The northern Bay Area city of Sebastopol is looking at banning the use of gas powered leaf blowers within the city limits. Sebastopol would join over a dozen other California citys that ban leaf blowers. What is next? Lawn mowers and rototillers? I am all for mower mulching your leaves in place and converting lawns to veggie gardens and cutting back on the use of gas powered implements but there are times when blister causing lawn and garden hand tools just don’t cut it.
Photo credit: Kent Porter/The Press Democrat
And watch the video below for the creative way they can be used with bicycles… I used to just put baseball cards in the spokes of the wheels for the sound effect.
Large scale rooftop gardens are expensive propositions and usually require a lot of technology. Vertical edible plant walls on the other hand, are a fraction of the cost, don’t need much technology and require less maintenance once they are installed. Read about New York City vertical plant walls HERE. Photo credit: Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times
Consumers, when given truth in labeling about GMO foods, don’t want to buy or consume GMO food. Now, bioengineers are growing nerve, heart and other tissues in labs. This could lead to raising GMO meat in laboratories without animals ever seeing the inside of an industrial factory farm. The pr spin has started… GMO “test tube” meats are being touted as a “sustainable” solution to what is ailing the planet…As Charles Q. Choi reports for LiveScience.com,
*Avoiding animal suffering by reducing the farming and killing of livestock.
*Dramatically cutting down on food-borne ailments such as mad cow disease and salmonella or germs such as swine flu, by monitoring the growth of meat in labs.
*Livestock currently take up 70 percent of all agricultural land, corresponding to 30 percent of the world’s land surface, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Labs would presumably require much less space.
*Livestock generate 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, more than all of the vehicles on Earth, the FAO added. Since the animals themselves are mostly responsible for these gases, reducing livestock numbers could help alleviate global warming.
Sure, agriculture provides us with the food we all eat every day. But do you know how those agricultural practices impact global warming? Turns out there’s some pretty big impacts, on both the sustainable and industrial sides of the equation; employing sustainable practices, like organic agriculture, has huge potential to help in the fight against global warming, and maintaining the status quo with widespread industrial agricultural practices will continue to be terribly detrimental for the climate. Dig deeper to learn more about the ways agriculture impacts global warming.
Click HERE to read the rest of the story.
Photo credit: benketaro’s Flickr photostream
I stumbled upon this blog dedicated to composting with black soldier fly (bsf) grubs while I was searching for something else. I have never heard of composting this way before. The blog says it is like composting with earthworms (verimiculture). But this blog covers all aspects of bsf composting. They also sell plug and play bsf composter called “The BioPod” and have directions on how to build your own. Check it out.
Photo credit: Blacksoldierflyblog.com
The old Growing Edge printed magazine ran an article on the Seminole County (Florida) Jail hydroponic garden way back in 1996.
The jail’s hydro garden is still going strong providing the inmates with educational skills on growing plants and supplying fresh food for the jail’s cafeteria.
Abraham Aboraya writes in the SeminoleChronicle.com,
Walk into the Seminole County Jail. Wait for clearance, then go to the hallway to your left. Pass through one door out into the open air. Through one more door right in front, and you’ve found the Seminole County Jail’s secret garden.
It’s a lush greenhouse, filled with enough vibrant green hydroponic lettuce to feed salad to upwards of 1,000 prisoners once a month. Then there are the tomatoes, also hydroponically grown, which feed the staff every eight months. And there are fish too, thousands of Tilapia, which feed the staff, although they’re not hydroponic.
Click HERE for the rest of the story.
Photo credit: SeminoleChronicle.com
This grower explains why he hasn’t certified his organic farm under government sanctioned standards even though he has been growing using organic methods since the farm was started. He calls his farm’s produce solarganic. Read about Healthy Home Harvest farm in New Hampshire.
From a North Carolina State University press release,
Growers of organic crops will get some much needed help as plant breeders at North Carolina State University launch an effort to develop corn, peanut, soybean and wheat varieties adapted to being grown organically.
A $1.2 million U.S. Department of Agriculture grant will fund the effort at the College [...]
With the Thanksgiving holiday approaching, the media traditionally looks at hunger in America for their heart tugging stories even though it is a year round problem…
Forty-nine million people, one in six, or almost 16 percent of the American population went hungry in 2008. Now contrast that with the obesity epidemic sweeping across America at the [...]
The northern Bay Area city of Sebastopol is looking at banning the use of gas powered leaf blowers within the city limits. Sebastopol would join over a dozen other California citys that ban leaf blowers. What is next? Lawn mowers and rototillers? I am all for mower mulching your leaves in place and converting lawns to veggie gardens and cutting back on the use of gas powered implements but there are times when blister causing lawn and garden hand tools just don’t cut it.
Hydroponics Dictionary
