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  • Smokers to get their greenbutts in gear with compostable cigarettes

    green-butts.com We’re not sure how Sir Mix-a-lot would feel about these butts, but hipsters would probably be all over them. Although … if so-called “100% natural” cigarette filters do become a biodegradable, flower-seeding reality, will it also unleash an invasion of smug litterbugs?* *Disclaimer: Smoking is gross. —————————————————————————————————————————————————– Like what you see? Sign up to […]

    Ashley Braun Culture

  • The secret life of green roofs [SLIDESHOW]

    The city of Portland, Ore., is aiming for 49 total acres of eco-roofs in the city by 2013 (the city’s paying up to $5 per square foot to any home or business that builds one). But what about green roofs outside the urban environment? What’s the appeal there? Blending more with the natural surroundings? Sure, […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • How to make recycling e-waste fashionable

    Steven Rodrig, PCB Creations Don’t e-waste your money on a new pair of shoes when you could rock the look that screams “electronic fashionista” and “responsible recycler.” You’ll be breaking hearts — and circuits — when you strut out in heels that will never leave you feeling board. I suppose this artist either totally rejects […]

    Ashley Braun Culture

  • The real ‘Food Revolution’ starts with healthy Appalachian cornbread

    Why can’t a revolution based on traditional Appalachian foodways be televised?Photo: April McGreger Having watched the first three episodes, I’ve been thinking a lot about Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” TV Show. Who can argue with his efforts to get fresh food into West Virginia’s schools? No doubt, the pantries and fridges in most school cafeterias […]

    April McGreger Culture

  • Egger’s Head: School lunches

    Robert Egger has a lot going on in his head. Just ask him. As a nonprofit entrepreneur, a serial searcher for ordinary people doing extraordinary things, a deeply deep thoughts kind of guy, Egger gives us something to ponder every week. In this installment, he scratches his noggin over the school lunch crisis, which has […]

    Grist staff Culture

  • Ask Umbra’s Book Club: The three L’s — laziness, learning, and lawlessness

    Dearest readers, I’ve so enjoyed reading all of your comments thus far about Dolly Freed’s Possum Living. The 9-to-5 grind, raising and slaughtering your own meat—stimulating threads. You know, I couldn’t help but notice how often Freed talks about the basis for her and her father’s lifestyle choice being that they are lazy. Tending a […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture

  • Imaginary, underwater subway lines are always the most convenient route

    Transit Authority FiguresFor publicly transitive folks like myself, why does it seem that the fastest way between two points is an imaginary subway line? And a watery one, to boot! If I were an East Coaster, I’d definitely submerse myself in these non-existent, though wish-listily handy transit routes, even if their actual construction would be […]

    Ashley Braun Culture

  • Making my neighborhood more walkable, sociable, sustainable, and safe

    This weekend, I wrote a somewhat abstract post about how America’s built spaces prevent many Americans from connecting with the supportive social networks essential to health and happiness. Let’s zoom from the lofty down to the concrete. Let’s talk about my neighborhood. I live in the Bitter Lake area of Seattle. (In the early 20th […]

    David Roberts Culture

  • Why even the childless should care about school lunch

    PB&J as metaphor: a subsidized lunch served in an Illinois school. Photo: Mrs. Q Regular readers will have noticed a certain emphasis on school lunch in the Grist food section lately. Veteran journalist Ed Bruske has been doing superb on-the-ground reporting on the topic; I’ve been obsessing about the anonymous teacher blogger Mrs. Q, and […]

    Tom Philpott Culture

  • Ask Umbra’s Book Club: Is eating animals eating you?

    Dearest readers, Great thread yesterday on the varying viewpoints surrounding issues of independence, financial culpability, the 9-to-5 rat race, and being possessed by our possessions—all inspired by Dolly Freed’s Possum Living circa 1978. For today’s starting point, I thought we’d delve into the blood and guts—literally—as in raising, killing, cleaning, and eating your own meat […]

    Ask Umbra® Culture