Photo Credit: Laura Ouimette
In a time of economic recession , budget cuts, and funding limitations for the California public school system, a new program aimed at sustainability and community is taking root and flourishing. Families, celebrities, company owners, and local residents are coming together to create edible gardens in public schools in Los Angeles and other urban area. Several figureheads in the food industry are striving to alleviate costs by donating soil, seeds, food for the volunteers, and other supplies from local farms and nurseries. Such projects have looked to the precedent set by Alice Waters and her Edible Schoolyard program, which now certifies other garden programs and provides advice and support. Read more…
If you have read my earlier posts, you know that I like writing about policy. There is nothing that makes me more motivated and inspired than seeing environmental change in physical writing, a binding document that encourages as well as enforces certain standards and changes for the good of the planet.
For this reason, NOAA or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gets two big thumbs up for recently banning the commercial harvesting of krill. These small crustaceans are a vital food source in the marine food web and only recently came under fishery pressure. As Mark Helvey, a regional administrator for NOAA sustainable fisheries put it “Protecting this vital food source will help protect and maintain marine resources and put federal regulations in line with West-Coast states.” Fishing for krill not only has implications in disrupting the marine food web, but threatens other marine creatures through destructive fishing practices that are similar to the fishery for shrimp (Check out www.shrimpsuck.org to find out more). Read more…
Ruth L
The next time you’re in the produce section in your favorite grocery store, take a look around. Bell peppers from Scandinavia, strawberries from California, bananas from Central America, apples from the Northwest…… The list goes on and on. As citizens of a highly developed nation, we have grown accustomed to having these novelty items at any given time of year. It seems that our peculiar taste preferences have had more of an affect than we know. It is estimated that the average food item in our grocery stores has traveled about 1,500 miles to get there, producing unnecessary carbon emissions for packaging, shipping, and refrigeration on the way to its destination. Read more…
Photo Credit: Mariusz Chilmon
Celebration broke out last week in Oregon when forest lovers were informed that future excess logging plans (passed while Bush was in office) had been canceled. The Obama administration responded to several lawsuits filed by thirteen conservation and fishery protection organizations that fought against the Bush logging arrangement. The arrangement would have nearly quadrupled current logging on public lands in Oregon, and apparently illegally ignored requirements to protect endangered species living within the forests. Among these species, are the spotted owls that are still in danger, but are no longer facing such a high risk of becoming endangered. Read more…
Photo Credit: Steve Ryan
A “green job” is a job that helps to reduce energy consumption and decrease our impact on the environment. As part of President Obama’s plan to reduce America’s environmental impact, he created the White House Council on Environmental Quality and assigned Van Jones, a Yale Law School graduate, community activist, and environmental entrepreneur, to the position. This position requires Jones to create as many green jobs as possible by coordinating government agencies already looking to the green sector. He will also be advising the President on jobs that cut energy use. Read more…
Photo Credit: D'arcy Norman
The California Air Resources Board has adopted a regulation that forces landfills to install equipment that captures methane gas or fixes leaking methane gas collection systems. This is in order to reduce the amount of green house gases being released into our atmosphere. Currently California has 367 solid waste landfills, 218 of which will be affected by this new regulation. Read more…
Photo Credit: Leigh Blackall
Good news on the global warming front…another country has pledged to go carbon neutral! Tuvalu, a small nation state made up of atolls located in the South Pacific, has said that by 2020 they want all of their energy to come from wind and solar. Though Tuvalu is very small, with only 12,000 people, and their shift to renewable energy won’t cause a large enough decrease in greenhouse gas emissions to substantially affect the global warming trend, it will hopefully inspire other larger countries to join in on the fight against climate change. Read more…
In the small tourist town of Bundanoon, Australia, residents
unanimously voted to halt sales of bottled water. In doing so they
have set an international precedent. The actions of the Bundanoon
community have stimulated a heated debate about the the environmental
damage and ethical concerns that revolve around the bottled water
industry. There has been a push on both a local and national level in
the U.S. to reduce consumption of bottled water in light of apparent
energy consumption and waste that results from the manufacturing and
transportation needs of the bottled water industry. Now, the actions a
a small, quaint town southwest of Sydney are bolstering the efforts
made elsewhere. Read more…
It appears that San Francisco is beaming with success from its one-year-old solar energy incentive program that was set into place last July. Since its installation one year ago, there has been an increase of 450% in applications for solar installations in the city. It is the first of its kind in the U.S., and hopefully will set a precedent for all cities throughout the country. Read more…
The big corporations in our country seem to have a hand in everything and it’s definitely not a helping hand…unless, of course, it’s filled with money for lobbyists. This, unfortunately, is precisely what is happening with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Organic label. Because the organic food and beverage market is the fastest growing section of the food industry raking in $23 billion a year, much money can be made by simply boasting the USDA Organic label. So it’s no wonder that businesses are going to great lengths to secure this seal. Read more…
Loading ...
