Keystone Opponents Target Obama at SF Fundraiser – April 4, 2013

Environmentalist base is worried about president’s waffling on tar sands pipeline

Environmentalists Wednesday kept up their campaign against the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline by staging a large protest outside a San Francisco political fundraiser headlined by President Obama.

Photo by Shadia Fayne Wood/350.orgAlthough protesters were kept well away from the Getty mansion, organizers say the rally sent another
clear signal to the president that the pipeline is a major test for his leadership on climate change.

More than 500 people braved fog and a chilly wind to call on the president to reject the cross-border pipeline that would ship tar sands crude from the mines of Alberta to… more

by: Jason Mark

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Proposed Law Could Deliver Major Boost to Urban Agriculture in California – March 28, 2013

Bill would give property tax breaks to landowners who lease their parcels to urban farmers

Small-scale farming isn’t easy. The prices farmers receive for their goods are often low, the margins are tight, the days are long, and the chores never-ending. For farmers who don’t own their own property, land insecurity compounds financial instability. It’s tough to really dig in if you don’t know how long you can stay on the piece you’re farming.

The bill would also help urban farms like Little City Garden in San Francisco (pictured here), where
the farmers don’t own the three-quarter acre lot they farm and scrape by on a month-to-month lease.

The problem of insecure land tenure is especially pressing… more

by: Jason Mark

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A New Francis of Assisi? – March 14, 2013

The world could use a pope who is a tribune of Earth

I don’t go much in for Vatican Watching (all that particulate matter from the smoke signals, you know), but I’ll admit that I felt a little thrill of hope when Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio took the name Pope Francis.

Photo by Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P.St. Francis of Assisi is the patron saint of animals and the
environmentalist icon of the Catholic Church.

Whole forests have been lost already to detailing Bergolio’s plain lifestyle, his commitment to the poor, the importance of him being the first pope from the Americas, and the first from the Jesuit order. Most interesting,… more

by: Jason Mark

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Major Universities Come Out in Support of Monsanto in Supreme Court Case – March 5, 2013

Research institutions eager to protect their lucrative patent income

Two weeks ago the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Vernon Bowman vs Monsanto Company, a dispute over how long Monsanto’s patents last for and whether farmers should be able to save genetically modified seeds and replant them. Here’s a nice synopsis of the dispute, from the gang over at Mother Jones:

Photo by Jessica ReederBowman planted soybean seeds that contained somebody else's second-generation Monsanto
seeds.

“Here's what happened: Bowman bought seeds from a grain elevator that sold soybeans for animal feed, industrial use, or other nonplanting purposes. The elevator contained a lot of… more

by: Jason Mark

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Some Thoughts on the Respectability of the Environmental Movement – March 1, 2013

We don’t need no Michael Grunwald

Environmentalists on Thursday were electrified by an essay by TIME national correspondent Michael Grunwald offering his support for the campaign against the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. After suffering a week’s worth of slights from armchair quarterbacks dissing the Keystone opposition as wooly headed and un-strategic here, finally, was a member of the establishment commentariat saying the recent protests in Washington were spot-on.

Photo Bora Chung/350.org A group of "radicals" agitating for a livable planet.

In an essay titled, “I’m with the tree huggers,” Grunwald wrote:

“Now is the time to choose sides. It’s always easy to quibble with the… more

by: Jason Mark

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