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Instead of tossing out cell phones and other electronic devices, artist Boo Chapple suggest that we should eat them. In a pamphlet titled, Consumables, she says that “if electronic devices were edible, we could save on petrochemicals and solve the global food crisis in one simple move. In place of e-waste, there would now be e-food. There would be no more photo essay exposés of towns in China piled with PCB’s, dusted in plastic and beset with birth defects. There would be no more African famines.”
Hat Tip: fastcompany.com/blog
All images are from Consumables, a project by artist Boo Chapple, with photography by Bo Wong.
Farmer and sons walking in the face of a dust storm. Cimarron County, Oklahoma (LOC), originally uploaded by The Library of Congress
For the story behind the headline, visit: greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com.
In the not-too-distant future, “vertical farms, many stories high, will be situated in the heart of the world’s urban centers. If successfully implemented, they offer the promise of urban renewal, sustainable production of a safe and varied food supply (year-round crop production), and the eventual repair of ecosystems that have been sacrificed for horizontal farming.”
Some of the advantages of vertical farming:
* Year-round crop production
* 1 indoor acre is equivalent to 4-6 outdoor acres or more, depending upon the crop (e.g., strawberries: 1 indoor acre = 30 outdoor acres)
* No weather-related crop failures due to droughts, floods, pests
* All VF food is grown organically: no herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers
* VF virtually eliminates agricultural runoff by recycling black water
* VF returns farmland to nature, restoring ecosystem functions and services
Hat Tip & More Info: verticalfarm.com/
If you’re in or near Washington, D.C. on October 17th and 18th, the White House invites you to visit Michelle Obama’s Kitchen Garden where carrots, peas, beans, lettuce, and other vegetables are harvested for the First Family’s meals and formal dinners. The tour is free but you’ll need tickets (they’ll be handed out on a first-come, first served basis starting at 8 a.m. each day at the Ellipse Visitor Pavilion at 15th & E Streets). For more information, click travel.latimes.com.
Many agricultural crops all over the world are pollinated by bees. The disappearance of bees as a result of so-called Colony Collapse Disorder would therefore be a calamity. The Beehaus provides a warm, secure, and dry place for bees to live. And thrive. It can be used in your garden or on your rooftop and is especially useful in urban areas where bees have difficulty surviving. For more information, visi www.omlet.co.uk.
Circle Biodiesel and Ethanol Corporation have created patent-pending machinery that enables inedible foods such as toxic strains of algae and Jatropha to be safely eaten by humans and animals.
“We have devised an apparatus and method for the production of humanly edible food from algae, Jatropha and other currently toxic feedstocks. Says CEO, Peter Schuh. “We believe we are in a great situation to help on the growing concern for world food production.”
Hat Tips: seeddaily.com & www.gaia.com
Several times a month, Food Forward – an all-volunteer, grassroots group of Angelenos – convenes at a private property (by invitation) and glean the excess fruit on its trees, donating 100% to local food pantries. For more information – or to join them – visit foodforward.org. You can also read more about the Food Forward movement here.
Hat Tip: Kiko and latimes.com.
bacon cheeseburger, originally uploaded by TW5011.
The Bountiful Backyards’ team includes designers, landscapers, artisans, philosophers and educators who create “beautiful, diverse and sustainable edible landscapes for schools, communities, congregations and homeowners.” Among the services they offer: “Unique designs tailored to your needs and resources, from small organic vegetable gardens to food forests and “installation of designs using environmentally regenerative, and as-local-as-possible plants and materials.” They also offer consultancy packages (by the hour) for do-it-yourselfers.
The vegetarian restaurant Hiltl is responsible for the catering of an open-air cinema in Zurich. The online titles in their commercial read : Cinema wouldn’t be the same without our fresh vegetarian snacks.
TRUCK FARM is a Wicked Delicate film + food project. Combining green roof technology, organic compost + heirloom seeds, we are creating a living story about growing a little food in a big city. Each “episode” is a partial excerpt of a larger film project, slated for completion in fall 2009. Visit www.wickedelicate.com to learn more, and stay tuned!
An estimated 70 percent of all antibiotics used in the United States are regularly added to the feed of livestock and poultry – a practice with serious consequences for our health. Bacteria that are constantly exposed to antibiotics develop antibiotic resistance. This means that when humans get sick from resistant bacteria, the antibiotics prescribed by doctors don’t work.
Namaste: Click actionnetwork.org to write to your members of Congress today and tell them to support the Preservation of Antibiotics for Medical Treatment Act, and put an end to the dangerous overuse of important human antibiotics in the feed and water of animals that are not sick.
