by Judee | Oct 12, 2015 | Farming, Food Education, Food Policy, Food Trends and Technology, Our Environment, Sustainability
A new USDA study (published in the journal PLOS ONE) tracked crop diversity across farms in the US from 1978 to 2012 using five year ag census data.
While the overall data confirms the dominance of monoculture farming – a practice known not to be sustainable in the long-term – there is evidence that in five of the nine Farm Resource Regions where fruits and vegetables reign supreme crop diversity was either maintained or increased slightly. Check out the map for specifics and read more…
Source: U.S. Farms Becoming Less Diverse Over Time | Civil Eats
by Judee | Oct 11, 2015 | Edible Gardening, Farming, Food Education, Food Trends and Technology, Health, Local Food Web, Organic Food and Farming, Our Environment
The Cannery agrihood in Davis, California, will place an educational incubator farm in the middle of a planned community. Morphing from last century’s model of housing surrounded by a golf course, this new development seeks to transform an industrial site into a 21st century organic farming and living experiment.
Source: Northern California’s First Agrihood Will Bring Organic Veggies to Former Industrial Land | Civil Eats
by Judee | Aug 19, 2015 | Advocacy, Education, Our Environment, Sustainability
Yikes! We are now in deficit spending of our planet’s natural resources. As of August 13th, 2015 humans around the world had already used up the equivalent of this entire year’s worth of available resources if life and the survival of the planet are to be sustained. From our food supply to fuel for transportation and business operating practices, our choices are drawing down our resource supply faster than it can replenish itself.
Read about how EARTH OVERSHOOT DAY each year marks the beginning of when we start dipping into the future to continue our way of life, according to the calculator created by the Global Footprint Network think-tank. Their calculator tools are used by the United Nations and many individual countries to understand and evaluate how our collective lifestyle choices worldwide are seeing humanity’s demands for resources far exceed our Earth’s ability to sustain us.
Check out a chart of our World Footprint and search by nation to see exactly we are threatening our very survival by our own choices.
Or, hop over to the resource-rich Overshoot Day website that will help each of us learn how to make choices every day to enable our planet to provide for future generations. From TAKE ACTION to FOR KIDS AND TEACHERS, there are ideas and activities to create positive change.
