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Feb. 23 -- Fish farms have a big problem: They’ve been making feed out of sardines and anchovies from the oceans, a source that could be depleted within a few decades. A California company called Two X Sea could have a solution: They’ve developed the first completely vegetarian fish feed to be used commercially in the U.S., with the help of a USDA scientist who has made fish nutrition his life’s work. (Video by: Alan Jeffries, Amy Marino)

#sustainable #fish #farming #twoxsea

If buying your local produce from the farmer's market isn't as local as you like, try the The Mini-Farmery, an urban grocery store where customers can pick their own produce.

Ben Greene forged his idea while attending North Carolina State University, and created the first prototype using a shipping container. Explore how he wants to scale his idea and other uber-local farms in NPR's article here.

#urban farming #mini-farmery #gotham greens #brightfarms

Introducing Xieli Garden, an innovative community kindergarden in Wuxi (Jiangsu Province) in China. Slated for completion in 2015, this spiraling building with green roof and central courtyard is under construction by the United Design Group, a collaboration between designers of UDG of USA and architects in China.

For more details on the project, click here.

#green roof #china #united design group #school #xieli garden

Norman Foster's saazing SkyCycle concept would be free of cars, buses, and pedestrians and stretch 137 miles in and around London, accommodating as many as 12,000 riders per hour on a cycling superhighway 50 feet wide.

“SkyCycle is a lateral approach to finding space in a congested city,” says Foster. “By using the corridors above the suburban railways, we could create a world-class network of safe, car-free cycle routes that are ideally located for commuters.”

You can read more about the concept in Wired here.

#london #skycycle #norman foster #superhighway #bicycle

"A-Go-Grow is like a 30 foot tall Ferris wheel for plants."

"A-Go-Grow" is the brainchild of Singaporean entrepreneur Jack Ng of SkyGreens. According to their website, it is the world’s first low carbon hydraulic water-driven, tropical vegetable urban vertical farm, using green urban solutions to achieve enhanced green sustainable production of safe, fresh and delicious vegetables, using minimal land, water and energy resources.

Very cool, indeed. Would love to see this in NYC and other urban areas. For more details, check out Amusing Planet's article here.

#urban farming #skygreens #a-go-grow

Wow, a Detroit hospital builds the first organic hospital greenhouse. Finally, someone has the brilliant idea to try and prevent disease through healthy eating habits rather than quick fixes via expensive surgery and pharmaceutical pills. Bravo. Read about it in REALfarmacy.com here.

#urban farming #organic #hospital #detroit

I recently discovered this new eco-friendly packaging material that's like styrofoam, but made of mushrooms. Ecovative Design, a company based in Green Island, New York, literally grow their materials with agricultural byproducts and mushroom mycelium which is a natural glue.

While still in college, two mechanical engineering students began a science experiment to discover a way to use fungi to make rigid, molded materials. Six years later, the duo has won numerous prizes, spoken at TED, and recognized by the World Economic Forum with their Tech Pioneer Award. Check out their website and follow them on twitter to learn more about the company as well as other products they manufacture.

#green packaging

Nice infographic showing how the by-products of human energy (heat and movement) can be captured and recycled into energy for the cool gadgets we just can't seem to live without.

#Green Energy

The main problem is that we've become so hooked on cheap food that we ignore the hidden costs: the poisoning of our land by pesticides; the consequent collapse of bee colonies, thus declining rates of pollination; the destruction of ancient woodlands and hedgerows; the mass slaughter of cattle because of ludicrous feeding practices that led to BSE – and, lest we forget, 176 people have died in the UK of the resultant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. And the drugs metaphor is entirely appropriate since, like a dodgy dealer, many people have been cutting beef with horse to make it go further.

It's easy to make supermarkets, and Tesco in particular, the pantomime villains in all this. That, after all, is why an Armando Iannucci sketch once pretended Tesco had invaded Denmark, because it really does destroy local communities. In the town near where I farm in Somerset, there's no butcher, greengrocer or fishmonger thanks to the cathedral-like Tesco in the ghastly retail park. But in a way, supermarkets are only giving us what we want, and some of us need: food that's cheap as chips. Why else would every supermarket advert be about price?

#farming #cheap food

Despite the amount of energy used, re-molding old used tires is 30 to 60% cheaper than creating new tires from scratch.

#reuse #recycling #tires

Setting Sail: A Giant Orb Made Of NYC’s Snapped Umbrellas

ASSEMBLED FROM DISCARDED UMBRELLAS AND PLASTIC BOTTLES, THE HARVEST DOME 2.0 IS A DRAMATIC WORK OF "PERFORMANCE ARCHITECTURE."

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