Forget what you heard about the Occupy movement being dead. If last Saturday's All in for the 99% event is any indication, there's plenty of life left yet. The arts and music festival on South La Brea Avenue amplified the voices of the 99 percent with Funny or Die short film screenings, Slake magazine readings, a Van Jones talk, DJ sets, and an art exhibit featuring over a hundred artists......read more
It's been a long time since farmers congregated in downtown Manhattan -- around 350 years, to be exact. The folks who populate Wall Street and rural America don't cross paths much these days. It's easy to forget that Wall Street used to be rural America; in 1644, the area contained so many cows that the Dutch colonists had to erect a cattle guard to keep them from straying.......read more
This transfixing series of short clips for China's CCTV Documentary Channel makes other TV station identifications (idents) seem, well, crappy. A collaborative effort between Taiwan studio JL Design and Lithuanian digital production studio Korb, the idents show people creating seemingly 3D structures as they move. Dubbed "motion sculptures," the works are based on four themes and represent four......read more
As the brainchild Blue Hill at Stone Barns, Dan Barber knows a thing or two about the farm-to-table movement. Diners at the restaurant, which sits on a farm along the Hudson River, are served food that's harvested on the farm year-round. It's a great model, one that we like so much that we partnered with Stone Barns for our Mobile Kitchen Classroom project. But Barber thinks there's a problem......read more
Last week, the Open Source Seed Initiative (OSSI) announced the release of 29 new plant varieties that are free of intellectual property (IP) protection. The new seeds, which include varieties of carrots, kale, broccoli and quinoa, can be freely used by anyone as long as they don't restrict use by others through IP protection. Spearheaded by a group of scientists from the University of......read more
Elizabeth Kucinich for the Huffington Post: The purpose of the Farm Bill is to balance the immediate needs of feeding the country with the long term goal of ensuring a sustained food supply. In order to unite the interests of both urban and rural communities, the Farm Bill combines food assistance for our fellow country men, women and children in need, along with longer term agricultural......read more
From the Huffington Post: More than 5,000 honey bees in Australia have been attached to minute RFID sensors to try and track their movements - and find out how to prevent their doom. The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said that it wants to learn why bee colonies in Australia appear not be be affected - yet - by the 'colony collapse disorder' which is......read more
It may be tempting to thinking of the "food movement" as a homogeneous beast, but in reality it's made up of many different strands. From locavores and anti-obesity campaigners to environmentalists and small-scale farmers, there are many different groups that want to see changes in food culture and policy. And while their ideas and goals often overlap, they come at the dilemma from different......read more
Bill McKibben for The Huffington Post: The history we grow up with shapes our sense of reality -- it’s hard to shake. If you were young during the fight against Nazism, war seems a different, more virtuous animal than if you came of age during Vietnam. I was born in 1960, and so the first great political character of my life was Martin Luther King, Jr. I had a shadowy, child’s......read more
Danielle Nierenberg for The Huffington Post: In the United States, everyone becomes a chef on the Fourth of July. Whether hosting a backyard barbeque or an elegant brunch, Independence Day is as much about sharing a meal with family and friends as it as about observing the nation's birthday. While preparing your own culinary feats for the Fourth, it's never a bad idea to take tips from the......read more