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  • Gas-efficient and diesel ‘city’ cars are creating a buzz

    This Guardian story was written by reporter Bibi van der Zee. Grist is a member of the Guardian’s Environment Network. —– The Paris Motor Show is so dazzling, so enormous and so festooned with models, champagne bars and plasma screens that it almost convinces you that everything is marvelous. The car salesmen are all smiles […]

  • Age-old cooking and preserving techniques could relieve food insecurilty worldwide

    Today is World Food Day, and it’s time to assess the prospects for the short- and long-term future of our food. As I write this, there are more than 100 million new starving people in the world since last year. As I write this people in Iceland, one of the world’s richest nations, are wondering […]

  • Toyota Prius again tops EPA list of most fuel-efficient cars

    It’s almost 2009 — do you know where your fuel-efficient car is? (And with oil dipping below $70 a barrel, do you care? Oh, calm down, we kid.) The U.S. EPA has released its annual list of the most and least fuel-efficient vehicles. Topping the list: the you-ain’t-cool-unless-you-have-one Toyota Prius, achieving an estimated 48 miles […]

  • From Iowa’s apple orchards, a delicious heirloom and a recipe for stuffing

    This column is an excerpt from Friese’s new book A Cook’s Journey: Slow Food in the Heartland.   Truly scrumptious: the “red delicious” apple’s heirloom antecedent.     Photo: Kurt Michael Friese   One cool spring morning about 1880, a farmer in Madison County, Iowa, named Jesse Hiatt was walking the rows of his young […]

  • Try skipping the Pringles

    Looking for political information on CNN.com, a headline caught my eye: “How to be sodium savvy.” Since I recently developed some concerns in that area I clicked the link. The story was written by a chef named David Hagedorn for Cooking Light Magazine, a part of the CNN/Time/Warner empire. What I found at the outset […]

  • Bottled water is a sham answer to low-quality tap water

    Speaking of bottled water, get this, from Environmental Working Group:  The bottled water industry promotes an image of purity, but comprehensive testing by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) reveals a surprising array of chemical contaminants in every bottled water brand analyzed, including toxic byproducts of chlorination in Walmart’s Sam’s Choice and Giant Supermarket’s Acadia brands, […]

  • Umbra on eco-themed Halloween costumes

    Dear Umbra, Every year my friends and I throw a big Halloween party, and I had the amazing idea of dressing up as Sarah Palin. Unfortunately, I just found out that’s currently the most popular costume in my city (and most likely the U.S.), so I’m thinking about tipping my hat to my love of […]

  • Bush admin aims to increase mountain-bike access to national parks

    Mountain bikers will have easier access to national parks and other public lands under plans the Biker-in-Chief is trying to push through before leaving office. (Ninety-seven days!) The National Park Service said Tuesday that it will propose a rule by Nov. 15 that would speed up decision-making about mountain-bike trails by putting park managers in […]

  • How to green your Halloween

    The economy may have gone to pot and the country’s future leadership may be wildly unclear, but there’s one thing we can count on: Halloween. Yes, October 31 is a holiday of certainty, full of ringing doorbells, sweet treats, and tiny ghosts and witches (or, more likely, Kung Fu Pandas and Hannah Montanas). But All […]

  • Nestle flexes its muscles at Miami water utility

    For months, the bottled-water industry has been losing its grip over people’s pocketbooks. Consumers are realizing that buying purified tap water at pumped-up prices, packaged in little plastic bottles, makes zero sense in economic, ecological, or health terms. Now the industry appears to be losing its grip on reality. From the Miami Herald: In the […]