotplates. But there’s more to the story than affordability. More of us are choosing to minimize our footprint. Less space, less stuff, less stress. The cliche holds true in this sense: the less space […]
-
Humane Society Gives Top Honors to Mountaintop Removal Champion
This might be one of the Humane Society’s cruelest acts against animals, and humanity. In the face of one of the most irreversible and egregious environmental and wildlife catastrophes in the hemisphere, and a blatant disregard for the human rights violations of mountaintop removal, the Humane Society announced today that it will give its “2009 Humane Legislator of the […]
-
![]()
![]()
The ‘energy-only’ bill and Byron Dorgan’s deficit hypocrisy
Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) is fiscally responsible, a “deficit hawk” as they say in the biz, and like most people who self-identify with that label in Washington, he’s very keen for everyone to know it. Back in September 2009, he urged President Obama to focus on reducing the deficit — indeed, said it should be […]
