Urban agriculture: It’s sustainable, and it tastes so good

posted 02:51 PM 04/25
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In my experience, no salad tastes as good as the one you grow yourself. Yet many of us would still prefer to purchase our greens from the local supermarket or big box store than invest the time and energy into growing our own. This is one of the most fundamental problems we face as a community: how to overcome modern convenience to build a truly sustainable lifestyle that doesn’t rely on destructive agriculture, fossil fuels, and willful ignorance about the immense harm caused by our eating habits and lifestyle choices.

It’s no secret that Americans suffer from a wide range of health problems related to our diets. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer and obesity top the list, but if we counted the correlation between diet and other ailments, such as food allergies, we might start thinking of our food less as sustenance and more as toxin. But the deteriorating health of our society is only part of the problem. The real danger is in how disconnected we are from the true cost of our food supply and the damage inflicted on our environment.

Consider for a moment a study by the Center for Sustainable Systems that found it takes 7.3 units of energy (mostly fossil fuels) to produce 1 unit of food energy in this country. Not only is our food system woefully inefficient and wasteful, it is also incredibly detrimental to our planet. Even with modern farming techniques, topsoil continues to erode, water tables are increasingly depleted, and the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has been linked to a range of problems including toxic runoff in the Gulf of Mexico and colony collapse disorder in honeybee hives.

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Urban agriculture: It’s sustainable, and it tastes so good

posted 11:48 PM 04/24

In my experience, no salad tastes as good as the one you grow yourself. Yet many of us would still prefer to purchase our greens from the local supermarket or big box store than invest the time and energy into growing our own. This is one of the most fundamental problems we face as a community: how to overcome modern convenience to build a truly sustainable lifestyle that doesn’t rely on destructive agriculture, fossil fuels, and willful ignorance about the immense harm caused by our eating habits and lifestyle choices.

Citizens need to get involved to help preserve our freedoms

posted 11:40 PM 03/13

Former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once observed that “the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people.” While Brandeis is 70 years departed, his words are perhaps more relevant now than ever. His insight is a reminder of the fragility of democracy and the tenuous nature of political enthusiasm. Indeed the harsh partisanship and endless gridlock of recent years has lead many to conclude that our political process is broken, and that participation is irrelevant. But such conclusions are precisely why the system is broken and why a small band of elites is able to influence elections in a way that erodes the notion of “one person one vote.”