From Field & Sea

How to forage wild foods

Foraged & Wild Foods

You don’t need to live in the deep woods to find foraged foods. From herbs to berries to mushrooms, you can find an abundance of food if you know how to look. Why forage? To take part in an industrial agricultural system means to be dependent on a system of food cultivation over which one…
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Sustainable Urban Agriculture: Vineyards in the Heart of Paris

Usually the second week in October, the Montmartre Harvest Festival invites residents and tourists to sample true Parisian culture and dedication to the city’s agricultural roots — celebrating the remaining vineyards in the heart of Paris. Festivalgoers may enjoy a parade, music, folklore, tours of vineyards, auctions, and wine tasting.
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Smart Chicken Tecumseh Farms
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Smart Chicken: Tecumseh Farms Interview on Sustainable Humane Chicken

A lot of people are wondering what brands of chicken are healthy and humane. The answers may surprise you. In this interview we take a fresh look at Smart Chicken. What do we discover? A new take on “food miles” — killing chickens gently and humanely is possible — thoughts about antibiotics and animal byproducts…
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Ben Ripple Big Tree Farm Bali
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Sustainable Farming in Bali | Ben Ripple of Big Tree Farms

On the forefront of developing sustainable, community enhancing food systems in Bali, Indonesia Expats Ben and Blair Ripple left their organic farming jobs in Washington and moved to Bali, Indonesia, in the late 90s. Since then, they’ve been become somewhat famous in their efforts to bring artisinal Indonesian products to a larger market and to establish and…
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small scale organic farming
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Small Local Farms Producing Humanely Raised Quail Eggs

Quail eggs are a common street snack in Peru, and often used in Thailand and China. In the US, however, quail eggs are just hitting the food scene. You’ll find them served raw in sushi restaurants, atop a bed of tobiko and wrapped in nori; pickled and served as cocktail snacks; poached and served on…
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New Forest Farm Mark Shepard

Interview With Mark Shepard of New Forest Farm

Working with and within nature using perennial food crops and restoration agriculture. Mark Shepard has created something of an environmental oasis at his Wisconsin homestead, New Forest Farm. Shepard, a farmer and author, is a longtime proponent of restoration agriculture, the practice of recreating healthy, naturally occurring, economically viable perennial farms. Packed with biodiversity, these…
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Food Is Free Project

Fresh, healthy, nourishing food is a human necessity. However, in modern society, food often comes with high out-of-pocket and environmental costs, is increasingly depleted of nutrients and is produced miles from where it is enjoyed, offering consumers little to no connection to the farmer or the growing process. These troubling aspects of modern food production…
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Alternative Farming Systems

While certified organic farming has been the focus of much attention in the move toward sustainable agriculture, other methodologies and philosophies are being used with great success, though considerably less fanfare. Permaculture Inspired by Bill Mollison’s observation of self-sustaining ecosystems in rainforests in Australia, permaculture provides a method of analyzing the environment and designing systems—such as farms, gardens and human habitations—to work with natural flows and processes. Permaculture is closely related to human scale living, homesteading, and the appropriate use of technology and natural resources—especially the finite resource of oil energy. Permaculture has as its foundation the following principles: Earth…
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The Incredible Edible Todmorden

What would it take to create food security for an entire community?  This was the question that Pam Warhurst and Mary Clear sought to answer when conceiving ways in which they could make their hometown of Todmorden in Yorkshire, a self sustaining township.  Their goals were big—to transform a wasteful and disconnected food culture into…
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Urban Rooftop Farms

In cities, farmers are looking to rooftops to provide fresh food for urban populations. One of the major environmental and aesthetic problems with urbanization is the lack of available open space and the distinctive absence of greenery in lieu of concrete and asphalt. One of the solutions that urban farmers have started to pursue is the use of rooftops as viable space to grow food. These rooftop farms are ideal for growing food because they have access to direct sun light for most of the day and they make use of previously underutilized spaces without competing for expensive land at…
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Ecodynamic dates at Flying Disc Ranch

Flying Disc Ranch Eco-dynamic Desert Oasis

Robert Lower has created a thriving farm in the desert using sustainable design and cultivation methods such as permaculture and eco-dynamics.  His soaring date trees and fragrant citrus grove is evocative of an ancient Mesopotamian garden oasis. Situated in Coachella, California, is a lush desert plantation of date and citrus trees at Robert Lower’s Flying…
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Humane Pasture Raised Heritage Breed Pork

