Agriculture
China's Megacities May Soon Rely on Urban Farming
While widespread urban farming remains pipe dream in the United States, dwindling arable land and a mass shift to cities might make it a necessity in China.
Great Lakes Leaders Call for Drinking Water Protections
In light of August's drinking water catastrophe in Toledo, Ohio, Great Lakes mayors gathered this week to call for policy action to protect water resources round the Great Lakes.
International Effort Needed to Prevent Recurrence of Lake Erie Algal Bloom
On Monday, August 4, half a million people in the Toledo, Ohio metro region could once again drink from their water taps after a weekend without safe drinking water due to a toxin resulting from an algal bloom in the city's water supply, Lake Erie.
Unlocking the Biogas Potential in America's Farms
Thinking about "renewable power" often bring hydroelectric, wind, and solar to mind. The informed will recognize geothermal and biomass as major renewables. Biogas, the non-fossil natural gas, is not well known because few facilities capture it.
'Agrihoods' Produce Food Locally, Cooperatively
Urban Times reports on several 'Agrihoods' maturing all over the United States.
Urban Youths to Save Future of Farming in America
A successful agriculture program in Southern California introduces farming as a viable career choice to suburban students.
Where the Water Really Goes in California
Golf courses and Los Angeles are the most frequently cited public enemies when droughts hit California, but it isn’t that simple. Recent articles have debunked myths about water use in the Golden State by providing a more accurate portrait of use.
Shipping Container Farms Save Water, Enable Year-Round Growth
Shipping container houses are all the rage right now. So why not a shipping container farm?
Oil Boom Lays Waste to North Dakota's Air and Ground
A pair of articles in The New York Times look at two different kinds of waste generated from North Dakota's booming oil industry: natural gas from oil wells is burned due to the absence of pipelines, and the disposal of waste in landfills.
Can a "Rare Slice of California" Stave Off Sprawl?
San Luis Obispo County, along California's Central Coast, is at a crossroads. Will it go the way of Orange County and succumb to development pressures or will it follow Napa and Ventura Counties and protect its rural lands from exurban sprawl.
Where America Grows: Mapping the Country's Crops
Did you know that sweet potatoes are only produced in a small area of North Carolina? Or that flaxseed is only grown in the country's remote northern reaches? Crop maps published by the USDA paint an interesting picture of American agriculture.
Oil and Ag Fight Over Prime California Farmland
What's the most productive way to utilize the fertile land that sits above California's vast Monterey Shale oil reserve? The environmental impacts of fracking on California's farmland could derail what promises to be an enormous oil boom.
Rural-Urban Partnerships May Be the Key to Water Conservation
Most of us who live in major metropolitan areas know that urban water supplies are dwindling. The question is: what can we do about it?
World Bank: Carbon Pricing Key to Tackling Climate Change and Poverty
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim explains why climate change is a poverty issue - and why we must tackle it today to ensure that carbon emissions do not continue rising after 2016. Establishing a world price on carbon will be difficult to achieve.
Scaling Up the Local Food Movement
Small farmers generally sell their wares at farmers markets rather than to grocery stores or institutions. But two entrepreneurs in Virginia are seeking to change that by creating a food hub to aggregate, process, grow, and promote local produce.
Food Systems Planning: The Next Step in NYC's Public Health Crusade
Now that Mayor Bloomberg has had his say in what New Yorkers drink, Alan Brake argues it's time for the next mayor and his partner in Albany to focus on what they eat, by devising a plan to link New York's upstate farms with its downstate markets.
CA High Speed Rail Opponents Ask For Preliminary Injunction In Central Valley
With federal and state environmental clearance and with funds allocated, the main obstacle to laying track in the Fresno-Merced route is an environmental lawsuit to be be heard April, 2013. Two county farm bureaus ask that work cease until then.
Northern California Farmers Decry $14 Billion Water Plan
Norimitsu Onishi reports on the major rift caused by a proposed plan for twin 35-mile tunnels to take water from the Sacramento River to large corporate farms and densely populated regions in Central and Southern California.
Edible Bus Stops Sprout in London
I'm sure your mother had good reason to tell you not to eat on the run. But times have changed, and one group in London is utilizing the city's public transportation network to help popularize the benefits of healthy eating and urban greening.
Rural Farming and Urban Technology Come Together with FarmHack
Benjamin Brownell finds that innovative technology and farming work well together at a FarmHack event in Vermont.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS)
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority
