Pig Business Exposes the Grisly Inner Workings of the Pork Industry
Image credit: Grist
Pig business is not an easy documentary to watch. First of all, the images of the inner workings of pig farms and slaughterhouses can turn the stomach of even the most steadfast meat-eater. Second, and more significantly, the film has not been—and likely never will be—released in the United States. This means that American viewers are relegated to ingesting the film in 10-minute segments via YouTube….Read the full story on TreeHugger
Young Farmers are Combining Politics with Pitchforks
Image credit: Good
The life of a farmer is a difficult one—meaning, for most, years of hard work, little money, and even less appreciation. Maybe it is this reason that passing down the family farm has become an increasingly difficult proposition….Read the full story on TreeHugger
Arctic Doomsday Vault Now Has Half Million Samples – Becomes World’s Most Diverse Collection of Saved Seeds
photo: Mari Tefre/Svalbard Global Seed Vault
The doomsday Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway–begun as protection against any potential future calamity that threatens global food production–just turned two years old and has also just passed the half million mark in terms of seed varieties saved. This makes it the most diverse collection of crop diversity anywhere in the world. …Read the full story on TreeHugger
EU Says It Will Back Bluefin Tuna Trade Ban – And Then There Was Japan…
photo: Yusuke Kawasaki via flickr.
The US has agreed to back an international ban on trade in critically endangered bluefin tuna, and now the European Union nations will do so as well, with Malta being the only dissenting vote. That still leaves us with Japan, which consumes about 80% of the world’s bluefin tuna, saying it won’t participate when <a href="http://www.cites.org/…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Starbucks’ Farmers Discuss the Impact of Fairtrade
Images by B. Alter
It’s been Fairtrade Fortnight, and in celebration Starbucks has released a special new Fairtrade coffee from Rwanda. It’s part of their complete switch-over last year to selling only 100% Fairtrade espresso-based coffees in the UK and Ireland. This makes Starbucks the largest buyer of Fairtrade Certified Coffee in the world which is pretty impressive, no matter what you think of them.
This TreeHugger was invited to a Starbucks tasting and informal discussion with coffee farmers and producers from Costa Rica and Tanzania. As a long-time anything-but-Starbucks coffee drinker, I att…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Freakonomics Watch: “The Primitive Food Movement”
The first Freakonomics book was a lot of fun; the second less so, as it sort of devolved into “if the scientific consensus and/or coast-hugging liberal elite are for it, we are against it” type of thing. Hence Freakonomics Watch; or perhaps it should be called James McWilliams Watch, since he appears to be the contributor to their blog with the most attitude about anything green. Now he is on about The Persistence of the Primitive Food Movement, where “Bicycles are losing gears, runners are afoot in shoes designed to create a barefoot sensation (some are even running barefoot), and m…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Can Fish Stay on Restaurant Menus? Chef Dan Barber Explores Revolutionary Approach to Fish Farming (Video)
Photo via casers jean
How do we keep fish on the menu? Chef Dan Barber asked this question at the recent TED 2010 event. Farmed fish is a problematic issue – sustainable fish farming is even more so. What’s sustainable, and is farmed fish ever really sustainable? Are there any fish that we can keep on the menu and feel confident that we aren’t eating our way towards a filthy ocean devoid of life? Barber gives a hilarious talk as he describes is journey to find out exactly how we can keep fish on restaurant menus, and cites a particularly perfect fish being raised through a …Read the full story on TreeHugger
Cathy Erway on The Art of Eating In: The TreeHugger Interview
Photo via Goodlifer
Cathy Erway is an acclaimed food writer and sustainability activist based in New York City. Two or so years ago, she renounced the consumptive culinary culture of the big apple, and set out to eat in–for every meal. An ambitious undertaking in a city practically built on dining out. Erway documented the ordeal on her blog Not Eating Out in New York, where she shared her trials and tribulations, insights on the sustainable benefits of cooking at home, and her favorite new recipes. We caught up with Erway to discuss her n…Read the full story on TreeHugger
Should Cell Phone Towers Be Put on Residential Buildings?
Image: Lloyd Alter
Between the upgrading of existing systems and the licencing of new carriers, the rooftop landscape of Toronto, Canada is changing rapidly as new antennae are added daily. While TreeHugger has discussed the question of cell phone safety many times, we are usually talking about the phone itself, where users have some control, rather than the base stations, where residents in apartment buildings with base stations on the roof do not. Is this exposure dangerous? A recent installation raises some questions….Read the full story on TreeHugger
Nitrogen’s Impact on Public Health
Image credit: Grist
Imagine a hot summer day in a town surrounded by glistening pools of water. Now imagine that no one is swimming—that they can’t because the water has been contaminated with a potentially dangerous, yet common, pollutant. For many, this terrible thought is a reality and the culprit is nitrate….Read the full story on TreeHugger
