Tag Archives: agriculture

Boatanic Design Turns Boat Houses Into Perfect Platforms For Floating Gardens

Images via Core77 Damien O’Sullivan, a designer in Rotterdam, noticed something about the boats in the Amsterdam waterways — they’d make perfect greenhouses. With just the right mix of large flat space and access to sunlight, the floating platforms can be turned into urban farms. O’Sullivan came up with a plan called Boatanic, a combination of “boat” and “botanical,” and is proposing that a new urban farming plan that utilized house boats be used for year-round fresh produce sold subscription farm-style. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Boatanic Design Turns Boat Houses Into Perfect Platforms For Floating Gardens

Why This Planet Needs a Woman’s Touch

Women around the world possess crucial knowledge about agriculture and biodiversity. Photos by Find Your Feet (L) and Paul Stevenson (R) via Flickr. When you’re trying to protect an entire planet, it seems pretty silly to leave half of its human inhabitants out of the discussion, but that’s exactly what’s happening to women in many parts of the world, according to a recent report on the IPS news wire. Local projects in Afghanistan… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Why This Planet Needs a Woman’s Touch

Staple Food Prices to Rise Up to 45% Over Next Decade, UN FAO Warns

Rice field in Japan, photo: mrhayata via flickr. The new Agricultural Outlook 2010-2019 report from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization has been released, warning that the price for many staple food products are projected to rise between 15-45%, adjusted for inflation. Balancing that is the projection that global food production over the next decade will be able to expand to keep pace with growing human population. … Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Staple Food Prices to Rise Up to 45% Over Next Decade, UN FAO Warns

John Ikerd: The Future of Sustainability Is Relocalization

This year’s Ontario Heritage Conference was all about rural communities, and there were the expected presentations about saving barns and old churches. But the remarkable thing about the conference was the strong environmental theme, with the tone set by John Ikerd, a retired professor of agricultural economics. He laid out a vision of revitalized, relocalized rural communities that would solve energy and environmental problems through the production of ” solar powered renewable energy and renewability machines”- plants. He notes that times are to… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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John Ikerd: The Future of Sustainability Is Relocalization

Amish Farming Methods & Manure Runoff Raising EPA’s Ire

photo: Sara Lauderdale via flickr In many ways the Amish live up their reputation of living greener lives–low-power technology, non-existent consumerism, strong sense of community and DIY ethic–but when it comes to agricultural practices, just because you replace fossil fuel energy with the sweat of your brow doesn’t always mean you’re eco-friendly. Which is where the EPA comes in. The

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Amish Farming Methods & Manure Runoff Raising EPA’s Ire

Hidden From Satellites, Amazon Burning Continues Even As Deforestation Slows

photo: Alexander Torrenegra via flickr Here’s an interesting wrinkle on the ongoing effort to slow Amazon deforestation: Reuters reports that even though tree-felling is indeed slowing , the area of land being burned by farmers is actua… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Hidden From Satellites, Amazon Burning Continues Even As Deforestation Slows

Biodynamic Wineries – How One California Vineyard is Doing It Right (Slideshow)

Photo via Jaymi Heimbuch Biodynamic is a relatively new buzz word in the wine industry. DeLoach Vineyard in Santa Rosa, California isn’t just growing grapes to make some stellar wine: This winery is growing them in a way few others are, and because of their unique methods, they’re setting the bar extraordinarily high for sustainable wineries. According to DeLoach, while 60% of California’s vineyards claim to be using some sort of sustainable practice, they’re one of th… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Biodynamic Wineries – How One California Vineyard is Doing It Right (Slideshow)

Ask Pablo: Is A Freezer Chest The Environmentally Friendly Choice?

Image Source: Jonny Hunter Dear Pablo: I grow plenty of vegetables in the summer but can’t in the winter. In addition to preserving what I can in canning jars, I am thinking about getting a freezer chest to store my vegetables into the winter. I am concerned about the energy use and am wondering if it is better or worse for the environment than buying vegetables that are shipped from far away. There are so many rewards in producing and preserving your own foods, and e… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Ask Pablo: Is A Freezer Chest The Environmentally Friendly Choice?

