Climate Food and Agriculture

Ask Umbra at the tar-sands protests and on the radio

Ask Umbra joins the tar-sands protests and gets interviewed by a radio program called Mrs. Green's World.

Raising chickens is totally rock and roll

Jenifer Jourdanne has expensive tastes, expensive shoes, and "designer chickens." In an essay in xoJane, she talks about how her long-standing backyard coop didn't dent her rocker cred:

I will have you know I was a maverick. I was the girl in the early 90s at Viper Room where people would say things like “Slash, come over here, no really, this chick has pet chickens!" I mean I am sure they probably thought I used them in an adult act but sorry to bore you, they just walk around my herb gardens looking for snails.

Peebottle Farms: Cooped up in the city

As soon as it got warm enough, Tei and I started bickering about the chicken coop. The plan was that "we" would build it, but we both knew that meant Tei would grumble about it first, and then reluctantly figure out how and do the heavy lifting.

Irene's damage not 'overrated' for farmers

From apple orchards in New York to sweet corn fields in Massachusetts, we take a look at how farmers are faring after the storm.

Chilean sea bass test yields fishy results

Recent DNA testing revealed that so-called sustainable Chilean sea bass samples were not, in fact, what they were advertised to be.

The triumph of Jamie Oliver's 'nemesis'

Jamie Oliver may have focused the national klieg lights on Huntington, W.Va., but it's local officials who are overhauling school food.

Super-charming sustainable farming video, featuring Willie Nelson

Okay, so this video was sponsored by Chipotle, but if you can ignore a small amount of logo placement and posturing, it's really adorable. Look at the little propane-canister-looking pigs! Listen to Willie Nelson make a Coldplay song sound genuinely emotional! Watch the rotund farmer guy have a change of heart and let his animals […]

Green for greens: Philadelphia subsidizes farmers markets

A new farmers market subsidy program for food stamps recipients makes the City of Brotherly Love a just little healthier.

Run and hide from methyl iodide

Activists gathered in San Francisco to protest the use of methyl iodide, a known carcinogen, as a pesticide on California crops.

In battle between fuel and food, food is losing worse than ever

Despite the backlash against ethanol in the U.S. and biodiesel in the E.U., global production of biofuels was up 17 percent in 2010. That's 27.7 billion gallons of liquid fuel for the year. (For reference, the U.S. uses 137 billion gallons of gasoline per year, though that's not directly equivalent because biofuels include biodiesel, and ethanol contains slightly less energy than regular gasoline.)