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It's no secret that young people are psyched on farming these days. Nowhere is that more evident than in rural Oregon, where NYT writer Isolde Rafferty discovered a burgeoning movement of young farmers making a run at small-scale agriculture by doing things the old school way. Shunning the ways of industrial farming, the new generation of ranchers and growers are capitalizing on heightened demand......read more
The way we see it, growing food in cities is a great way to address some of the social, environmental, and health problems faced by urbanites. Derek Denckla agrees. The Brooklyn-based green visionary helped launch the Farm City project (named after Novella Carpenter's excellent book on adventures in city farming) to explore and promote the practice of urban agriculture. Our intrepid Brooklyn......read more
The Chinese Dust Bowl is an arid 400,000 square mile wasteland representing the largest ever manmade conversion of productive land into desert. It has been called "one of the greatest environmental disasters of our time." Benoit Aquin's eerie, hazy photographs call awareness to "scarce water resources, desertification, and ecological refugees in China" by revealing the devastating effects of......read more
In theory, there aren't too many people opposed to the idea of sustainability -- especially as it relates to food. But for all the people who agree that sustainable food is a good thing, there are just as many definitions of what it means. "Sustainability" is as ambiguous as it is appealing. That issue was addressed by a panel of experts at last week's Food Summit hosted by The Atlantic.......read more
We are in the midst of a food revolution. Urban farms are popping up all over the place. Wal-Mart is buying local, sustainable produce. Even the White House growing its own vegetables. Organic is the new conventional. This week, our friends at NRDC announced the winners of their 2011 Growing Green Awards, recognizing the incredible work being done to transform the future of our food system. The......read more
Anna Mia Davidson is an acclaimed documentary photographer whose editorial clients include The New York Times and Vanity Fair. Anna's personal interest in sustainability and rural America led her to travel around the Pacific Northwest, shooting farmers of organic food. "These individuals represent the resurgence of sustainable farmers in the Pacific Northwest, who are passionate,......read more
A new documentary about the U.S. food system hit its first round of theatres this month. American Meat, directed by Graham Merriwether, documents the lives of dozens of American farmers producing both industrially and sustainably raised meat. The film's main subject is Joel Salatin, a pasture-based pork rancher featured in Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma". Salatin has started producing......read more
Like we recently mentioned, the sustainable farming movement is alive and growing in New York's Hudson River Valley. NYC photog Daniel Handal documents the back-to-the-land movement thriving in the area with a collective portrait called Between Forest and Field. These are not old and crusty farmers, desperately hanging on to a rural life their children have left behind. No sir. These are......read more
At an empty storefront in East London, a group of designers led by the crew from Something & Son have opened what must be the world's first farm in a shop. The disused shop has been transformed into productive urban farm with hydroponic and aquaponic plants, a backyard garden, a rooftop chicken coop, and tilapia in the front room. Meanwhile, the bottom floor dishes out......read more
In no place have the cataclysmic environmental effects of climate change been felt more strongly than southeastern Australia. There, a prolonged, 12-year drought has wrought havoc on local ecosystems and caused catastrophic damage to agriculture, which suffered record losses and sent rural communities into a tailspin. Enter Australian inventor Edward Linnacre, a Swinburne University......read more
