Agriculture & Food, Food Safety, Food Security

When I first heard about earthcycle, recent competitor for “Most promising investment opportunity” at last week’s Clean Tech Forum I was initially impressed. Their flagship products are produce packaging made from palm fiber, the remainders of palm fruit harvesting, which would otherwise be burnt. But after mentioning it on Twitter, I was quickly reminded that [...]

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Whither Lunchables, that epitome of excessive packaging (and poor health), if the ethos behind Unpackaged, a northeast London grocery store, catches on? Maybe consumers will find that all those plastic containers jammed into Lunchables make handy carriers for their quinoa and honey. Unpackaged is a store that opened in late 2007 and has garnered lots [...]

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Not only is Chipotle‘s food tasty and affordable, but the company is a leader in sustainability – from local, organic food purchasing to green building practices coupled with healthy sales and margins, Chipotle caught my eye. How do they do it? What is Chipotle doing that others in the food industry should learn from? I [...]

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In “Inquiries into the Nature of Slow Money: Investing as if Food, Farms, and Fertility Mattered” Woody Tasch, former Chairman of Investor’s Circle, argues for a new financial system that brings money back down to earth by supporting small food enterprises (SFEs) and the local agricultural economy. In addition to myriad environmental problems in the [...]

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What’s for lunch? It’s a universal question that many of us working stiffs have to figure out every day. You have a finite amount of time, and don’t want to spend it driving around, or walking far. And yet you want to eat healthy. All those criteria don’t usually come together. Until Green Truck. Green [...]

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Looking to better understand and leverage their position at the wind power bargaining table, ranchers and other large property owners in Western states are increasingly forming wind energy associations.

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As Vilsack said in an interview earlier this month, the Department of Agriculture affects every American. The Secretary of Agriculture oversees several departments including the Forest Service, the Food Service and Inspection Service, and the Food Stamp Program. Primary responsibilities include the direction of farm subsidies, food exports, soil and water preservation, national forest preservation, [...]

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Sam’s Club, a division of Walmart, recently announced the launch of Neu Direction, a line of Fair-Trade Certified wines from Argentina. Fair Trade Certification™ is administered by TransFair USA and “guarantees consumers that strict economic, social, and environmental criteria were met in the production and trade of an agricultural product.” This is one of the [...]

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Public concern over the appointment of the next Secretary of Agriculture highlights the dismal state of the American food industry. Last month, we introduced you to Farm Forward, the non-profit advocacy group that aims to transform the way our nation eats and farms. Conversations with CEO Dr. Steven Gross, and Director Ben Goldsmith revealed a [...]

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What if your day could start out like this: Wake up. Log on. End world hunger. Thanks to the technological masterminds behind the World Community Grid, that scenario is not all that far-fetched. Researchers have found a way to harness a user’s idle Internet time to perform calculations that help dramatically accelerate research for vital [...]

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As President-Elect Obama stands with Al Gore by his side for the world to see, vowing to combat climate change, a decision he will make in a matter of days will decide the future of federal policy towards sustainability, without most people even realizing it. Obama’s future cabinet is quickly taking shape, but one key [...]

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How to empower and enable indigenous and local residents in forest communities is the key question climate negotiators at COP 14 in Poznan need to be asking themselves, according to ForestAction Nepal and the Nepal Federation of Community Forester Users.

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As you read this, someone close to you may be cleaning, stuffing, or slicing a turkey. Over 45 million turkeys were purchased for Thanksgiving out of the 265 million raised this year alone. The vast majority of these birds were grown on industrial farms. Perhaps your bird is organic, free range, or locally grown, but [...]

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The free-range turkey we bought for this year’s Thanksgiving was ordered through a local organic and natural foods store. And it was about three times the cost of the conventional turkeys they were selling at the mega-supermarket. But our turkey was raised naturally, without genetically-modified feed grown with synthetic, nutrient-depleting fertilizers. The feed wasn’t covered [...]

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The FDA is expected to okay applications by Coke and Pepsi to start using the Stevia plant as a zero calorie sweetener by the end of next week. Once they’ve got thumbs up from the food watchdog, both beverage companies are expected to roll out zero calorie products immediately, industry insiders say.

