Featured Articles
Why GM Has No Place in a World in Transition
…In a nutshell, the key question for me is does GM make us and the natural world healthier and more food secure? Surely, if climate science teaches us one thing, it is the need for the application of the precautionary principle. If there is a significant chance that a particular course of action will have harmful effects, then it makes sense to avoid it, even if it isn’t 100% certain. Likewise, so much is as yet unknown about GM, and so much could go wrong that we are far better off, I would argue, giving it a very wide berth. I don’t feel the greens have got it wrong, and it would take a far more compelling case than that set out by Lynas to convince me that they have.
…Yesterday in the Guardian 
…Understanding these barriers is critical—for if these exceptionally motivated individuals are held back, we can assume other people will have similar difficulties. These findings may help us all to learn what to expect. The good news is that it hasn’t been all hard times for these lifestyle leaders. Many changes have made their lives better, like adopting a low-energy and local diet, gardening (which was frequently described as “fun”) and walking and bicycling more. More than three-quarters of respondents reported greater happiness satisfaction or personal growth since embracing new ways of living.
…Most of us know in our bones that a sea change is coming in agriculture. But the biggest driver of that change is not going to come from the issues that I’ve mentioned so far. The biggest driver is going to be the increasing cost and decreasing availability of fossil fuels, especially oil. Because agriculture is so dependent on oil, the entire system is extremely vulnerable to oil depletion—and to oil price spikes. The situation brewing on the horizon regarding oil compels us to begin rethinking how we grow our food, and even how we eat.
…The great irony is that the climate skeptics have prospered by insisting that their opponents are radicals. In fact, those who work to prevent global warming are deeply conservative, insistent that we should leave the world in something like the shape we found it. We want our kids to know the world we knew. Here’s the definition of radical: doubling the carbon content of the atmosphere because you’re not completely convinced it will be a disaster. We want to remove every possible doubt before we convict in the courtroom, because an innocent man in a jail cell is a scandal, but outside of it we should act more conservatively.
…Let’s be clear: I believe we are in for some very hard times. The transitional period on our way toward a post-growth, equilibrium economy will prove to be the most challenging time any of us has ever lived through. Nevertheless, I am convinced that we can survive this collective journey, and that if we make sound choices as families and communities, life can actually be better for us in the decades ahead than it was during the heady days of seemingly endless economic expansion.
...The damage to the ecosystem may mean that a large-scale human presence on the planet cannot continue much longer. The obsession with self-interest cultivated by capitalism may be so deeply woven into the fabric of contemporary identity that real solidarity in affluent societies is no longer possible. The deskilling and dependency that comes with a high-energy/high-technology society has eroded crucial traditional skills. Mass-media corporations have eroticized violence and commodified intimacy at an unprecedented level, globally. None of this is crazy apocalypticism, but rather a sober assessment of the reality around us. Rather than deny the despair that flows from that assessment, we need to find a way to deal with it.
...Some organizers respond to such concerns with upbeat assurances that if we just get more people on board and work a little bit harder, the problems will be solved—if not tomorrow, certainly within some reasonable period of time. I used to say things like that, but now I think it’s more honest, and potentially effective, to acknowledge how massive the obstacles that need to be overcome really are. We must not only recognize that the world’s resources distributed in a profoundly unjust way and the systems in which we live are fundamentally unsustainable ecologically, but also understand there’s no guarantee that this state of affairs can be reversed or even substantially slowed down. There are, in fact, lots of reasons to suspect that many of our fundamental problems have no solutions, at least no solutions in any framework we currently understand.
...“People like to hear about lots of acres or large numbers of animals and bushels of corn per acre measured in the hundreds,” Snyder continued. “But models of farming that can gross $50,000 to $100,000 on a single acre, or Community Supported Agriculture programs that, in some cases and on relatively small acreage, are able to count their customers in the thousands and bank $1 million or more in the spring before even planting a seed, are anything but small!”
The 2009 holiday season was a tough one for retail businesses. In November, their sales 
...Fortunately, many individuals and families have awoken to the reality that what our species is confronting is nothing less than the total collapse of industrial civilization and the end of the world as we have known it. They are coming to understand that the collapse is a process, not an event, and that some aspects of it will be slow and grinding, while other aspects will be sudden, catastrophic, and traumatic. And very importantly, they are becoming prepared. But how does one "prepare", and what is preparation anyway?
...If we are to build cultures of peace, we have to start talking about something that still makes many people uncomfortable: gender. We might as well put that on the table; people don’t want to talk about gender, do they? But let’s also remember what the great sociologist Louis Wirth said: that the most important things about a society are those that people are uncomfortable talking about. We saw that with race: Only as we started to talk about it did we begin to move forward. We’re beginning to talk more about gender, and starting to move forward, but much too slowly.
“A local food and farming revolution is already underway, as citizens across Boulder County are quietly beginning to completely rebuild our local foodshed,” says Michael Brownlee, “Catalyst” for 
...“Why can't you buy raw milk, ice cream with eggs in it, or home-made sausage?," asks Salatin. "America's food system, enslaved by a global corporate bureaucratic fraternity, offers less choice amid the perception of abundance. The only reason the framers of the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights did not guarantee citizens freedom of food choice was because they could not have conceived of a day when private treaty neighbor-to-neighbor food commerce would be demonized and criminalized." In this call to grass roots food activism, Salatin seeks a Food Emancipation Proclamation, freeing citizens to opt out of the industrial food fraternity.
Transition Westminster/Arvada/Broomfield (
The Mayan elders have told Chita that we are no longer living in the present. The future has begun, and there is no more time. We must live with our ears and our hearts close to the earth, and food is one of the most important aspects of this because as Chita says, "food is medicine." By this she means that food has healing potential, but even more so, food is power. "Medicine", a term frequently used by native peoples, is synonymous with the particular kind of power a person carries in the world which often relates to his or her life's purpose. Clearly, Chita's medicine is the growing and cooking of nourishing food.
In 2009, our Transition Initiative, Transition Westminster/Arvada/Broomfield (or Transition WAB for short) sponsored the Broomfield Community Permaculture Garden. We used land donated by the Presbyterian Church of Broomfield to build 21 sheet-mulch keyholes and plant a wide variety of herbs, vegetables and fruit trees. In total, we had 26 volunteers that put in 1 - 60 hours over the 2009 growing season.
Our vegetable garden in Civic Center Park was a great success. We are now in talks with Denver's Parks and Recreation Department to expand to other parks in Denver! The exact parks are yet to be determined, but City Park, Sloan's Lake Park, Cheeseman Park and Washington Park are under consideration. The goals of these Grow Local gardens around the Denver will be to demonstrate the beauty of edible landscaping and to inspire citizens to grow their own vegetable gardens.
DaVinci Quest has taken the first step in establishing an international center of excellence in green building renovation in the City of Longmont, Colorado, United States. On Dec. 9, DaVinci Quest announced the start of an innovation contest planned to demonstrate technologies that can make a house smarter, safer and greener. The contest will be followed by economic development activities to create jobs within the community.
Spending time in nature has the incredible ability to make us feel peaceful and grounded. As an ecopsychologist, I know that human beings need a connection to something wild, whether that be a pet, a garden, or a mountain in order to feel soulful and happy. I see how couples who backpack, hike or garden together are able to—at least for a while—put their troubles behind them when they immerse themselves in the beauty of the wilderness. Studies have shown that spending time simply walking in a natural setting (as opposed to simply walking in the mall, for example) can have immense psychological benefits, including reduced anxiety and depression.
