Using Ultrasound to Sanitize Produce

With new food recalls popping up all the time, scientists are constantly trying to find new ways to ensure that our food is safe and healthy. Check out this interesting article from Scientific American about a new way to sanitize leafy greens using high-powered ultrasound. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=ultrasound-to-protect-produce-from-pathogens -written by Rachel Burmeister, Internship Coordinator...

Sustainable Agriculture Seminar

Last week, I accompanied Wayne Dorband (our founder and CEO) to a sustainable agriculture seminar that he gave. The audience included mostly people that were either in or wanted to get into the alpaca industry.  Not all of these people On another topic, Wayne showed a great TEDTalk video that I had never seen before. I HIGHLY we interested in “green” ideas just because it was the right thing to do, but ALL of them...

Symbiotic Systems

Aquaponics is a great example of a symbiotic system where the living beings in the system all rely on each other. Without the plants the fish would pollute the water, without the fish the plants would be nutrient deficient, and without the bacteria the nutrients would not be converted into usable forms. Understanding that nature is a complex, interconnected system that can be used to our advantage has had a resurgence in the...

Food Deserts in the United States

To follow up on Dawn O’Brien’s post about the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI), I just wanted to post a link to the USDA’s Food Desert Locator. This program maps out areas that are considered food deserts within the United States based on census data. Here is how the USDA defines a food desert: “The HFFI working group defines a food desert as a low-income census tract where a substantial...

New Program to Fund Food Retail Outlets in Food De...

As reported by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), Congress included $32 million in funding for the Healthy Food Financing Initiative (HFFI) in the recently passed “megabus” appropriations bill for FY 2012. The initiative aims to fund food retail outlets in food deserts. HFFI will provide one-time loan and grant financing to establish, expand, or renovate supermarkets, grocery stores, food...