LePage proposes merging Maine Conservation and Agriculture departments
Maine Public Broadcasting - 9/29/2011.By Susan Sharon – Gov. Paul LePage today announced a plan that would merge the Maine Department of Conservation with the Agriculture Department. It's an idea that has been proposed and rejected by the Maine Legislature before. The governor says the move would strengthen Maine's natural resource-based economy. But there is concern that it could shift priorities. |
|
Baking for a better world
Gourmet - 9/29/2011. By Molly O’Neill – It was just past 8 a.m. and Albie Barden’s well-pressed denim shirt was dotted with dark, indigo patches of sweat. It was nearly 90 degrees; nevertheless, Barden, an Episcopal minister and the founder of the Maine Wood Heat Company (a wood-burning stove and oven company) couldn’t stop himself. On the first morning of the fifth annual kneading conference in Skowhegan, Maine, he inched closer and closer to the blazing mouth of his newest mobile oven. |
|
Busting Monsanto’s ‘better’ broccoli
Grist - 9/28/2011. By Andy Bellatti – Many of us are familiar with Monsanto the seed giant, but who knew the company was making a new ready-to-eat packaged broccoli? The new product is called Beneforté, and it quietly launched last October. This vegetable is not genetically modified (i.e. no pesticides were engineered into its genes), but rather a hybrid of commercial broccoli with a variety native to southern Italy. |
|
Food and climate change: the forgotten link
Grain - 9/28/2011. Food is a key driver of climate change. How our food gets produced and how it ends up on our tables accounts for around half of all human-generated greenhouse gas emissions. Chemical fertilizers, heavy machinery and other petroleum-dependant farm technologies contribute significantly. The impact of the food industry as a whole is even greater: destroying forests and savannahs to produce animal feed and generating climate-damaging waste through excess packaging, processing, refrigeration and the transport of food over long distances, despite leaving millions of people hungry. |
|