Food & agriculture – Aug 31
When genetically modified plants go wild
Monsanto buys ‘Terminator’ seeds company
Grist gets hungry (3)
New books tells us where our food comes from
Kitchen stories – a craving for fellowship
Food & Water
Preparing for a Crash: Nuts and Bolts
Will putting in fluorescent light bulbs and starting a window herb garden really help you if there’s a crash? Here are some nitty gritty suggestions for Peakniks…
Hydrogen to the rescue? Questions about Iceland’s sustainability
Iceland plans to be the first country to implement a hydrogen economy, taking advantage of its vast electric resources. However, sustainability is still wanting in this tiny, isolated island nation, despite its massive advantages over most countries. It cannot, at this time, free itself from the world oil economy.
Food & agriculture – Aug 28
– Alice Waters: Slow food nation
– One thing to do about food: A forum
(Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan, Wendell
Berry, Winona LaDuke, Dr. Vandana Shiva…)
– Stewards of wine land (sustainable vinyards)
– California seeks to clear hemp of a bad name
– Black farms, black markets
– Local food in small towns (interviews)
Solutions & sustainability – Aug 27
– In praise of zealous nuts
– Permaculture – permanent agriculture
– NPR: eating local, thinking global
– My low-carbon diet
– “Sustainable well-being” – theme of
2007 AAAS conference
Helping cities, towns and municipalities adapt to peak oil
For readers interested in what can be done on a local level, please consider taking the following suggestions and recommendations to your local government leaders. (Report and recommendations from a member of the Portland Peak Oil Task Force.)
Food & agriculture – Aug 25
– Lappé: a right to food?
– Biofuels may strain U.N. goal to end hunger
– I was a student dumpster-diver
– The shocking truth about bread
Food & agriculture – Aug 23
When we finally take the off ramp (from oil-fueled agriculture) / Organic farmers up against the Wal-Mart / Will the world starve in the 21st century? / Namibia: fuel hike starts to bite farmers
The Real Green Revolution
A friend once suggested to me that the three worst things we could be doing for the environment are, in order of destructiveness, 1) drive cars, 2) eat meat, and 3) eat vegetables. I’d consider listing the car third.
Cuba’s pathbreaking energy policies
As the age of oil ends, a society that clings to the social and economic institutions and practices of the early twenty-first century will go the way of North Korea. The lesson to be learned from these two Communist states is change or die. [Former Washington Post columnist von Hoffman jumps on the peak oil bandwagon.]
Is Sustainable Agriculture an Oxymoron?
ared Diamond calls it “the worst mistake in the history of the human race.” Bill Mollison says that it can “destroy whole landscapes.” Are they describing nuclear energy? Suburbia? Coal mining? No. They are talking about agriculture.
Whither cellulosic ethanol?
We are … biotechnologists, as well as chemical engineers and have successful processes going today… Our carefully considered view, for which we will be happy to provide abundant evidence is that severe barriers remain to ethanol from lignocellulose. The barriers look as daunting as they did 30 years ago.
(The latest salvo in the Khosla-TOD debate about biofuels.)