Name Name
titledescript
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
As we write, two brothers are making their way across the United States on self-built bikes made from recycled trash, documenting their search for eco-villages, urban farming initiatives, and new ideas for business. America ReCycled, as Tim and Noah Hussin have dubbed their project, is a quest for the lost American Dream. In their own words: "The modern American is so disconnected from those......read more
For "An American Food Trip," another instalment in the excellent Perennial Plate series about sustainable eating, filmmaker Daniel Klein and his team travelled 23,000 miles across 42 states to tell the stories of "Real Food in America." The resulting clip, cobbled together from seven terrabytes of footage, offers a fast-moving and fascinating glimpse at food culture all over the States. As......read more
Here's a nicely styled sustainable house prototype spotted over at Inhabitat. Designed by Architecture Research Office and Della Valle Bernheimer for the Syracuse School of Architecture, the R-House is a compact, angular form that hits on the twin notes of sustainability and affordability. Built to passive house standards, with a final price tag of under $150K, the 1,100 square foot......read more
The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History.......read more
Published late in 2012, Natural Histories offers a rare glimpse of seldom-seen, fully illustrated essays from the American Museum of Natural History's Rare Book Collection. And it's not just for armchair scientists. Included in the clamshell package are 40 prints of extraordinary illustrations, printed in quality stock, just begging to be framed. From the curation to the printing, this is a......read more
In an announcement that's as laden with symbolism as rivers are with sediment, American Rivers has named the Potomac River, which flows through the nation's capital, the most endangered river in the United States. "America’s Most Endangered Rivers," the annual report from the clean water advocacy group, noted that the Potomac is under increasing threat from pollution caused by urban......read more
In Jonathan Safran Foer's latest book "The Eating of Animals" the lauded novelist dives deep into the complex morality of eating meat. An avowed vegetarian, Foer stops short of preaching the vegan way of life, but presents some pretty damning testimony about factory farms and the lives of animals raised on them. The Atlantic correspondant Jeffrey Goldberg had a discussion with Foer......read more
Eating food that was raised locally is all well and good, but if the meat in your organic, grass-fed burger was processed in some massive slaughterhouse across state lines, it kind of defeats the purpose. And in all likelihood, it probably wasn't processed anywhere nearby. That's because the meat industry, like much else in U.S. agriculture, is a highly consolidated beast. According to......read more
Here's an excellent animated video created for "Cumbia de Piedra" by Colombian artist Jhon William Castaño Montoya. The clip, cobbled together by Dominican animator Tomás Pichardo, is a visual celebration of the culture, colors and textures of cumbia--the mother of all Latin American music. The track is taken from MOHS, Castaño Montoya's second album, which was inspired by......read more