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- Obama, Farm Industry Clash Over Antibiotics (wired.com)
Not long ago, the slimehead – named for its distinctive mucus canals – lived in obscurity. Renamed “orange roughy” in the 1970’s, it is now widely overfished. Ditto the Patagonian toothfish (rechristened “Chilean sea bass”) and the mud crab (now known as the “peekytoe crab”). And a new strain of catfish which seafood marketers are calling “declacata” is coming soon to a dinner table near you.
Note: The naming of seafood is policed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which keeps a Seafood List of acceptable market names.
Hat Tip: washingtonpost.com.
Seed Hunter is a highly entertaining one-hour documentary about a topic that’s vital for the future of our planet – finding the little seeds that may help save the world from its greatest ever crisis – a global food shortage brought about by human-induced climate change.
Chili’s Awesome (Onion) Blossom: 2,710 calories, 203 g fat, 194 g carb, 6,360 mg sodium (the fat equivalent of 67 slices of bacon)
Outback Steakhouse Aussie Cheese Fries with Ranch Dressing: 2,900 calories (the caloric equivalent of eating 14 Krispy Kreme doughnuts), 182 g fat, 240 g carbs
Blimpie Veggie Supreme (12″): 1,106 calories, 56 g fat (33 g saturated fat), 2,831 mg sodium
Burger King’s Quad Stacker: 1000 calories, 68 grams of fat
Hat Tip: eatthis.menshealth.com Photo: Colros Photostream (Flickr.com)
Shopper’s note: the sticker labels (produce codes) on the fruits actually tell whether they were organically grown or conventionally grown with pesticides and herbicides or are genetically engineered.
* Conventional Fruit Labels: Four digits, mostly starting with the number 4
* Organic Fruit Labels: Five digits and start with the number 9
* Genetically Modified Fruits: Start with the number 8
In short, the label 4922 tells you an apple has been grown with herbicides and harmful fertilizers. If it has a sticker 99222, it’s organic and safe to eat. If it says 89222, it could be an alien.
NAMASTE: skrewtips.com
Joel Salatin’s Polyface, Inc. is “a family owned, multi-generational, pasture-based, beyond organic, local-market farm and informational outreach in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. “We are in the redemption business: healing the land, healing the food, healing the economy, and healing the culture. Writing, speaking, and farm tours offer various message venues.”
Joel plays a major part in Michael Pollan’s Omnivore’s Dilemma and can be seen in the documentary, Food, Inc.
Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. The group seeks to protect our food heritage through projects supported by the Slow Food Foundation.
Visit Slow Food at slowfood.com.
http://slowfood.com/
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- Chipotle Mexican Grill embraces anti-fast food film (dailyfinance.com)
“Forget buckets of blood. Nothing says horror like one of those tubs of artificially buttered, nonorganic popcorn at the concession stand. That, at least, is one of the unappetizing lessons to draw from one of the scariest movies of the year, Food, Inc., an informative, often infuriating activist documentary about the big business of feeding or, more to the political point, force-feeding, Americans all the junk that multinational corporate money can buy.” Read the entire review at movies.nytimes.com. Then see the film (skip the popcorn).
New Belgium Brewing Company, an environmentally responsible purveyor of adult beverages, has introduced a new, low-calorie brew called, Skinny Dip. The company (which also produces an amber ale called, Fat Tire) is also “diving head first into water advocacy” because (1) water makes up over 90% of their beer (no fresh water, no great beers) and the west is in middle of a severe water shortage. Skinny dip here for more information.
Namaste: Peligro Films
IC:Earth Prize – October 08 – Original Art from ETSY artist, ART ON THE MENU, originally uploaded by mkecupcakequeen
Artist Patianne Stevenson creates the ultimate, all-natural foods – completely free of calories – from recycled cardboard. If you’re hungry for me, visit Patianne at her shop on Etsy.
Namaste: inhabitat.com
LunchBots are a healthy alternative to plastic containers for packing lunch to go. Made from the highest quality 18/8 stainless steel, LunchBots do not leach chemicals like plastic does. Eco-friendly and reusable means saving money and the environment. Visit the lunchbot website for more information.
Namaste: Peligro Films
Originally uploaded by jt916
Sustainable Sushi: A Guide To Saving the Oceans One Bite At A Time, written by a fishery and sustainability expert who was himself netted long ago by the allure of Japanese cuisine, Sustainable Sushi offers simple, clear explanations of such topics as mercury and PCB levels, overfishing, and species extinction.
