Hungry for Change

It seems like one step forward, two steps back for the environmental movement these days. The once-high hopes of achieving national and/or international action on climate change have faded to a mere memory. Backward-thinking Republicans are attacking the Environmental Protection Agency in Congress. Eco-minded folks are getting bummed. But another movement, one that shares a common ethos with......read more

Young Farmers Join the Food Shift

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

Does Eating Local Matter?

Eating local is one of the inviolable tenets of the environmental movement. Ask any greenie, they'll tell you: To help the planet, eat locally grown food. But just how important is eating local food? Maybe not as important as one might think, according to a growing number of studies. Writing in The Huffington Post, Tom Zeller Jr. says that recent analyses "suggest that the economic......read more

In London, a Farm in a Shop

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

Authors Ignite Debate About Local Food

Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu say they know what’s wrong with the food system: local food purists. In their new book, The Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-Mile Diet, the husband-and-wife team (a University of Toronto geography professor and an economist) argue that the excitement over this movement is misguided to the point of having “utterly disastrous”......read more

Grazin': Farm-to-Table Diner Opens in Hudson, NY

The Hudson Valley in upstate New York is known for small-scale agriculture, making the town of Hudson a perfect place for a restaurant that sources all of its food from nearby farmers. Dan Gibson, a local farmer, thinks so. Gibson just opened Grazin', a diner that takes "farm-to-table" ideas seriously. The first restaurant in the USA to be certified Animal Welfare Approved, Grazin'......read more