The flip side of enjoying farm to table is taking the table to the farm. So-called “pop-up feasts” are booming at farms throughout the country during growing and harvest seasons. While the format varies, dinners are typically hosted on working rural or urban farms, last about three hours and include aperitifs and a tour before the meal. Wine pairings or beer tastings and live music may be among the enticing activities offered.
The province of Ontario began a complete phase-out of its coal-fired power plants in 2005, with all of them having closed by 2015. While the costly measure was expected to produce minor air quality improvements, officials predicted that the resulting health benefits would accrue $3 billion in annual healthcare savings for the community.
Trash Wheel and Professor Trash Wheel, the solar- and hydro-powered trash interceptors cleaning up Baltimore’s inner harbor, have the ability to suck up plastic bags, Styrofoam containers, cigarette butts and other debris.
Proponents of GMO (genetically modified) food may argue that the technique is necessary because the world is running out of resources. However, agricultural startup Sundrop Farms, with offices in the UK and Australia, has developed high-tech greenhouse facilities that apply solutions to grow crops with less reliance on finite natural resources than conventional greenhouse production.
A robotic, laser-guided, fully automated vehicle, manufactured by Shenzhen-based Yeefung Automation Technology Co. Ltd., has been installed in the Chinese city of Nanking. Called GETA (get a car), the robot slides under a vehicle, picks it up, and places it in a parking spot in even the tightest of spaces in about two minutes.
Hyundai demonstrated its Ioniq autonomous, or driverless, hybrid car concept at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show, demonstrating that such vehicles—equipped with sophisticated sensors, GPS and computers—could be for sale within five to seven years.
Born and raised in the Midwest, actress Molly Hagan moved west in the 1980s to pursue her dream of an acting career. Her childhood home was located alongside farmland that ended up being sold and quarried for limestone. “They kept buying more acreage and infringing on our life and landscape. It was hideous, and led me to want to conserve and protect the land and its beauty,” says Hagan.
Committed to realizing her professional goals, she’s also dedicated to living eco-consciously and furthering conservation causes. Hagan lives with her partner, archaeologist Richard Guttenberg, in an energy-efficient home below the San Gabriel mountains in Altadena, California.
Seed libraries and banks are critically important because the seeds are adapted to the local environment. Seed libraries have multiplied from only a handful a few years ago to as many as 300 located in towns across America today. Public libraries check out seeds to plant in your garden, asking only that you return harvested seeds for others to enjoy. Farmers can now “back up” their seeds in local seed banks, which are also becoming important educational resources to teach students about these issues.
In a recent Yes! magazine article, Rucha Chitnis reports that women are rising up to push back against growing corporate power, land grabs, economic injustice, climate change and more. Women’s groups and networks offer a paradigm shift, she concludes, exposing links between unbridled capitalism, violence, the erosion of human rights and destruction of the Earth.
Sean Russell, 24, of Englewood, Florida, was exposed to ocean wonders in junior marine conservation summer camps and 4-H programs. Volunteering with Mote Marine Laboratory’s dolphin research program, in Sarasota, Russell was struck by how improperly discarded fishing line entangled and killed dolphins and other wildlife. At 16, he launched the Stow It—Don’t Throw It Project to promote portable receptacles made from repurposed tennis ball containers for anglers to stash used fishing line for later safe disposal on shore. More than 21,000 containers have been distributed nationwide to date.
