When I first arrived in Amsterdam, I was thrilled to see that there was a good-sized and well-stocked organic market on the corner of the street I was staying on. I immediately saw that the awareness of and demand for biological (organic) foods was widespread. I saw organic markets littering many neighborhoods in Amsterdam, along [...]

I recently attended the lecture series at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.  The topic of the talk was urban agriculture.  What I found most interesting was that the lecture series was targeted at architects, planners and builders; even though the topic seemed to be directed at the sustainable food movement.  I think this [...]

As a disclaimer, I used to be a high school teacher in Richmond, Calif in the exact urban schools of which Caitlin Flanagan writes about.
This post is in response to the recently published article in the Atlantic magazine by Caitlin Flanagan titled, “Cultivating Failure.”
Ms. Flanagan makes the argument that the school garden movement building in [...]

The latest posting by FoodforeThought summarizes recent debate in the United Kingdom about the role of genetically modified (GM) crops in planning for future food security. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) report, Food 2030 was released at the Oxford Farming Conference. The comments below by William Surman captured the mood of [...]

Dickson Despommier brought his idea for vertical urban farms to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health on Friday, and his audience of more than 100 people responded with a mixture of enthusiasm and skepticism.
Despommier is director of the Vertical Farm Project and a professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia University’s Mailman School [...]

This is the first of a two post series highlighting the critical issue of Food Deserts and how communities can work together to address their needs, as part of the Center for a Livable Future’s focus on National Food Desert Awareness Month.

In just this last week, newspapers around the country have lamented the lack of [...]

The American Veterinary Medical Association’s recent “response” to the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production’s final report on the state of industrial animal agriculture is disconcerting. It appears that leadership of the veterinary professional organization is attempting to misuse science to obfuscate and delay critically needed changes in the food animal production system rather [...]

One of the perks of working for the Center for a Livable Future is the opportunity to listen to great speakers and catch the latest documentaries about sustainability and the environment.
Last week, CLF hosted a viewing of “Blue Gold: World Water Wars,” a new documentary about the state of one of our most vital resources.  [...]

While big box stores may be an easy target for critics who bash their significant environmental impacts, one national bohemoth is taking steps to inform its customers just how environmentally-friendly each product is.  Yesterday, Wal-mart unveiled a plan for a “sustainability index” label to academic, industry and government representatives  at its Arkansas headquarters.

Slate’s thorough article [...]

The World Health Organization (WHO) has decided to raise the level of influenza pademica lert from phase 5 to phase 6, the highest level. The level was heightened, according to WHO, based on “available evidence and expert assessments of the evidence, the scientific criteria for an influenza pandemic have been met.”
“The world is now at [...]