Can you imagine being able to produce enough water in the Sahara to grow crops there? Can you imagine harnessing sufficient quantities of solar power to supply electricity to cities in Africa and cities in Europe? Can you imagine producing a sustainable bio-fuel that doesn’t impact on world food supplies? Charlie Paton, Michael Pawlyn and Bill Watts can and what’s more they can imagine all these happening in the same place at the same time.
This trio of visionaries launched the Sahara Forest Project: their proposal to combine two innovative technologies, Concentrated Solar Power and Seawater Greenhouses, to produce renewable energy, water and food in an area of desert known to be one of the hottest places on earth.
To read the complete article, click HERE. For an update on the project, click HERE.
Desert Hills Dairy of Nevada has joined with Carbon Bank Ireland, an emerging leader in cap-and-trade carbon emissions markets, to build the state’s first biogas facility to convert cow manure into electricity. Along with producing enough sustainable methane to power itself and other equipment at the second largest dairy in Nevada, the high tech digester will produce liquid fertilizer and mulch.
Britain’s national academy of science is calling for a multi-billion-dollar research program on global food security. The Royal Society says genetically modified plants should be an essential tool for feeding the world by 2050, but anti-GMO food activists object claiming GMOs destroys the livelihood of small-scale farmers.
The Royal Society recently released the report, titled Reaping the Benefits: Science and the Sustainable Intensification of Global Agriculture, and says the report describes how the prudent application of recent and prospective biological advances can contribute to the “sustainable intensification” of agriculture. It argues that a multi-pronged approach is needed. Improvements in farming practices and crop management are essential, but modern genetics must be utilized too.
The Royal Society is filled with British scientists and a few non-British scientists as well. What we don’t know is how much of their research is funded by multi-national agri-biz corporations? Did or do any of them sit on the boards of these companies? Did any of them work at one time for these companies? And do any of them own stock in these companies? These are behind the scenes realities that may or may not have an influence in what they propose.
Do you notice how this report and GMO companies like Monsanto use the word sustainable in their reports, marketing and advertising very liberally. In no way are GMOs sustainable. Quite the opposite.
For the full report from The Royal Society, click HERE.
“New York is a city notoriously short on space, but also one whose residents are big on innovation. In the Big Apple, the latest trend is rooftop farming. Individuals and restaurants are beginning to grow some of their own food in the only space available to them -- their roofs. While the practice is currently an environmental rather than a financial trend, some companies hope it can become a money-making business model, providing a cheaper alternative to store-bought produce, especially in low income neighborhoods where fresh vegetables are expensive and scarce.”
For complete story click HERE. Photo credit: VofAnews.com
With all the shrill voices screeching on about death panels, Obamacare, communism and socialism, the real cause of America’s declining health has been lost in the anarchy of the “debate.”
As Bob Cesca in The Huffington Post writes,
If and when health care reform finally passes, we will have successfully ameliorated only half of the crisis. The treatment half. The next step has to be focused upon doing something about the poisoned filth we’ve collectively nicknamed “food.” Without any real changes in how our food is produced, the health care system will continue to bloat and fall apart. Not unlike the insides of an average American body.
Corporate agribusiness has invested nearly $1.2 billion (and growing) on lobbyists — more money than even the defense lobby. Naturally, much of this lobbying has been aimed at deregulating how food is processed and manufactured, as well as how corporate agribusinesses raise and process livestock. It’s an industry that’s entangled in everything from Big Tobacco to human trafficking and illegal immigration.
Roger Doiron, one of the major forces behind the Obama White House creating their vegetable garden, now has much a much larger vision. From the blurb about the organization Kitchen Gardeners International’s rock out video below, Doiron writes,
Together, gardeners and good food advocates pitched in to help give the White House and the Obamas a healthy kitchen garden. Now it’s time for gardeners around the world to work together again on a much bigger challenge: feeding a growing population with a rapidly degrading natural resource base and in a rapidly changing global climate. There are currently over 1 billion hungry people in the world and that number is set to rise as the global population rises from 6.7 billion to over 9 billion in 2050. While we don’t know yet how we will feed all these new hungry people, we do know one thing for sure: planting more kitchen gardens -- behind homes, schools, and in vacant urban lots -- will be part of the solution. Kitchen Gardeners International is a 501c3 nonprofit community of 18,000 people from over 100 countries who are growing some of their own food and helping others to do the same.
The video below makes you want to go out in your garden and dance… but if you got some spare bucks send it on to them…
A family that used to live on a rural farm moved to the city and is changing their lawns to gardens and cutting down on their consumer waste. Gary Chittim of Seattle’s KING 5 television News reports,
“A family of four has moved from the farm to an urban Puget Sound community and is now plowing its way to zero waste.
When the Peterka family moved to Shoreline, they brought part of the farm with them. They ripped up the backyard lawn and planted a large garden.
They built a fenced chicken coop in one corner, and worm and compost bins in the other. Then they made some sacrifices.”
The rotting carcass of a 70 ft. blue whale killed in an open ocean collision with a research ship last week was originally going to be left on the rocky beach where the whale washed ashore to decompose. But now a new plan has been put into place to benefit local gardeners next year.
Glenda Anderson writes in The Press Democrat,
“Tons of rotting, putrid whale blubber and meat is being trucked from Fort Bragg to Potter Valley, where it will metamorphose into soil-nourishing fertilizer.”
“It’s a fitting use for the less valuable parts of the 72-foot blue whale that died after colliding with a research ship off the Fort Bragg coast last week, said organizers who are working to salvage its skeleton for science and education.”
Click HERE to read the whole article. View the video below for the gory details of the blubber removal…
ABC News reports, “Michelle Obama led harvest day at the White House Kitchen Garden this afternoon. With several dozen local elementary students and the White House kitchen staff on hand to help, the First Lady dug into the dirt, pulling up sweet potatoes, fennel, carrots and the occasional worm.”
For the White House transcript of [...]
Alexis Baden-Mayer writes on the Organic Consumers Association’s web site,
“I’ll admit it. I’m an unabashed fan of the First Lady. I read every article about the White House organic garden and I go to Michele’s farmers’ market every Thursday. I’m a fan and I’m a little jealous, too. She’s managed to educate DC school [...]
Leonora Oppenheim writes in Treehugger.com,
Hydroponics Dictionary