Visit sustainablesushi.net for more information.
Ben Flanner, who quit a desk job at an online stock trading company to grow food full time this spring, has joined with fellow farmer, Annie Novak, and turned the roof of an old industrial building in Greenpoint, Brooklyn into a thriving 6,000-square-foot farm. “A lot of people doubt it when they hear about it, and they come up and they’re like, ‘Oh, my God,’ ” says Flanner, 28, who is also known as Ben the Farmer. Flanner and Novak have already started selling kale, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, radishes, peas, and herbs to local restaurants and hope to start selling at local farmers’ markets as well. For more information visit brooklynfoodconference.
Namaste: nydailynews
An update of the Supermarket Seafood Scorecard (released by Greenpeace) gives Trader Joe’s an “F” for continuing to stock “red list” seafood like orange roughy, swordfish, and childean sea bass – some of the world’s most critically imperiled species. In fact, none of the 20 stores Greenpeace is tracking get a green or top score (not even Whole Foods, though it gets the #3 spot).
More on Traitor Joe at traitorjoe.com.
For up-to-the-minute information that can help you become a wise, responsible purchaser of seafood, visit montereybayaquarium.
Hat Tip: Trent
Carnivore Style, originally uploaded by Diana Pinto.
Food writer Michael Pollan recently suggested that if Americans went meatless one night a week, it would be equivalent to taking “30 to 40 million cars off the road for a year.” Regardless, if you can’t bear to be without meat, be careful what kind you eat. According to the journal Environmental Science & Technology, producing red meat requires about four times more greenhouse-gas emissions chicken or fish.
Chew on that. More info here.
Chile “practices significant sustainable viticulture, and is a leader in biodynamic farming.” Currently, thirty-two wineries in the country use organic production methods, and about 2% of wine-growing land is devoted to organic agriculture.
Looking for recommendations? Several wine writers around the web have highlighted “green” Chilean wines that they really like:
* Caliterra: Pawsey recommends their ‘08 Sauvignon Blanc, and their ‘07 Cabernet Sauvignon, and notes that senior winemaker Sergio Cuadra’s sustainable practices are leading the way to broader sustainability in the Chilean wine industry.
* Vinedos Emiliana: Megan Witherspoon of Wine Conscience loves their Natura Sauvignon Blanc, and outlines the variety of green and socially responsbile practices the vinter has incorporated into its business model.
Thirsty? Click here for more info.
Food, Inc. (Magnolia Pictures)
Director: Robert Kenner
Cast: Michael Pollan, Eric Schlosser
Plot: An unflattering look inside America’s corporate controlled food industry.
Slaughtered Pig, 1972, originally uploaded by Anthony K..
Paul McCartney and two of his daughters, fashion designer Stella and photographer Mary, are heading an initiative called Meat Free Monday, which hopes to persuade Britons not to eat animals one day a week. Britain’s National Farmers Union opposes the idea. Stay tuned.
Hat Tip: ecorazzi.com
M takes her seafood watch very seriously, originally uploaded by jovino.
At a time when the world’s oceans are severely over-fished, your seafood choices make a big difference. Make sustainable seafood choices quickly and easily – whether you’re eating at your favorite restaurant or shopping for dinner – with a Seafood Watch iPhone App. Don’t have an iPhone? Seafood Watch recommendations are available for all mobile devices with an Internet connection. If you don’t have a handheld device, you can also view the recommendations here: montereybayaquarium.org
Hat Tip: Thanks, Dawn.
Demon child, originally uploaded by MsBlueSky.
The Belgian city of Ghent has declared Thursdays meat-free. The Flemish university town of some 200,000 people has now introduced a weekly “Veggie Thursday.” The city hopes to improve public health, reduce its impact on the environment and enhance animal welfare. “If everyone in Flanders (population: six million) does not eat meat one day a week, we will save as much CO2 in a year as taking half a million cars off the road,” said an Ethical Vegetarian Association spokesperson. You can read the meat of the story here.
An infographic is a “graphical exploration of the data that surrounds us.” This one shows us the catch numbers of some of the world’s most popular fish. You’ll note that many fish catches have peaked which means there are not enough fish left to catch. Click on the image for the full-page version.
Hat Tip: Peligro
This infographic is a collaboration between GOOD Magazine and Timko & Klick
Organic agricultural production benefits the environment by using earth-friendly agricultural methods and practices. And Hammy “proves” organic tastes better, too.
$50M Funding For Farmers To Go Organic! (friendseat.com)
