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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Forbes
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
Popular Science
'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'.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Brattleboro Reformer
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