Large Scale Farming Without Toxic Pesticides is Still a Distant Dream – July 15, 2013

Chemical fumigant use in California highlights the challenges of scaling up eco-friendly and economic alternatives

When the manufacturer of methyl iodide pulled the pesticide off the United States market in 2012 after years of public outcry from farmworkers, environmental groups, and top scientists, proponents of pesticide-free farming felt the wind of change had begun. The science — and the people — had spoken: Methyl iodide as a proposed replacement for the fumigant methyl bromide, an ozone depleter being phased out by an international treaty, was not really a worthy alternative at all. But the road to toxic-free farming is a long one and this battle was only the beginning. 

Photo by Jonathan Winslow/Farm Fuel Inc.A bed-top biofumigant application on a… more

by: Sena Christian

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Learning from Nature: Using Bioengineering to Save Water Bodies – February 5, 2013

California city’s efforts to stabilize creeks with plants are part of a larger paradigm shift in public works initiatives

Donna Wilson believes when you love something you should give it a name. So when she and a few other regular visitors to a greenbelt along Linda Creek in the city of Roseville, CA discovered a gathering of western pond turtles sunning themselves on an oak tree that had fallen across the creek back in 2010, they named the spot Turtle Grove in honor of the threatened species. “I got a degree in anthropology,” Wilson says, as she stops to look at the spot on a recent afternoon. “Anthropology is a love of culture, and I see this creek and greenbelt as a culture, a community.”

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by: Sena Christian

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Quito Grown – August 7, 2012

In Ecuador, urban farms provide an antidote to rising food prices

Sarah McGee admires the structure, partially wrapped in mesh and sun-protective plastic, and smiles approvingly. “We made a wall,” she says. “It actually looks like a greenhouse now. It was a carcass for a week.”

Photo by Christian VelasteguiA group of college students from the US helped build this greenhouse on the rooftop of an elementary
school in Quito, Ecuador.

For nearly two weeks this summer, McGee and a handful of fellow college students have constructed a greenhouse on the rooftop of an elementary school in a poverty-stricken neighborhood of Quito, the capital of Ecuador. McGee, a 19-year-old sophomore attending the University of California, Los… more

by: Sena Christian

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