Food Fill

The setting is a rainforest so lush and tropical that you feel like you are in the Garden of Eden. Heaven on earth. This is Costa Rica�s jewel. Tabacon. A word that means so much to so many.

Headed out to grab a cup of coffee this morning? Make sure you grab a reusable mug, too. If you think it doesn't really matter, think again.

According to this neat infographic, Americans use a whopping 25 billion paper cups each year! That adds up to 363 billion pounds of waste and the loss of more than 9 billion trees.

Bottom line: Every little cup adds up. Do your part to save trees, reduce pollution and minimize waste by bringing a reusable mug with you this morning — and don't forget to grab your reusable water bottle before you head out to lunch...

TED Talks What should a community do with its unused land? Plant food, of course.

VideoAgriculture might be the last place you would think to look for robots. To be more specific, high value crops such as greenhouse vegetables, fruits in orchards and grapes for premium wines. But it does make sense.

This grain of corn is developing into a new plant, the thick shoot growing up towards light, the nascent roots going in the opposite direction.

Much of the so-called ‘nature’ in our lives has taken on an artificial authenticity. Engineered tomatoes are redder, rounder, and larger than the ones from our gardens. We have made fluorescent fish, featherless birds, and botanical gardens that contain species from every corner of the globe.

Human design has made nature hypernatural. Hypernature is an exaggerated simulation of a nature that never existed. It’s better than the real thing: a little bit prettier, slicker and safer than the old kind. Hypernature is culture in disguise.

Comparing different parts of the world's oceans, the index weighs whether the human activity there is sustainable or in need of better management.

Our world is continually coming up with new ways to use its resources and technological advancements to use them more efficiently. Sometimes it’s easy to forget that there are still people in the world incapable of creating enough food for their families and communities to thrive or sometimes even survive. This motion graphic created by Powering Agriculture, an initiative of the United States Agency of International Development (USAID), looks at how clean energy technology can be the answer.

“I’d kill for a drink of water,” could be a military call-to-arms soon, as the planet’s most essential commodity is swallowed, evaporated, polluted, and utilized at unsustainable levels.

Chris Bajuk got into urban farming almost by chance. Though not from a farming background, he has been gardening in backyards since childhood. And, in recent years he has been experimenting with hydroponic systems. “A good friend of mine, and classmate from the University of Washington MBA program, came over to my house and was awestruck by how much produce I was growing on my backyard deck using hydroponics,” says Bajuk, who was growing peas, beans, tomatillos, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini, watermelon and corn in buckets. “He suggested we start an urban farming business,” he reflects. “Thus, UrbanHarvest was born.”

http://urbanharvest.com/

You've heard about it for years—everyone’s interested in green. Do you know how your personal choices add up- or the choices of fellow citizens? What behaviors are people adopting globally with a positive impact on environmental sustainability? What's changed- or not- in recent years?

This is the fourth year National Geographic has partnered with GlobeScan to develop an international research approach to measure and monitor consumer progress toward environmentally sustainable consumption. The key objectives of this unique consumer tracking survey are to provide regular quantitative measures of consumer behavior and to promote sustainable consumption...