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Agriculture

Thirsting in America's Fruit Basket

To protect the endangered Delta Smelt fish, pumping of water from California's Sacramento Delta has been drastically cut back. Add in the state's three-year-long drought, and the result is a major problem for the state's people and farmers.
28 October 2009 - 5:00am
The Economist

The Real Inconvenient Truth: Global Land Use

Global warming is a problem, says climate scientist Jonathan Foley, but it's not the only one. The other major problem facing the global environment is a pattern of land use for agriculture that is grossly unsustainable.
23 October 2009 - 9:00am
Yale Environment 360

California Legislators Pushing For Resolution to Water Crisis

Legislators in California are forming a special session to try to tackle the state's crippling water woes. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is hoping they can hammer out a deal within the week.
15 October 2009 - 7:00am
The New York Times

Watching Where the Water Goes

Monitoring how much water is diverted from rivers and pumped from wells is notoriously difficult. But now, researchers have developed a new way to track usage.
15 September 2009 - 8:00am
The Washington Post

Is the Local Food Movement Misguided?

Eating local is in vogue, as the environmental impacts of industrialized agriculture surface. But is eating local really the right response? One author says maybe not.
6 September 2009 - 9:00am
Forbes
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Heart of California's Agriculture on Life-Support

Water restrictions on farms in the state have atrophied jobs in the fertile Central Valley, giving communities some of the highest rates of unemployment in the state. As jobs dry up, the need for aid is surpassing what's there to give.
3 September 2009 - 9:00am
The Wall Street Journal

Inside Havana's Urban Farms

This video from the BBC looks inside some of the 200 urban farms that provide vegetables for Havana and the rest of Cuba.
29 August 2009 - 5:00am
BBC

Measuring Environmental Impacts With the 'Water Footprint'

A Dutch hydrological engineer has developed a new way to measure the environmental impact of humans: the "water footprint".
28 August 2009 - 7:00am
Der Spiegel

Toilet to Tap to Farm

Farmers in the Monterey Bay area of California have been feeding their artichoke plants with recycled urban wastewater. And they've been doing it safely for years.
27 August 2009 - 5:00am
Miller-McCune

Feeding the World in 2050

Growing populations and diminishing land will make feeding people a challenge in the near future. This piece from Popular Science looks at eight strategies to keep the world fed.
17 August 2009 - 10:00am
Popular Science
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'Fertile Crescent' Doomed by Century's End

Water projects and diversion efforts in Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria are draining the marshlands near the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, known as the 'Fertile Crescent'.
29 July 2009 - 8:00am
New Scientist

Growing A Sustainable Urban Movement

The New York Times Magazine profiles Will Allen, the urban farmer from Wisconsin who recently received the MacArthur Foundation's "genius" grant for his work in agriculture.
6 July 2009 - 8:00am
The New York Times

Innovation Comes to the Greenhouse

Two brand new, high-tech greenhouses are rising in Camarillo, CA, with the promise of growing 20 times more tomatoes than conventional farming. They'll also be the first greenhouses to be completely carbon-neutral.
23 May 2009 - 7:00am
The Los Angeles Times

Vertical Farming Innovator Discusses the Future of Food

Miller-McCune talks with vertical farming innovator Dickson Despommier about why his idea is the future of food for cities and how it can go from blueprint to reality.
21 May 2009 - 5:00am
Miller-McCune

Peak Water: Tapping Out the Ogallala Aquifer

This piece from Scientific American looks at the jurisdictional challenge of conserving water in the cross-state Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world's largest sources of freshwater and the backbone of the nation's farm economy.
20 May 2009 - 10:00am
Scientific American

Pumping California Dry

Water shortages and environmentally-based restrictions are leaving Central California's agricultural lands dry. As a result, farmers are increasingly tapping into groundwater sources. Many are calling on the state to monitor the use of its aquifers.
16 May 2009 - 5:00am
The New York Times

Small Gardens Have Room to Grow

Small farms are getting some attention from the Obama Administration, but what's still holding them back is the proper infrastructure, according to this piece from Citiwire.
30 March 2009 - 9:00am
Citiwire

The Planetizen News Brief - 2/26/09


4:30 minutes (4.17 MB)

China's Olympic building bust, America's struggling small towns, and why those small towns represent the future of the U.S. -- all on this week's Planetizen News Brief, airing every week on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Smart City". Read, listen or download.

26 February 2009 - 5:00am
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Water Woes Hurting California's Farming Towns

California's Central Valley is one of the top agricultural sites in the world, but with low rainfall and cut-off irrigation supplies, farming towns and their citizens may face at least one tough year ahead.
25 February 2009 - 8:00am
The New York Times

Vermont's Farms Cropping Up, Diversifying

The spike in farms can be seen statewide. They are more diverse than they used to be, and probably a response from young people who "want to know where their foods comes from" and have taken direct action.
12 February 2009 - 9:00am
Brattleboro Reformer
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