Current Stories
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Truffles could help Island farms smell profits
Vancouver Sun
11/25/2009
On a farm north of Victoria, Grant and Betty Duckett believe they may have started something that could invigorate small farms on Vancouver Island. The retired couple own Duckett Truffieres, the site of Canada's first known black perigold truffle.
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Thanksgiving shopping: Going local
Seattle Post Globe
11/24/2009
Washington's Cascade Harvest campaign has attracted more than 3,000 pledges from people promising to serve at least one locally grown, harvested, or raised food for the holiday.
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Whatcom growth plan allows farmland development
Bellingham Herald
11/25/2009
A controversial update of growth areas in Whatcom County was approved by the county council last night, allowing for growth into areas some wanted protected for farming.
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Conservation is key to dealing with CA's water woes
Los Angeles Times
11/24/2009
As climate change, environmental constraints and growth continue to tighten the valve on California's water supplies, the rest of the state is going to feel the pinch too. Not just during droughts but all the time. The reason is simple. Compared to building new reservoirs, recycling or seawater desalination, conservation is one of the cheapest, quickest and least environmentally damaging ways for the state to get more water.
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Life in the slow city
Living on Earth
11/22/2009
With no fast food restaurants or big box stores, the bicycle and pedestrian friendly Cowichan Bay in British Columbia has become North America's first Slow City. An offshoot of the Slow Food movement, it's a quiet resistance to drive-thru homogenization.
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Frozen salmon better for the planet
Oregonian
11/22/2009
Frozen salmon is better for the planet than fresh, because it takes so much less energy to make it to your dinner plate than catching fish and flying them to markets around the world. The findings of a study by Portland-based EcoTrust may fly against conventional assumptions that fresh is always better.
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Food-safety lawyer's wish: Lay me off
Seattle Times
11/23/2009
You might say that E. coli has been very, very good to William Marler. If there's an outbreak of food-borne illness anywhere in the country - spinach, cookie dough, hamburgers, you name it - chances are Marler will be filing lawsuits on behalf of those who were sickened. But now he's lobbying to be put out of business.
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Bitter fight developing over sugar beets
Marketplace
11/22/2009
If the Midwest is the nation's breadbasket, then Oregon's Willamette Valley might be called its "seed basket." Organic growers who fear that genetically engineered sugar beets grown nearby could pollute their seeds with biotech-infused pollen are suing the USDA and hoping to keep that crop out of the ground next spring.
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Failing septic systems vs. OR planning laws
Ashland Daily Tidings
11/17/2009
A smelly and potentially dangerous problem with failing septic systems in Jackson County, OR, soon could be resolved for up to 1,603 rural property owners, with a blanket exception to state planning goals that make it difficult to provide sewer service outside urban areas.
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Study: Farm animals devouring the world's fish
Vancouver Sun
11/17/2009
Consumer campaigns that promote sustainable seafood fail to address the fact the world's fish resources are being gobbled up by chickens, pigs, fish, and other farm animals, a study involving the University of BC concludes.
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The mother tree
The Tyee
11/18/2009
How fate and fortitude in BC's Similkameen Valley combined to give us a new apple so good it had to be called Ambrosia.
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Record number of Montanans seek food aid
Missoulian
11/17/2009
In the past year, record numbers of western Montana residents have turned to local food pantries and shelters for help. Agencies at the forefront of this unwelcome trend believe more people can't find work in this tight labor market and can't afford regular meals.
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New permits for Idaho's animal feeding operations
Boise Idaho Statesman
11/16/2009
Cattle feeding lot owners will have to submit a nutrient management plan for review under new rules proposed for Idaho by the US Environmental Protection Agency.
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Where does that school lunch come from?
USA Today
11/17/2009
The story of how food with a history of making kids sick continued to get into schools illustrates broad failures in government programs meant to provide safe, quality meals for America's children, a USA Today investigation found. Parents and schools often have no idea where the food comes from.
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Hunger in US at a 14-year high
New York Times
11/17/2009
The number of Americans who lived in households that lacked consistent access to adequate food soared last year, to 49 million, the highest since the government began tracking what it calls "food insecurity" 14 years ago, the Department of Agriculture reported Monday.
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Hunger a growing problem in America
Washington Post
11/17/2009
The nation's economic crisis has catapulted the number of Americans who lack enough food to the highest level since the government has been keeping track, according to a new federal report, which shows that nearly 50 million people -- including almost one child in four -- struggled last year to get enough to eat.
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Jellyfish swarm northward in warming world
Seattle Times
11/16/2009
Scientists believe climate change and the warming of the ocean has allowed some of the almost 2,000 jellyfish species to expand their ranges, appear earlier in the year and increase overall numbers, upending fishing practices and terrorizing beachgoers around the globe.
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Chefs serve salmon with a message
Anchorage Daily News
11/15/2009
Chefs at more than a dozen Seattle restaurants are serving salmon dishes with a message on the side - a warning that the creature's future could be threatened by a giant gold and copper mine proposed for Bristol Bay in southwest Alaska, home to the world's largest sockeye salmon runs.
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To serve (food) and protect (the soil)
Missoulian
11/15/2009
The call for local food is loud and growing. At the same time in Missoula, some of the land that produces those vegetables, that meat, is more valuable once it's been developed. Now three local forces are at work on that problem that's led to the incremental loss of agricultural lands.
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Innovator and writer looks ahead
San Francisco Chronicle
11/15/2009
The founder of the Whole Earth Catalog lives on a tugboat with shrubbery on top and solar panels in front of the steering wheel. And yet he makes no apologies to the cow he just washed down with a frosty cup of ice cream. Stewart Brand's new book, "Whole Earth Discipline," thrusts him in the middle of the global climate debate, and not in an easily digestible way.
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Portland project forages for urban edibles
Oregonian
11/15/2009
For many Portlanders, and increasingly others across the nation, fruit picking parties are a way to incorporate the bounty of our city into their diets. The idea behind this type of urban foraging is to use food that's all around us but often overlooked.
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Views: Bellying up to environmental change
Washington Post
11/15/2009
We know more than we've ever known about the innards of the global food system - that food can both nourish and kill, that is production can both destroy and enhance our environment. So it's hard to avoid concluding that eating cannot be purely personal. What I eat influences you. What you eat influences me. Our diets are deeply, intimately and necessarily political.
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Water package lacks clout to reverse Delta's decline
Sacramento Bee
11/15/2009
The momentous reform of California's water system signed into law last week is largely toothless where it matters most: Action to reverse the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta's environmental decline.
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Low prices bode poorly for Christmas tree farms
Oregonian
11/12/2009
Darcy and Cory Miller have seen many market fluctuations during the nearly three decades that they have grown and sold Christmas trees at Oregon's Deep Creek Tree Farms in Eagle Creek. But never one as brutal as this.
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Panel backs no-fishing zones off CA coast
Los Angeles Times
11/11/2009
A state panel approved landmark fishing restrictions for Southern California, creating a patchwork of havens for marine life while leaving some waters open for anglers. Catches of rockfish, cod, lobster, sea urchin, squid sea bass, yellowtail and swordfish have been in steep decline, and fisheries scientists have argued some species could disappear entirely without no-fishing zones where breeding stocks can recover.
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