With so many labels vying for your sustainable food dollar, it is becoming increasingly difficult to decide which is best. The labels should make it easier, but how many of us really know what the certified Organic or the various steps of the GAP animal welfare labels really entail? When it comes to pork, there…
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Sustainable Food in New Orleans

Grow Dat On our farm we work collaboratively to produce healthy food for local residents and to inspire youth and adults to create personal, social and environmental change in their own communities. Grow Dat is a place where people from different backgrounds and disciplines come together in research and practice to support public health, local…
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Chicken of Tomorrow

How a massive breeding contest turned a rarely eaten backyard bird into the chicken we eat today. On a sunny June day in 1951, 8,000 chicken fans filled the Razorback Stadium at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville in the culmination of a nationwide effort to create the fowl of the future. As a band…
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Gourmet Vegetarian Holiday with Deborah Madison

How to Grow Your Own Food in Cold Winter Climates

If you live in a cold winter climate, you may think eating local in the winter means a lot of jarred, canned, frozen and dehydrated food. While preserving food is part of a well stocked winter pantry, you can grow your own fresh food in the winter as well. Here are some of our favorite…
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The GrowHaus Urban Farm Oasis

Bringing food back to Denver neighborhoods marked by the EPA as hazardous waste areas. In just two years, The GrowHaus, a 20,000-square-foot Denver greenhouse and education space, has become a veritable food oasis. Based in Elyria-Swansea, a neighborhood with Superfund designation and few healthy food options, The GrowHaus is providing fresh, local, affordable produce to…
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Growing Food in Paris: Jardin Luxembourg Orchards

Located in the heart of Paris, in the 6th arrondissement, is the Luxembourg Gardens. Built in 1612 to encompass the grounds of the palace built for the Regent of France, Marie de Medici, the gardens span 23 hectares (nearly 60 acres) and are an icon of Parisian life. The gardens and palace were inspired by the…
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Grim Seasonal Dairy

Grim Seasonal Dairy

Some farmers are turning away from conventional methods to embrace a more humane and natural way to make milk. Milk is a seasonal product and some dairy farmers are choosing to let their cows produce according to nature. Seasonal dairies are pasture based farms in which cows forage and produce milk until the natural end of the grass season
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Corn Insect Ear Injury

The Toxic Edge Of Drought

Drought conditions have caused a number of problems for farmers in the US. Among them has been a rise in plant and soil based toxins which have led to the death of dozens of cattle in the Midwest and threatened the general public with the possibility of tainting milk and drinking water.
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Seasonal Cooking: How to Use Fresh Chickpeas

Fresh chickpeas with Brussels sprouts and pasta recipe Spring is the time to find all kinds of foods we normal eat dried in their fresh state. Fresh garbanzo beans, or chickpeas, are at the markets now, so don’t pass by these velvety green pods without giving them a try this season. Wondering how to use…
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Pray For Rain (To Stop)

United Kingdom: From Drought To Flood

Last year, the United Kingdom saw two opposite ends of the weather spectrum—drought and flooding—causing millions of pounds in property and crop damage. Learn how climate change is affecting crops, livestock, farmers, prices and lives in the UK.
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Feeding Candy To Cows

Candy Corn: The New Cow Feed

In the face of higher feed prices caused by worldwide droughts, some livestock farmers have resorted to less than savory alternatives to keep their cattle alive and fat.
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Federal Crop Insurance

Federal Crop Insurance: what is it and why does it matter? Unlike other forms of insurance, the Federal Crop Insurance scheme not only protects farmers from revenue losses due to lower than average yields but it also covers farmers who do not receive their expected revenue due to fluctuations in the marketplace.
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Climate Change And Shellfish

Ocean Acidification & Seafood

The ocean’s ecosystems are being crippled by increasing acidification levels caused by greenhouse gasses. Declining fish and shellfish populations have already begun to impact the seafood industry.
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Crop Pests and Climate Change

As we move into a time in which floods, frosts, windstorms and droughts happen more frequently with the accelerated change of our climate, the pests and plant diseases which blight our crops will also transform. Shifting climates and re-occuring extreme weather events will cause pests to emerge in new areas, alter predator-prey relationships, and increase the threat to public health and food security as humans respond by using heavier doses of pesticides.
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Drought And Our Staple Crops
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Drought And Our Staple Crops