Undercover Investigation Reveals Cruelty (Including Bashing Live Hamsters), Neglect, and Filth at Another Pet Trade Supplier – Video Too Graphic to Watch

https://secure.peta.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=312… Do NOT watch this video! The description enough should be enough to get you angry enough to help do something about this… Undercover Investigation Reveals Neglect, Cruelty, and Filth at Another Pet Trade Supplier Another PETCO and PetSmart Supplier Caught on Video Mistreating Animals . A PETA investigator went undercover at Sun Pet Ltd., an Atlanta-based wholesale animal dealer that supplies animals to numerous PETCO and PetSmart locations, among other retailers across the U.S. Video footage and photos taken by PETA's investigator show the widespread suffering of hundreds of birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, gerbils, mice, and rats in Sun Pet's enormous warehouses. On April 22, 2010, Georgia Department of Agriculture representatives descended on Sun Pet, which was, unfortunately, tipped off well in advance and apparently took the opportunity to clean up its act. PETA has requested an investigation into the leak that prepped Sun Pet for the Department of Agriculture's visit, but so far, no one has been held accountable for it. In addition to the misery of confinement to extremely crowded containers, forcing animals to eat, sleep, urinate, and defecate all in the same space, PETA's investigator recorded the violent killing and abusive handling of hundreds of animals. One worker put live hamsters into a bag and then bashed the bag against a table in an attempt to kill them—one of the animals was seen suffering and panting heavily minutes later. Other animals whom Sun Pet could not sell were gassed in a crude, filth-encrusted tank. Animals who got loose in the company's warehouse suffered horribly after ingesting the poison that Sun Pet sets out to kill them. A supervisor trained PETA's investigator to determine animals' genders by forcefully squeezing their abdomens “like a … PlayStation controller handle” to make their genitals “come out.” “You could throw them against the wall and they'll stand back up again and keep on running,” Sun Pet's supervisor said to PETA's investigator when ordering him to pack and handle animals more quickly. In more than three months of employment, not once did PETA's investigator see anyone from PETCO's or PetSmart's corporate offices inspecting Sun Pet's facility. Sun Pet also purchased animals from U.S. Global Exotics, the filthy Texas warehouse from which more than 26,000 animals were seized last December following another PETA undercover investigation. Sun Pet also purchased thousands of animals from unlicensed vendors, in apparent violation of the federal Animal Welfare Act, despite previous warnings by the U.S. Department of Agriculture regarding such practices. PETA's investigator documented that PETCO and PetSmart stores returned animals suffering from illnesses and injuries, sometimes without food or water, to Sun Pet instead of providing them with veterinary care or basic necessities or even putting them out of their misery. The animals were hauled around in cardboard boxes in the backs of trucks traveling hundreds of miles and many hours from store to store until they finally got back to Sun Pet, and many died as a result. View photos taken by PETA's undercover investigator. You can help secure justice for the hamsters and thousands of sensitive individual animals peddled for profit by Sun Pet. PETA has received information indicating that Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard Jr. has instructed his office to halt its investigation of animal suffering at Sun Pet. Please complete the form below to urge Mr. Howard to investigate and file suitable cruelty-to-animals charges against the worker caught bashing hamsters against a table and also to file charges against other appropriate parties. Ask Mr. Howard what he thinks constitutes cruelty to animals if it's not bagging them up and bashing them against a table and then leaving them to suffer and slowly die of their injuries. CLICK ON LINK FOR INSTANT PETITION – THIS MATTERS added by: EthicalVegan

Local Dirt Website Points Locavores to Food

Image via Local Dirt Buying food locally is a fast way to shed pounds…of carbon, anyway. By cutting down food miles, you’re cutting back on the embodied carbon in the food, as well as helping out local growers. But if you don’t have a farmers’ market nearby or can’t make it on a weekly basis, how else might you find locally grown food? Local Dirt wants to fill that information gap and point you in the right direction. However, does it stand out against some of the competing websites and smart phone apps providing the same service?… Read the full story on TreeHugger

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Local Dirt Website Points Locavores to Food