Call for action: life altering environmental experiences.
We are experiencing a rebirth in concern and commitment to the environment. Environmental education has been part of the science curriculum since the 1970s but today's renewal seems more pressing and vital in affecting attitudes and knowledge among our students. What is the best way to impact our students?...

NC farmers awarded grants.
The Western North Carolina Agricultural Options Program recently awarded $5,000 to 23 farmers and $2,500 to 14 farmers who are diversifying or expanding their operations in hopes of encouraging long-term agricultural sustainability in the region in the midst of a changing economy. "The goal of this program is to...

Calling all locavores!
The Carolina Farm Stewardship Association (CFSA) has launched a new online searchable local food guide at www.carolinalocalfood.org, where you can locate over 300 sustainable farms, markets, grocers and organizations in the Carolinas. The site will be updated monthly. "This online guide empowers consumers to find the tastiest, freshest, healthiest...

Librarians and the attention economy.
Introduction With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, libraries began not only developing an innovative technology, but have also started developing new economic paradigms for library services. In an economy where success and influence are based on the ability to attract attention rather than on scarcity of...

A taste for truffles: Susi Gott Seguret shares the secret of where these culinary gems are hiding out locally.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Imagine the scent of a deep oak forest, shades of evergreen mixed in with decaying leaves and a twinge of a chill in the air. There's a mystery hanging amongst the branches reaching out over root systems that are waiting, waiting ... Beneath...

Down on the farm: Ruth Gonzalez guides us to making friends with nearby farms at the Mountain Farm and Garden tour.
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Do your children know that you dig in the dirt to harvest potatoes? Have you ever looked a 1,000-pound pig in the eye? Are you an avid gardener who wants to learn a few tricks that will kick your gardening skills up a notch? The...

Dear EarthTalk: I heard a reference to "Earth-friendly chocolate" and was wondering about what goes into chocolate that would raise environmental concerns.
Dear EarthTalk: I heard a reference to "Earth-friendly chocolate" and was wondering about what goes into chocolate that would raise environmental concerns.--Ben Moran, Providence, RI Like coffee beans, the cacao seeds from which we derive chocolate can only be grown successfully in equatorial regions--right where the world's...

Fuelish food follies.
ITEM: United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "said he would put together a special task force to help deal with the problem and called on the international community to help," reported the Associated Press on April 21. "He said the U.N. World Food Program plans to raise $750 million per...

One-stop health care shopping in America--made in India.
A rural, southern Maryland town where tobacco farmers and Chesapeake Bay fishermen once ruled the economy seems an unlikely home for a cutting edge medical center. About an hour and a half's drive to the north and northeast sit some of the giants of the medical field,...

Dear EarthTalk: everybody says stop using plastic bags, but what about all the plastic, cellophane, cardboard and other materials used for packaging the food itself? What can we do to reduce how much of this unnecessary stuff comes wrapped around our food?
Yes, food packaging is a big problem in North America as well as elsewhere around the world, with landfills filling up and recyclers facing a glut of materials to process. It's hard to say just how much of the 130 million tons of paper, plastic and metals that get...