Blogs & Ecology

This Lawn is Your Lawn from roger doiron on Vimeo.

In difficult economic times, it helps to learn from those who have been through hardship and found a way to recover. Perhaps that's why this story about Hardwick, Vermont, published in last week's New York Times, resonates particularly strongly.

In the Appalachian mountains of the United States, growing numbers of fish farmers are raising trout, catfish, and even salmon throughout the valleys of the state of West Virginia. What they'd rather not tell you, however, is that the source of their water is deserted coal mines.

Worry not, seafood lovers. According to independent experts from within West Virginia and outside the state, the farmers' claims of using "clean, clear water" are true. The fish that are being raised in the mine waters are not only safe, but they may also be healthier than fish grown in conventional aquaculture operations.

Since moving into the Los Angles half-way house two years ago, residents of the Rainbow Apartments have been devising a plan to start their own urban garden. After a few trials and errors, the novice gardeners have now succeeded in creating a 34-foot-long plot bursting with strawberries, tomatoes, basil and other herbs and vegetables, which grow vertically against their cinder block building.

By Sharon Hoyer

There probably isn’t a single issue of sustainability and health that consistently strikes as passionate a chord as the production, distribution and preparation of food. It makes sense—what we take into our bodies is a very tangible part of our constitution; if we truly are what we eat, than what we choose to eat sends a powerful message about our relationship with the world.

British opposition to genetically modified crops is on the rise, prompting security concerns at research laboratories across the country.

Nearly all 54 U.K. pesticide-resistant crop trials attempted in the past eight years have been attacked, according to media reports. Protesters are destroying the experimental crops to prevent biotechnology companies from spreading genetically modified organisms (GMOs) more widely in Europe and the developing world.

Earlier this week, on a spring day in April, John Stubblefield walked past the blue tanks of striped bass, Atlantic sea bream, and cobia stored inside a Baltimore, Maryland, laboratory. "In this tank, it's spring in May. This tank it's spring in September," he said.

At the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute's Center for Marine Biotechnology, Stubblefield and his fellow researchers are not only altering nature, they are creating what may be the next generation of seafood.

By Ben Block

A commission of international agriculture experts unveiled a series of reports on Wednesday calling for an end to "business-as-usual" farming practices to avoid widespread environmental degradation and increasing food scarcity.