As you’ve probably noticed, the drought that hit the US starting last summer has not caused society to collapse, nor are we experiencing a drought-induced famine like the one that took place three years ago in the Horn of Africa in which almost 1 billion people went hungry. So why should you care if the nation’s staple crops of wheat, corn and soybean suffered sizeable declines? To answer this question, let’s first take a look at how dependent we are on these crops—they are, after all, called staples for a reason.
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Corn Makes The World Go Round

Corn is in more of your every day products and foods than you may think.  But what happens when an extreme weather event such as the drought that hit the US last summer cuts our supply of this staple ingredient? There is the corn we eat and then there is the corn that we don’t…
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Food Security

How To Survive Climate Change

Regardless of the debate whether climate change is man made or not—the fact remains that climate change is happening now, just as predicted decades ago. Now is the time to start thinking about how we can adapt to living in a rapidly changing environment.
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Cost of the US Drought

The Cost of the US Drought

Americans are still bearing the financial burden of the drought which devastated crops in 2012. Unfortunately, we have only begun to see the real effects of the drought on food prices—the worst of which is still to come. The total financial impacts of the drought are still being calculated over the months to come. Inflation of food prices is expected to occur at different times for different foods throughout 2013, but overall the rise is supposed to reach 3-4 percent, particularly in eggs, meat and dairy products.
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Beef, Dairy And Drought

As meat and dairy prices rise, questions on the viability of the industry’s dependence on just a few key grains are being asked a little louder—and this time by more than just sustainable food enthusiasts. In order to understand the full impact of drought on the meat and dairy industry, it is important to understand…
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Drought: Greatest Hits Of The 2000’s

To get some insight into just how frequently extreme weather events take place, and how they affect food production, let’s look at droughts and severe heat waves that have taken place around the world in this new millennium. Tune in and feel the heat of Drought: Greatest Hits Of The 2000’s.
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Is Growing Your Own Tomatoes Cost Effective?

Eat Organic Tomatoes For Less

Is there any way to grow your own food without dedicating all your free time to tending a garden and spending as much as you would in a grocery store for organic veg and fruit? I sincerely believe so, and this ongoing series of articles is about me, a novice gardener with a sunny balcony.
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Artisan Cheese Making: Cowgirl Creamery

Eden Canon interviews Sue Conley, co-founder of Cowgirl Creamery, to discuss the practice of artisan cheese making, the importance of sourcing locally, and the environmental impact of cheese production. When we pick up groceries at the store, we rarely consider each product’s environmental impact in light of its production chain—from farm, to processor, to distributor,…
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Crowdfunding Urban Farm Projects

Urban farms turn to crowdfunding websites to bring their projects to life. Since the 1950s, the global population has flocked to urban centers around the world. According to the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Report from 2007, about 50% of the world’s population lives in cities and many more are expected to migrate to urban…
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Detroit: Creating Oases in a Food Desert

Detroit: Creating Oases In A Food Desert

Home to Henry Ford’s assembly line, Detroit was once affectionately referred to as Motor City—the epicenter of American car production.  With the recent collapse in the American automobile industry and overall economic recession that has ravaged the United States over the past four years, over a fifth of Detroit households do not even own a…
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Guerrilla Grafters

Urban landscape grows fruitful—literally—thanks to Guerrilla Grafters In San Francisco, it happens to be illegal to have fruit trees along sidewalks. Fallen fruit is considered a public health hazard, liable to get squashed, trampled and slipped on as well as attracting rats and other vermin. Which means that Guerrilla Grafters aren’t just posing as rogue…
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Variety of produce.
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How To Create A Hyper-Local Foodshed

Can you and your neighbors produce a complete diet for the community from your own home gardens?  Own Dell believes so, and gives his tips for defining, organizing and creating your own hyper-local foodshed. Situated on some of the most fertile land, many suburbs have a legacy of once being extensive orchards or acres of…
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Bowl of vegetables.

Converting Lawns To Productive Urban Home Gardens

As people wake up to the fragility of a global agricultural system dependent on oil, they are turning their focus closer to home—and finding abundance in their own backyards. We explore three examples of urban backyard food gardens and the surprising amount of food that can be grown with very little space.
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Variety of produce.

The Beacon Food Forest

  The next time you run low on fruits and veggies, instead of driving to the grocery store, how about taking the kids on a trip to the food forest to see what’s in season? Seattle is creating just such an edible landscape. Imagine yourself in a forest in which almost every plant, shrub, and…
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