I'm all for renewable energy, but we're facing a critical shortage of food in the coming years as the world's population continues to increase while there is less arable land, dramatically higher fertilizer prices, and shifting agricultural zones due to climate change. In this climate, it is madness to use our good land and fertilizer [...]

With every passing day, another official or major institution comes out with a prediction of imminent peak oil and price shocks. Here's another to add to this growing list. It just confirms what many of us have been preaching about: get ready for a rougher ride ahead. Now is the time to work on your [...]

If you're lucky enough to have some zucchini (summer squash) plants, you know they can provide months worth of fresh vegetables for you, your family, and maybe most of the neighborhood. The challenge quickly becomes what to do with all those zukes. Entire cookbooks have been devoted to this subject. Inevitably, you forget to pick [...]

At my house, we have eaten eggs every day this week. Unfortunately, because of the salmonella outbreak that's taken a few million eggs off the market, most Americans cannot make a similar statement. My family feels perfectly safe eating eggs because they do not come from hundreds or thousands of miles away and are not [...]

[Note to reader: The REAL Story begins in Paragraph 2.]
A giant sucking sound was heard and with it went the Gulf Oil Spill (or so they would like us to believe). As you've no doubt been reading, one of the major stories this week is: Where did all the oil go? Apparently no one can [...]

Farmers in the U.S. are unable to meet demand for corn, according to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, despite the probability of a record crop once again (so says Earthy Report, link below). Methinks too much of this corn is going in peoples' gas tanks; what a waste of good food, land, and water, not [...]

So much for zero-emission cars (for now, anyway). Unfortunately, Scientific American is running an article in its July issue exposing the myth behind electric cars. Basically, the electricity you are plugging your car into comes from sources that are still pretty dirty (think: coal). The dirtiness of your car's footprint depends upon where you plug [...]

If California bans plastic grocery bags, it will be a great step toward decreasing our impact upon the ocean ecosystem, eliminate a lot of unnecessary cleanup of beaches and natural areas, and cut down on resource use, including a small amount of fossil fuels in the plastic. Hopefully, the California State Senate will follow the [...]

Energy used by the US food system was responsible for 80% of the increase in American energy use for the most recent period surveyed, according to a report from the United States Department of Agriculture. Apparently, this means we are becoming more dependent on food processing and farm mechanization. Americans are eating higher and higher [...]

I grow as many of my own berries as I can, and buy the rest from local organic growers at farmer's markets. There is a good reason I do not buy "conventional" strawberries and it's called methyl bromide. MB is a dangerous and carcinogenic greenhouse gas that's been banned in most of the world but [...]