The Global Land Rush: Catalyst for Resource Driven Conflict?
By Michael Kugelman / On July 31st, 2012
On May 11, the UN approved new international rules to govern how land is acquired abroad.
Introducing #ForewordFriday!
By Jason Leppig / On May 11th, 2012
This isn't exactly the foreword to Seeds of Sustainability, but you get the idea. Enjoy a new foreword (or introduction, preface, chapter...) every Friday.
Download the pdf here.
Seeking Sustainability, One Shrimp at a Time
By Admin / On May 13th, 2011
Students at Pace University have produced this mini-documentary on sustainable shrimp farming. It tells the story of Linda Thornton, an aquaculture entrepreneur pushing the frontiers of sustainable shrimp farming in Belize.
The Cockle Collectors
By Kennedy Warne / On April 7th, 2011
In the Esmeraldas region of northern Ecuador a large mangrove reserve has been created, within which several villages have custodianship of the forests. Here traditional ways of mangrove-dependent fishing continue, including picking cockles from the mud around the mangrove roots.
A Conchera Speaks
By Kennedy Warne / On March 18th, 2011
In May 2009 I set out on a two-month “state-of-the-forests” mangrove tour of the Americas. I wanted to document the plight of mangroves in the region and assess the impact of their loss on the thousands of coastal people who rely on these forests for food, shelter and livelihoods.
Hunting and the Land Ethic
By Cristina Eisenberg / On January 31st, 2011
I spent a dozen purple dusks and gilded dawns last December hunkered down in the hoarfrost in coulees, hiding in the rabbitbrush and sage during a late-season Colorado elk hunt. In an area with too many elk and not enough wolves, hunting cow elk provides a powerful conservation tool, because of its effectiveness in thinning herds.
What U.S. Municipalities Can Learn From San Francisco's Urban Farming Movement
By Admin / On December 16th, 2010
This is an excerpt of Francesca Vietor, president of The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
What is the Relevance of Vavilov in the Year 2010?
By Gary Paul Nabhan / On January 20th, 2010
Ed. note: Gary Nabhan was recently given the honor of presenting the biennial Vavilov Memorial Lecture in Moscow and offering a similar lecture in Saint Petersburg, and was further honored with the gift of the Vavilov Medal. These are his reflections after years of retracing Vavilov through the centers of food diversity, while writing the book Where Our Food Comes From, and after spending time with the staff of the Vavilov General Genetics Institute in Moscow, and VIR in Saint Petersburg.
Sowing seeds of good health and of unity
By Ann Vileisis / On April 6th, 2009
Ever since President Obama took office in January, he's kept his eye on the grand prize of making political discourse more civil. He's held up the ideal that Democrats and Republicans can find common ground and move beyond shrill partisan warring that has characterized politics for the last twenty-five years.
In looking for places to boost this unifying project, the sunny patch of common ground on the White House lawn holds great promise.
Considering bees, industrious but not industrial
By Ann Vileisis / On January 14th, 2009
Nowadays when I see bees in my garden, I pay close attention.
I have noticed at least four different types. They buzz purposely—so focused on the periwinkle blue flowers of my rosemary hedge. I crouch down to examine their fuzzy bodies and the gorgeous floral interiors that are the center of their apian attention. The wondrous dance of bees and flowers has been evolving for millions of years, but in the past few, it has it become frighteningly tenuous.