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Traditional pastoralists are a traditionally ignored and neglected population yet researchers are finding that their practices offer myriad benefits, and can offer a lot more if they get the attention, and resources, they deserve. And when it comes to alleviating poverty, particularly among children, better supporting traditional pastoralists should be a must.

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US agriculture, as practiced, is increasingly unsustainable. Moreover, it accounts for a surprising 20% or so of total greenhouse gas emissions…That could change relatively quickly, however, if farmers and ranchers adopt sustainable organic agricultural methods and practices.

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With growing numbers of producers and consumers looking to re-connect and find healthier, more sustainable and ecologically beneficial ways of producing and consuming food, goings-on at the Whitten Ranch high up in Colorado’s San Luis Valley can serve as a valuable case study of family ranches and farms, the growing sustainable agriculture movement and the application of triple bottom line principles.

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With growing numbers of producers and consumers looking to re-connect and find healthier, more sustainable and ecologically beneficial ways of producing and consuming food, goings-on at the Whitten Ranch high up in Colorado’s San Luis Valley can serve as a valuable case study of family ranches and farms, the growing sustainable agriculture movement and the application of the triple bottom line principles.

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“America better prepare for some uncomfortable changes. Things might get really ugly.” – A Farmer, recently quoted in Esquire No, this guy’s not talking about the recent economic crisis, but the cost of food. Yes, food. “The American food system today faces unprecedented challenges,” says Maisie Greenawalt, Vice President of Bon Appetit Management Company. “High [...]

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Two years ago Truitt Brothers decided to figure that out, and added two products, green beans and pears,sourced and prepared sustainably, to their more traditionally packaged goods which they had been producing for over 30 years. While the sustainability-focused line is still less than 5% of their whole business it has quadrupled in growth in [...]

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We don’t eat lions, tigers or bears for protein, so we shouldn’t eat shark, tuna or swordfish either. We need to be eating further down the ocean food chain if we want an ocean food chain from which to eat in the future. Those are statements from Paul Johnson made on a panel during Changemaker’s [...]

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While the debate over sustainable biofuels continues to rage on and the amount of research opinions and papers on the topic continues to soar an underground “grease car” movement continues to grow. Enthusiasts recently completed a “Grease to Greece” recycled veggie oil vehicle rally was recently completed in Europe, but the movement has yet to really catch on despite its great potential.

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Picture a hot summer afternoon. Neighborhood kids running in slow motion around a New York City block, the corner fire hydrant shooting out an elegant geyser into the air. All of a sudden of “The Entertainer” sounds from a distance, paralyzing every child within earshot with the prospect of the ultimate summer respite – ice [...]

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The first draft of sustainable biofuels standard may open up opportunities and kick-start R&D into a wide range of ethanol and biofuel feedstocks with an even wider range of potential benefits.

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Manitoba Hydro targets 250 of its industrial and agricultural customers to start using biomass as fuel to run their power/heating systems. Customers are urged to undertake feasibility studies into how to use biomass including waste wood, crop residues and livestock manure.

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What the Forest Stewardship Council does for paper, a new organization is going to do for biofuels. The Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels has recently published a global green biofuel standard and its 300 signatories include major oil companies.

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Despite mounting evidence of the myriad negative effects of factory farming, it remains the foundation of animal agribusiness. The indecent nature of the enterprise is manifested in numerous abusive practices and increasingly, activists are looking to the courts and legislatures to demand change. Is government intervention necessary to enact corporate responsibility? A unanimous victory in [...]

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Recently, there has been a flurry of press in the UK talking about how the economic downturn there has caused organic consumption to falter in the past few months. With headlines talking about how organic food is toast and society’s latest casualty, it appears that many are writing it off as this decade’s fad. Who [...]

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At the heart of Elements is a community. So describes one of the newer and more interesting examples of crowdsourcing, started by Linda Welch, the owner of a pet day care company and the former campaign treasurer for Ralph Nader’s 2000 presidential bid. And the idea is fairly simple – a restaurant formed by a [...]

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