May 30, 2015
Urban farming is booming, but what does it really yield?
Elizabeth Royte
Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on Ensia.com. The benefits of city-based agriculture go far beyond nutrition. Midway through spring, the nearly bare planting beds of Carolyn Leadley’s Rising Pheasant Farms, in the Poletown neighborhood of Detroit, barely foreshadow the cornucopian abundance to come. It will be many months before Leadley is selling produce f ...
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May 21, 2015
Local Knowledge, and Pig Pits, Help Thai Communities Adapt to Climate Change
Angela Jöhl Cadena
International Union for the Conservation of Nature
Over the last 18 months, I have been observing (and documenting) the adaptation process taking place in four communities in Chiang Rai and Sakon Nakhon Provinces, Thailand, under the USAID Mekong Adaptation and Resilience to Climate Change (Mekong ARCC) project, implemented by IUCN Thailand. Based on the scientific climate projections, we had some ideas of […] ...
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May 11, 2015
Avoid a Collision between Human and Environmental Wellbeing
Geurt van de Kerk
Sustainable Society Foundation
Many people, if not all, wonder what will happen when countries like China and India – together with about one-third of the world population – achieve a similar level of income and consumption as rich countries have nowadays. China saw its income per person (purchasing power parity) increased by no less than 140% from 2005 […] ...
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May 8, 2015
Back to the future: quilombos and their potential to protect Brazil’s Atlantic Forest
Waverli Maia Matarazzo Neuberger
Universidade Metodista de São Paulo
Traveling to Barra do Turvo is like going back in time. Located between the two huge southern Brazilian metropolises of São Paulo and Curitiba, the road that leads to Barra do Turvo crosses the Ribeira River valley, and winds its way through the Atlantic Rainforest. According to UNESCO, this forest is one of the world’s five […] ...
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May 4, 2015
Our Soil-ution: increasing important organic matter in soil
Rhiannon Davis
Soil Association
Soil is always at the forefront of the Soil Association’s work, but especially so during 2015’s International Year of Soils: a year designated by the United Nations to highlight how soil – full of life and frequently overlooked – is essential to all human life. The health of soil is being rapidly degraded, which will […] ...
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May 1, 2015
Technology to Help Us Deal with Drought
Dennis O’Brien
Agricultural Research Service
With droughts becoming more severe, water tables getting lower and an increasing demand for water from growing suburbs and cities, farmers know they need to use water more sparingly. That’s why recently patented technology developed by USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in Texas is so important. Editor’s Note: This post originally appeared on the [& ...
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