Smug Vancouver and the rest of the Lower Mainland have a lot to learn. We’re going to have a world-class model of enlightened urban agriculture right [...]]]> Richmond’s reputation as an over-built suburban mess just took a glorious swerve for the better with the city’s purchase of the Garden City lands to create an urban farm.

Smug Vancouver and the rest of the Lower Mainland have a lot to learn. We’re going to have a world-class model of enlightened urban agriculture right across the river. Straw hats off to you, Richmond.

http://www.bclocalnews.com/richmond_southdelta/richmondreview/news/86904027.html#comment-38688741

Watch your land carefully, folks in countries with room to grow. The wealthy want your soil.

“Food security will dwarf climate change as the world’s most pressing issue in the next few decades, and New Zealand may have seen the first signs of rich or powerful nations trying to secure food supplies for their people.”

NZ feels [...]]]>

Watch your land carefully, folks in countries with room to grow. The wealthy want your soil.

“Food security will dwarf climate change as the world’s most pressing issue in the next few decades, and New Zealand may have seen the first signs of rich or powerful nations trying to secure food supplies for their people.”

NZ feels push to feed global population – Business – NZ Herald News.

The U.K. government plans to launch a “grow your own” revolution by encouraging people to set up temporary allotments or community gardens on land awaiting development or other permanent use.

via Grow your own food revolution plans to seed unused land | UK news | guardian.co.uk.

It’s called The Miracle Tree. It’s about a tree that might make wishes come true. And also about reality, race, politics, ecology, trees, love, redemption, spirituality, hope and miracles. It’s supposed to be funny.

Buy the eco-friendly, plant-saving, guilt-assuaging, electronic version here. Offered [...]]]> Spitting in the face of common sense and economic feasibility, I wrote a novel.

It’s called The Miracle Tree. It’s about a tree that might make wishes come true. And also about reality, race, politics, ecology, trees, love, redemption, spirituality, hope and miracles. It’s supposed to be funny.

Buy the eco-friendly, plant-saving, guilt-assuaging, electronic version here. Offered at the low-low price of $5, for which you get your choice of seven  digital formats (no DRM) to be used on your new Kindle and/or home computer and/or Ipod or whatever. A tree-killing print version will be available in a few weeks for $20.

Listen to a Miracle Tree Author Interview I did with Robert Ouimet of Brainpicker, a cool site of ideas that “won’t hurt a bit.”

Not so with award-winning American journalist Amy Goodman. She not only got stopped on the [...]]]> It’s never fun getting stopped and questioned by the border guards heading into the States, even when you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s usually more relaxing coming back into Canada. You promise you aren’t carrying any forbidden fruit, and you’re in.

Not so with award-winning American journalist Amy Goodman. She not only got stopped on the way up to give a public speech in Vancouver. She was questioned for an hour and half about…her speech. The border guards, to her amazement, were not interested in her opinions on the economic meltdown, or the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They wanted to know what she intended to say about the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

Is this  what the Vancouver Olympics are going to be remembered for?

We know we’re going to spend $1 billion on security, not just to keep terrorists from blowing things up but apparently also to crush the idea of free speech and eliminate the prospect of political dissent. I wonder how many gold medals it would take to get the bad taste of that out of our systems?

Here’s her report on the fabulous Democracy Now! show.

Read it and weep, Canadians. We’re a menace.

The snappy term “agro-imperialism” doesn’t appear in Andrew Rice’s  NYT Magazine piece on the rich buying the earth from under the feet of the poor. Although Rice does mention GRAIN, a dedicated non-profit supporting small farmers and social movements, his article leans heaviest on the side [...]]]> Sometimes the headline writer gets it more than the journalist.

The snappy term “agro-imperialism” doesn’t appear in Andrew Rice’s  NYT Magazine piece on the rich buying the earth from under the feet of the poor. Although Rice does mention GRAIN, a dedicated non-profit supporting small farmers and social movements, his article leans heaviest on the side of the capitalist investor who simply wants to “help people” by appropriating their land for factory farming.

“Africa is the final frontier,” Payne told me after the conference. “It’s the one continent that remains relatively unexploited.” Emergent’s African Agricultural Land Fund, started last year, is investing several hundred million dollars into commercial farms around the continent.

Is There Such a Thing as Agro-Imperialism? – NYTimes.com.

The always entertaining Hastings Folk Garden (a VCAN pilot project) gets the journo-job in this article from the Vancouver Province.

It’s often a double-edged sword having something you know written up in a daily: nice to get the recognition, but dismaying to know how much they miss. All the same, it’s worth reading, and the pic [...]]]>

The always entertaining Hastings Folk Garden (a VCAN pilot project) gets the journo-job in this article from the Vancouver Province.

It’s often a double-edged sword having something you know written up in a daily: nice to get the recognition, but dismaying to know how much they miss. All the same, it’s worth reading, and the pic of James the gentleman is cool.

Garden gets green thumbs up.

Check out this fun video from Japan showing a robotic parking facility. The monthly fee of 1,800 yen equals about $21 Cdn.

Video: The bike tree – the 21st-century cycle shed | Environment | guardian.co.uk.