Does it really matter whether your food was produced locally?
Alternet - 2/23/2010. By Stan Cox – The local wits in Salina, Kansas, like to say the easiest way to for us "eat locally" around here is to heat up a Tony's® frozen pizza. It's not just that Tony's has a large plant on the west side of town. Salina is also surrounded by wheat fields and is home to a large flour mill. Our local pizza, at least theoretically, could be assembled on a local crust. But our hometown pizza can be considered local only if we ignore the many miles ingredients like tomato sauce, cheese, pork and beef travel to reach the plant. |
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New research: synthetic nitrogen destroys soil carbon, undermines soil health
Grist - 2/23/2010.By Tom Philpott – The case for synthetic N as a climate stabilizer goes like this. Dousing farm fields with synthetic nitrogen makes plants grow bigger and faster. As plants grow, they pull carbon dioxide from the air. Some of the plant is harvested as crop, but the rest – the residue – stays in the field and ultimately becomes soil. In this way, some of the carbon gobbled up by those N-enhanced plants stays in the ground and out of the atmosphere. Well, that logic has come under fierce challenge from a team of University of Illinois researchers. |
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Sustainability just science backing up good sense
Maine Sunday Telegram - 2/21/2010.By Tom Atwell – Sustainable gardening is a trend. Many growers, mostly smaller food farmers but also some ornamental garden designers, are working toward sustainability. So when New England Grows, the trade show for the horticulture industry held each winter in Boston, offered a lecture on ''The Scientific Underpinnings of Sustainability,'' I figured I could come away with some useful knowledge. What I didn't realize was that I was going to have to learn about the laws of thermodynamics, specifically the second law of thermodynamics, or the entropy law. |
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Local CSAs to exhibit at fair event
Kennebec Journal - 2/21/2010.Farmington: Twelve communities will host the upcoming Community Supported Agriculture Fair on Sunday, Feb. 28, co-sponsored by Maine Organic Farmers & Gardeners Association. The fair is an opportunity to preview the products available in their areas this year. |
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