Bluegreen Project » Environment

Seeing Nature

Scott — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 14:37:07 +0000

When I first started teaching gardening I stumbled across Paul Krafel’s Seeing Nature, and it was a revelation to me. Through a series of personal nature parables he shifts our perception in order to reveal the subtle flows, cycles, patterns and personalities that inhabit the living world around us. Sand fleas, a deer carcass, vulture flight, tundra flora and water erosion (among other things) all have something to teach us, if only we are willing to look deeply and listen. It’s a great book for outdoors(wo)men, naturalists and anyone teaching observation and pattern recognition.

I would also recommend Paul’s insightful newsletter, Cairns of H.O.P.E, for a more of his explorations and encounters with the natural world.

Seeing Nature, by Paul Krafel, Chelsea Green Publishing 1999

Pee in the shower?

Scott — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:56:27 +0000

Check out this Brazilian ad campaign that encourages citizens to pee in the shower to conserve water.

Via Cartoon Brew

Web Roundup // August 2, 2009

Scott — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:23:48 +0000

In between working on the orchard/chicken-run fence and praying for quail eggs, I’ve come across quite a few notable items on the web. Here are some of my favorites:

Michael Pollan, Out of the Kitchen, Onto the Couch
Michael Pollan’s latest piece in the New York TImes Magazine traces our love of food TV, from Julia Child to Iron Chef, and asks why we spend more time watching cooking on television than doing it ourselves. It’s a must read.
Treehugger, Jellyfish Changing the Ocean’s Temperature…by Stirring It??
Can the cumulative effect of swimming fish have as much impact in mixing the oceans as the tides? It just goes to show that the biosphere has just as much a hand in shaping our living planet as the atmosphere, hydrosphere and lithosphere.
TED Talks, Gever Tulley teaches life lessons through tinkering
Gever Tulley talks about his tinkering school for kids. They build some amazing stuff and show the real potential of project based learning–engaging our children in creative exercise that prepares them for the ups and downs of the real world.
Charlie McCarthy, Flight Patterns
This is just beautiful. Charlie McCarthy uses time lapse and long exposure photography to trace the flight patterns of insects around a light post. Via Cartoon Brew

flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.
FORA.tv, Food Security and Climate Change @ The Open Society Institute
FORA presents wonderful discussion with Ross Gelbspan, Mark Hertsgaard, and Sara Scherr on how we can adapt agriculture to meet the coming challenges of climate change. Chapter 7, Allowing Trees to Grow in Grain Fields in Africa, is a particularly interesting description of agroforestry and permaculture in Niger.

Go See Food Inc.

Scott — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:49:53 +0000

Last night I saw Food Inc., the new documentary on our industrial food system, and I think it’s a movie absolutely everyone should see. It stylishly weaves together the whole (often sad) story of our food into a more approachable format than say, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, so that a much wider audience will know the high hidden costs of cheap food.

Go see Food Inc. It’s the most important movie of the year, a 21st century The Jungle. And try to take a friend who loves fast food. After watching stories of the animals, laborers, farmers, and consumers that have been harmed by agribusiness giants aided by our government, it’s hard to imagine anyone leaving the film thinking our food system is on the right track. Hopefully, when enough people know what they’re eating, we’ll reach a tipping point and the system will have to change. Food Inc spotlights Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms and the CEO of Stonyfield Farms organic yogurt who are exemplars of what is possible when we change the food system and put health before greed.

Unfortunately, I still left the theater angry at all the injustices, but I’m working on transforming that into something positive. I’ll be more determined than ever to plant gardens and teach people that you really are what you eat. And the Alamo Drafthouse, where I saw it, also serves up a locally sourced vegetable plate to go with the screening, so at least I didn’t leave hungry.

Food Inc Preview:

UPDATE: If the movie wasn’t enough, this morning we were greeted with news of yet another massive beef recall because of e. coli.