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
Vintage Dutch Amish carpenters work bench available from the reliably great Factory 20. This is a fantastic piece to add warmth and character to a room. Great patina created over decades of use. (W: 91 x D: 25 x H: 33".)...read more
NRDC President Frances Beinecke for Huffington Post: Today NRDC announced the winners of the 2013 Growing Green Awards. These awards celebrate the farmers, business owners, and bold thinkers who are transforming America's food system. Each one of them has pioneered ways to provide food that nourishes our families and restores our environment at the same time. This is the fifth year NRDC has......read more
What began 26 years ago as an organic farming school funded by yogurt sales is now a $320 million company supporting 1,400 organic farms across the USA. Stonyfield Farm co-founder Gary Hirshberg explains himself....read more
Do you know where your yogurt came from? That cheese in your sandwich? The milk in your cereal.? If you said, "A cow," you're quite right, but where do you know where the cow lives and works? At whereismymilkfrom.com, you can enter the code on the the packaging of dairy product and instantly find out what farm it came from. A welcome tool for all you conscientious dairy consumers.......read more
The small town of Oxford, Mississippi has played a disproportionately big part in American literature, having been home to a bunch of big-name authors, from William Faulker to John Grisham to Larry Brown. The title essay of Brown's final book, "Billy Ray's Farm," discusses his son's quest to become a cattleman. Now, six years after his father's death, the story is......read more
The EU, which says it will meet 20% of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2020, gets set to switch on solar power in the Sahara Desert. Vertical agriculture takes off: 11 "farmscrapers" that build on the success of living walls and mobile gardens. A fake oil spill was staged at the Tate in London, as BP protestors railed against the unholy alliance between oil companies and......read more
It ain't no cushy, high-paid summer position, but these days it's just as coveted. Farming internships are being flocked to by people of all stripes, eager to learn the tangible skills of food production. In the New York Times Sunday Magazine this week, Christine Muhlke writes about the increasing popularity of farming internships. She pays a visit to Tantre Farm in Chelsea, Michigan,......read more
We all want our children to be enthusiastic about local, sustainable food, but there are moments when they can get a little too, er, focused on it. For Pete Wells, author of the always great (and too infrequent, in our opinion) Cooking With Dexter column in NYT Mag, that happened when his six year-old started demanding backyard chickens and rooftop beehives. After hiding his copy of "My......read more
Since the 2008 U.S. farm bill, annual funding for organic farming research has increased from $3 million to $20 million. With more research dollars, scientists and farmers are delving deeper into organic pest control techniques and gaining a better understanding of the larger natural systems at work. Wild sunflowers, for example, are being planted not as a cash crop but as a home for beneficial......read more