Henry Ford dreamed of making plastic cars out of soy. Now Dow, DuPont and other chemical giants are also dreaming of a 'green' future. But, as Jim Thomas argues, bioplastic is not the eco-solution it's cracked up to be.

The future of plastic was always gleaming white. Monsanto's plastic 'house of the future' that once stood at the heart of Disneyworld's Epcot Center and the futuristic Space Hilton hotel in Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey both featured shiny white doors, walls, ceilings and furniture. To designers of the mid-1960s hard, white, unbreakable plastic, like the white heat of the technology revolution, must have represented a pristine future moulded in the name of modernism. As Mr McGuire memorably whispered to Dustin Hoffman in the 1967 film, The Graduate: 'There's a great future in plastics. Think about it.'

Forty years later, its reputation tarnished and its 'house of the future' dismantled, the plastics industry is struggling to resurrect the image of plastic as the noble 'material of the future'. This time we are told that plastics will be soft, degradable and blend in with nature. They're called bioplastics and the industry has a new colour in mind: green. Read the rest of this entry »

Only Time will tell if we're at the point in the food debate to pop the taboo question: how come, despite all the squawking about food being too expensive these days, food is so incredibly cheap? What hidden force lies behind all the obvious problems?

To give credit where it's due, Time magazine, a showpiece of glossy conventional wisdom since 1924, is the first mass-audience news weekly to make a splash — 'Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food', the 20 August edition challenges its readers — about the false economies that drive the cheapening of food and all the mishaps that causes. Read the rest of this entry »

Industrial biotechnology has the potential to save the planet up to 2.5 billion tons of CO2 emissions per year and support building a sustainable future, a WWF report found.

As the world is debating how to cut dangerous emissions and come together in an international agreement treaty which will help protect the planet from potentially devastating effects of climate change, innovative ideas how to reduce our CO2 are very valuable.

A recent report published by WWF Denmark identifies the potential to be between 1 billion and 2.5 billion tons CO2 per year by 2030, more than Germany's total reported emissions in 1990.

Industrial biotechnology could help create a true 21st century green economy, the report states. Read the rest of this entry »

Bees are truly amazing creatures, found in just about every region of the world from the Arctic tundra to the towering peaks of the Himalayas. About three quarters of more than 240,000 of the world's flowering plants rely on them to reproduce.

• There are more than 20,000 bee species in the world and, unlike the honeybee, most of them are solitary. They range in size from the 1.5 mm tropical stingless bee to the 40 mm long giant rock bee of Asia.
• They include mining bees, mason bees, leaf-cutter bees, carpenter bees, carder bees, masked bees, sweat bees and bumblebees.¹
• Most bees don't live in hives and are not communal. Instead, they nest in grassy hillocks, in burrows in the ground, under rock ledges, in trees and in rotten wood. Read the rest of this entry »

The concern over the declining honeybee population may be exaggerated, according to a controversial new study that shows their numbers are actually increasing globally. Alarm over a world pollination crisis is thus unfounded, say the researchers who analyzed Food and Agriculture Organization data and found that commercial domesticated bee hives have increased 45 percent in the past 50 years, to match growing demand for honey among a growing human population [AFP].

The study, published in Current Biology, says, "the declines in the U.S.A., some European countries and the former U.S.S.R. are more than offset by large increases elsewhere, including Canada, Argentina, Spain and especially China." The study could help disprove a connection between regional declines, which have been attributed partly to parasitic mites and the general mystery known as colony collapse disorder, and a worldwide trend. But even if global bee populations continue to climb, researchers claim that there won't be enough of them to go around. The real issue is not the honeybee numbers but the increasing work expected of them [CBC], the researchers argue.
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Campinas, Brazil: Elements of the soy industry have agreed to take a milestone step toward improving their production practices, which have led to widespread deforestation, displacement of small-farmers and indigenous peoples, and loss of natural habitats.

On Thursday, participants in the Round Table on Responsible Soy (RTRS) unanimously agreed to implement a pilot program of voluntary production standards aimed at reducing the negative impacts of soy production on the environment and people, particularly in South America.

Most importantly, the interim standards require producers to take certain measures to protect the environment. Those include prohibitions on the conversion of areas with high conservation value — such as forests and savannahs — reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and eliminating the most hazardous pesticides in soy farming.
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After meeting Carlo Leifert, a professor in ecological agriculture who has been researching low-input farming, Wayne Roberts is now convinced that the merging of farm, food, health and environment concerns will become the new normal.

The great divide between food and farming is about to become a blur as a result of pioneering scientific research in Europe that's pushing the boundaries of health and agricultural policy. Though no poem insists that 'food is food and agriculture is agriculture, and never the twain shall meet', that may as well be the watchword in both fields. The chasm between the two is rarely bridged at any level of public discussion or decision-making. Food writers rarely report on farms, and vice versa. Nutritionists rarely discuss anything that happens to food before it's harvested, and vice versa for agronomists; even the champions of organic farming rarely make nutritional claims. Doctors barely know about nutrition and hospitals serve what is called hospital food, just as farmers and processors don't fret about what happens to diabetes rates when all their corn is turned into cheap pop and junkfood filler. Government ministries and departments of food and agriculture rarely meet, let alone worry about harmonizing their policies.
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The lush landscape of Hawai'i once offered abundant food. What can these islands teach us about food and sufficiency?

The island of Kaua'i is one of the most beautiful and fragile places on earth. From above, it looks like a vibrant green flower, lush and pulsing with life, floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. The Hawaiian tourist industry calls it "The Garden Isle," comparing it to the Garden of Eden. The image of Hawai'i has always been sold as a "paradise." But there is another side to life on this island, one that visitors rarely see.

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Have a green thumb but not enough green in your wallet? According to a 10-year study by Burpee Seeds completed last year, a $50 investment in gardening supplies will save you $1250 a year in produce. It is for these savings in food costs that there's been a recent "bloom" in the number of people buying seeds and deciding to start up their own gardens.

Seed companies have been one of the few industries to thrive during this recession. The National Gardening Association predicts an increase of 19 percent in home garden production for this year, and community gardens across the U.S. have become so popular there's a long waiting list to get your own plot.

Despite the fact that it takes at least several extra hours a week invested in tending your own, that hasn't deterred many from making the decision to begin a new gardening project. Read the rest of this entry »

Your local produce now contains 5-40 percent less nutrients than it did 50 years ago. These nutrients include minerals, vitamins, and proteins. Although means of measurement have changed over the years, there is enough evidence from a recent study published in the February 2009 Journal of HortScience that shows agricultural practices of producing larger cultivars are having a "dilution effect" on overall nutrition.

Another cause is consumers' high demand for more fresh produce. To keep up with this demand, growers are forced to use synthetic fertilizers and pesticides to produce faster-growing harvests, meaning plants have less time to absorb enough nutrients from the soil.
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